Village Gamer

Canadian cinema will shine brightly at the 70th Venice International Film Festival thanks to the latest works by acclaimed filmmakers Xavier Dolan, Bruce LaBruce and Ritchie Mehta. This year’s festival runs from August 28 to September 7, 2013. Xavier Dolan’s feature Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm) will be in official competition—the first Quebec film to have this honour in 29 years, after Sonatine (directed by Micheline Lanctôt and starring a then 14-year-old Pascale Bussières in her first screen appearance), which won the Silver Lion award for best first film in 1984. Other Canadian films to have been in competition at the Mostra areBarney’s Version, by Richard J. Lewis, in 2010, and A Dangerous Method, by David Cronenberg, in 2011. Read the rest of this entry »

London, Ontario-based Voices.com, the company that created the online marketplace for voice over work, is part of the Ontario delegation exhibiting at SIGGRAPH 2013, taking place in Anaheim, California this week. Voices.com’s CEO and CMO, David and Stephanie Ciccarelli, will be attending the conference and exhibition as delegates representing Ontario on a mission of business development at SIGGRAPH 2013. Read the rest of this entry »

Up to six producers from across Canada will be selected to participate in the WFF Feature Project Lab, an intense four-day business and marketplace immersion experience presented by the Whistler Film Festival in association with Telefilm Canada. New for 2013, this program will be held from December 3 to 6, 2013 during the Whistler Film Festival + Summit. Designed to advance Canadian creative talent, the WFF Feature Project Lab focuses on strengthening dramatic feature projects from script to screen by facilitating feedback as well as collaboration on and investment in film projects that have US and international appeal.  Read the rest of this entry »

British Columbia representatives are in the spotlight as tens of thousands of participants converge on Anaheim for SIGGRAPH 2013, the place to be if you work with computer graphics and interactive technologies. B.C. is preparing to host SIGGRAPH 2014, the 40th anniversary edition of the influential event next year in Vancouver, which became the first location to host SIGGRAPH North America outside of the United States in 2011. That event welcomed 15,872 artists, research scientists, game developers, filmmakers and researchers from 74 countries. SIGGRAPH 2011 broke the city’s previous conference attendance records and, according to the Vancouver Convention Centre, generated an estimated $38.5 million in direct spending for the local economy. Read the rest of this entry »

Canadian talent will be highly visible at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival, in Switzerland, which runs from August 7 to 17, 2013. Six Canadian films will be screened at the festival: three features—the coproduction Gare du Nord, by Claire Simon, Gabrielle, by Louise Archambault, and The Dirties, by Matthew Johnson; and three shorts—Acrobat, by Eduardo Menz, Quelqu’un d’extraordinaire, by Monia Chokri, and L’Ours, by Dan Karo. Four of the six films will be presented in competitive sections. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a Winged Pikmin! In celebration of Pikmin 3’s North American launch on August 4, Nintendo of Canada is putting a new type of Pikmin, the Winged Pikmin, front-and-centre at Red Bull Flugtag Ottawa-Gatineau. If you haven’t heard of it, Red Bull Flugtag challenges teams to design, build and pilot homemade flying machines… off the end of a 22-foot high flight deck. Our Pikmin may have wings, but will it fly? We’ll find out on July 27! Festivities start at 10:30 a.m. in Ottawa-Gatineau at the Museum of Canadian Civilization, and the event is free. Read the rest of this entry »

Established in 2007, the MPPIA Short Film Award provides one filmmaker with the opportunity to further develop their directing career by realizing a unique creative vision in a short film project.  Applicants will be short-listed into a field of candidates who will pitch their projects at the 2013 Whistler Film Festival taking place December 4 to December 8. The successful candidate will receive a $15,000 cash award plus services ‘in-kind’ valued up to $100,000 from across the industry, enabling the filmmaker to complete their project with the guidance of experienced industry professionals and support services provided by the top supply houses in British Columbia. The completed film will have its world premiere screening at the 2014 Whistler Film Festival. Read the rest of this entry »

A University of Calgary faculty member will speak at the world’s largest face-to-face gathering of elite hackers. DEF CON, the biggest conference of its kind, brings together over 15,000 professional and amateur computer security experts every year to discuss the latest tech vulnerabilities. It’s the first time a University of Calgary professor will present at the conference and it takes place August 1 to 4th in Las Vegas. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed for the entrepreneurial owners of established businesses, the PROFIT Growth Summit taking place in Vancouver on September 10th will connect you with the people and ideas that can take your enterprise to the next level. The first 200 registrants will receive free copies of the books Ownership Thinking and Relevant Selling. The early-bird rate of $249 is available until August 1st. Registration after August 1st will cost $329. The Summit will be held at the Fairmont Pacific Rim from 7:30am until 5:00pm. Read the rest of this entry »

At long last, Super NES classic EarthBound is now available as a Virtual Console game in the Nintendo eShop for Wii U for $9.99. Nintendo announced its availability during today’s Nintendo Direct Mini video. Nintendo also revealed that Nintendo Zone locations will be getting StreetPass enhancements to let players connect with one another, and reminded people about this weekend’s Pikmin 3 demo program at select EB Games stores. Read the rest of this entry »