Village Gamer

Toronto – The National Film Board of Canada’s animated short, Runaway by Oscar-nominated director, Cordell Barker, was honoured with the Jury’s Special Award at the 2009 Annecy International Animated Film Festival on Saturday, June 13. Barker received this same honour in 2001 for his Oscar nominated animated short, Strange Invaders.

Runaway

Annecy International Animated Film Festival is wholly dedicated to animation and is the biggest and most recognized event of its kind in the world, often being referred to as the Cannes of animation.

About Runaway

What would happen if the world were a driverless train thundering recklessly over bumpy tracks? Cordell Barker’s new short animation, the colourful Runaway, provides a caustic answer. Set to music by Benoît Charest, Runaway is Cordell Barker’s third animation film with the NFB. Born in Winnipeg, Barker made his first film, the much-loved musical animation The Cat Came Back (1988), at the NFB. Voted one of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time, the film went on to win over 15 awards and honours, including an Academy Award nomination. His second film with the NFB, Strange Invaders (2002), garnered him a further 15 awards, including a second Oscar nomination. Runaway is produced by Derek Mazur for the NFB. In May, it was awarded the Petit Rail d’Or for Best Short Film in Cannes. The general public is invited to download and share a copy of the film’s embeddable trailer available at http://www.nfb.ca/film/runaway_teaser/

Toronto – Providential Pictures has announced the launch of Paws and Tales Games MMOG, a faith-based website for children to play, watch and learn. Paws and Tales Games aims to provide a fun, safe and educational place online for children and families.

Paws and Tales Games aims to provide a fun, safe and educational place online for children and families. The Paws and Tales Games MMOG is based on Paws and Tales The Animated Series®.

Both the animated series and games website are designed for children as safe entertainment with faith-based values that parents can trust. Children can choose their favourite Paws and Tales character and interact with friends online.

Capable of supporting thousands of players simultaneously, the long term goal of the website is to enable players to cooperate with each other on a large scale and interact meaningfully with others around the world.

“Safety is our first priority and we have worked to ensure that we’ve created a safe online environment for children and their families.” said Product Manager Nelson Bodnarchuk. “We offer a chat that has a predefined menu of greetings, questions and statements for users to interact with. Users aren’t able to transmit personal data to other users. Those users who engage in inappropriate behavior can be suspended or banned from the Community.” Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto – EnStream LP, a mobile commerce joint venture company owned by Bell Mobility, Rogers and TELUS — Canada’s three leading wireless operators, today launched Zoompass™, a breakthrough mobile money transfer and payment service. Zoompass gives Canadians a fast and convenient way to send and receive money securely using their mobile phone. The service is enabled through the Zoompass application on the mobile phone which combines an easy-to-use interface with an integrated contact manager that redefines how users send and receive money. Zoompass is a better way to pay than cash, cheque, or wire transfer.

“The launch of Zoompass represents an important milestone in financial services that makes the mobile phone the central device consumers use to transfer money and make purchases,” said Robin Dua, President of EnStream. “The Zoompass mobile service ushers in a new era in electronic payments that addresses a growing desire to move money quickly and easily between friends, family, and merchants.”

Zoompass makes it easy to split a lunch bill, request money from parents, collect sports team fees, solicit money for a co-worker’s gift, or even pay a babysitter – right from a mobile phone. With the groundbreaking launch of Zoompass, Canadians nationwide can expect to hear more people ask one another “Do you want me to Zoom you the money?”
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