Village Gamer

10 Films, 20 Speakers, 6 Days, 1 Fantastic Festival

Vancouver – The ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter has released preliminary details on the featured films which will be shown at the upcoming SparkFX Festival taking place January 21 – 26 2009 at the Vancouver International Film Centre (VanCity Theatre) in Vancouver, BC. In addition to these top VFX films, Spark FX will be showcasing 15 seminars and panels “with some of the most talented FX artists and researchers from Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and beyond.” Among the speakers will be Dennis Muren, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM, where he has worked since 1976. The winner of six Best Visual Effects Academy Awards, Dennis Muren has worked with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

There will be a Festival Networking Mixer with music and a cash bar at 6pm on Friday, January 23 as well as the Festival Gala, which will take place at 8:30pm on Saturday, January 24.

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Due to an increasing number of Canadians who shop online, Amazon.ca has just finished its busiest holiday shopping season in six years. Canadians had purchased gifts for friends and family not only in Canada, but around the world. Amazon.ca shipped holiday gifts to 120 countries around the world, including Algeria, Aruba, Australia, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Egypt, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malawi, Pakistan, Romania, Slovakia, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vanuatu and Zambia. Within Canada, gifts were sent as far north as Grise Fiord, Nunavut, as far east as St. Brendan’s, Newfoundland, and as far west as Beaver Creek, Yukon.

“At Amazon.ca we are constantly working to offer our customers the best possible shopping experience, not just around the holidays, but throughout the entire year,” said Julie Todaro, director of Amazon.ca. “We are thrilled that we were able to provide our customers with an increased variety of products by opening the Electronics Store in time for the holidays, and would like to thank all of our customers for their support. We look forward to continuing to
offer great prices, a seamless shopping experience and one-stop convenience in the coming year.”

Amazon.ca’s five bestselling items during the holiday season in each product category (based on units ordered since Nov. 1, 2008) were:

Video Games

1. Nintendo Wii includes Wii Sports
2. Nintendo Wii Nunchuk Controller
3. Nintendo Wii Remote Controller
4. “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King” Expansion Pack
5. “Mario Kart” Wii with Wii Wheel
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Kelowna, BC – Two-and-a-half million Club Penguin players embraced the spirit of the season and displayed their passion for helping others this holiday by participating in a unique online giving opportunity that let them donate virtual coins to support real world causes.

The second annual Coins for Change campaign, which ran from Dec. 12, 2008 through Dec. 22, 2008, encouraged the kids who play Club Penguin to donate the coins they earn playing games within the popular virtual world in support of causes dedicated to helping children.

At the end of the campaign, players had donated three billion virtual coins. The virtual donations served as votes which were tallied for New Horizon Foundation, an organization started by the founders of Club Penguin, to help it determine how to allocate $1 million amongst charities dedicated to helping children. New Horizon Foundation has selected the following charities to receive a portion of its donation:

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