The Canadian New Media Awards (CNMA) unveiled this year’s fifteen winners at the Carlu in Toronto on the evening of Monday May 29, 2006. The winners, from across such disciplines as online, interactive, animation and video game fields, were selected from 43 finalists and were each presented with a prestigious Pixel award in recognition of their significant achievements in new media over the past year. This year’s recipients included the originator of Canada’s .ca domain, an urban recycling program, a mobile media provider and the founder of Vancouver’s Relic Entertainment.

“Realizing the vision of bringing together the top talent from interactive industry in Canada is what the CNMA is all about.” said Adam Froman, Founder and Executive Producer of the Canadian New Media Awards. “With the help of our great sponsors and partners, the CNMA continues to grow, evolve and shape this vision and this year proved to be one of the strongest yet."

Celebrity host and presenter Alan Park from CBC’s Royal Canadian Air Farce joined more than 500 professional and aspiring industry members to honour the recipients at The Carlu on Monday, May 29.

A Special Recognition Award was presented to Andra Sheffer for her outstanding contribution to the new media industry. Andra continues to serve as Executive Director of three private funds supporting the Canadian television and new media industries, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, the Independent Production Fund, and the COGECO Program Development Fund. In this role, she encourages partnerships between Canadian new media and television producers to develop and create fresh, innovative, multi-platform content for the new technologies and the traditional broadcast marketplace.

The 2006 CNMA recipients were selected by a 135 member jury recruited from industry peers and higher education institutions in new media from across the country.

2006 Canadian New Media Awards Winners

Most Promising New Company of the Year
Rocketfuel Productions - Edmonton, AB

Excellence in Children’s
Didi & Ditto: The Wolf King by Kutoka Interactive - Montréal, QC

Excellence in News, Information
CBC.ca Olympic web site - Toronto, ON

Producer of the Year
Adrian Crook - Vancouver, BC

Excellence in Culture, Lifestyle, Arts
Canadian Tapestry by ecentricarts inc. - Toronto, ON

Designer of the Year
Nate Smith - Nelson, BC

Excellence in Cross Platform
BITE TV - Mississauga, ON

Special Recognition Award
Andra Sheffer from Bell Fund - Toronto, ON

Graduate of the Year
Robert Scales - Vancouver, BC

Excellence in Learning
Sort It Out! by ACCESS The Education Station - Edmonton, AB

Lifetime Achievement
John Demco - Vancouver, BC

Programmer of the Year
James Eberhardt - Toronto, ON

Excellence in Gaming
Jade Empire by BioWare Corp -Edmonton, AB

Company of the Year
QuickPlay Media - Toronto, ON