Call for submissions: student films and video games

CALL FOR STUDENT FILM AND GAME SUBMISSIONS!

TIFF invites college and university film and game design students to submit works and join us in discovering Canada’s top emerging creative talents.

Future Frames and Games, one of our most popular and well-attended programmes, is a presentation of the latest and greatest film or videogame works created at post-secondary schools across Canada. The screenings and demonstrations occur at the TIFF Next Wave Festival from May 10-12th 2012, and selected entrants will also receive complimentary guest and Industry accreditation for TIFF Kids International Film Festival (April 10-22nd) where there are significant opportunities for networking, industry exposure, industry-specific panels as well as access to hospitality services and international buyers.

Video Game Awards 2011 - winners

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came away with the top prize at Saturday night's 9th anual Spike TV Video Game Awards 2011. It won Game of the Year and Best Role-Playing Game, as well as  Studio of the Year for its developer Bethesda Softworks.

Portal 2 won the most with a total of five awards. It won Best Performance by a Human Female (Ellen Mclain), Best Performance by a Human Male (Stephen Merchant), Best PC game, Best DLC and Best Multiplayer.

Batman: Arkham City won four awards. It took Best Xbox 360 Game, Best Adapted Video Game, Best Action-Adventure Game, and Character of the Year (The Joker).

Other multiple prize-winners included Bastion, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

TIFF Nexus Women in Film, Games and New Media Day

TIFF presented the first ever TIFF Nexus conference on October 28 that explored locative media. Now they're back with their second conference that focuses on the women's market.

Presented in partnership with Women in Film & Television – Toronto (WIFT-T), Women in Film, Games and New Media is a one-day conference that explores gaming, digital media and film with an emphasis on creative opportunities and analysis of sectoral gaps.

The event will be hosted by Nora Young. She is the host and creator of Spark, a show about technology and culture that airs nationally on CBC Radio.

The featured speakers Leigh Alexander, game culture journalist and editor at large for Gamasutra; Kate Hartman, Assistant Professor at OCAD University; Mare Sheppard, President of Metanet Software; Kirsten Forbes, COO of Silicon Sisters Interactive; Heather Webb, Executive Director of WIFT-T; Caitlin Fisher, Associate Professor and Director of York University’s Augmented Reality Lab; Pearl Chen, Research & Technology Manager of the CFC Media Lab; Alex Leitch, Co-founder of Site3 coLaboratory; and Emma Westecott, Assistant Professor of Games Studies at OCAD.

2011 British Academy Scotland Awards - winners

Tonight at Glasgow’s Radisson Blu hotel, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in Scotland held their 2011 British Academy Scotland Awards. The evening was hosted by Glaswegian comedian Kevin Bridges.

Morag McKinnon's Donkeys took the night's top prize of Best Feature Film. It also won Best Actor for one of its stars James Cosmo, who was competing against co-star Brian Pettifer in that category. It had led with five nominations. 

Also winning two prizes was Peter Mullan's NEDS. He claimed both Best Writer and Best Director prizes for himself as the filmmaker.

The Cineworld Audience Award went to Carter Ferguson's Fast Romance. The award was selected by online voters choosing their favourite film of the last two years.

Montreal International Game Summit, Nov 1-2

The 8th Le Sommet international du jeu de Montréal (Montreal International Game Summit) takes place today and tomorrow at the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure hotel.

Three keynote speakers will be Yves Guillemot (Co-Founder and CEO of Ubisoft), Jason Rohrer (Independent Game Designer) and Richard Lemarchand (Lead Game Designer at Naughty Dog). Other speakers include David Hego (Art Director at Rocksteady Studios), Tom Salta (Composer, HALO Anniversary, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands™, etc.), Alain Tascan (President of Sava Transmedia), Lee Perry (Senior Gameplay Designer at Epic Games), David Anfossi (Producer – DX:HR at Eidos-Montreal) and Stefan Boberg (Technical Director on the Frostbite Engine team at EA DICE).

Though I enjoy the odd video game, I am with Roger Ebert in not being persuaded that video games are an art. Video games use art, but the experience of playing one is akin to other (non-video) games rather than other arts. Only with the loosest definitions can video games be called art, in which case you could just as easily call it a sport.

Anyhow, they are nonetheless a legitimate pursuit. I just don't understand the need to call them something they really are not.