MELBOURNE – Monday 1 March, 2010 – Entries have officially opened for the 2010 ATOM awards – Australia and New Zealand’s most prestigious awards for achievements in Film, Television, Animation and Multimedia (including video games).  

“The ATOM Awards are all about recognising and celebrating excellence in productions that are created for the screen – be it the movie, television, PC, games console or even the mobile phone screen. In recent years, we have introduced categories to acknowledge excellence in interactive video games and we are continually encouraged by the quality and variety of games we receive from industry and students alike,” commented Simon Wilmot, ATOM Awards Executive Officer. 

“Games have become such a fantastic part of the creative outlet that we call ‘media’ that it’s only fitting that we now celebrate games technology as part of the ATOM Awards program, particularly as more and more games are being created from an educational and developmental point of view.” 

“So, we’re putting out the call to all those fabulous games developers we have out there to enter their productions in the 2010 ATOM Awards. The entries last year were most impressive and innovative, so we are looking forward to seeing what the game developers are going to enter in to this year’s ATOM Awards..” he added. 

There are two key interactive video games categories in the ATOM Awards program – ‘Best Interactive Video Game’, which is open to both game developers and students and ‘Best Student / Tertiary Interactive Video Game’, for games created by school and tertiary students only. 

Production houses, students, game developers, educational resource developers, independent film makers, documentary makers, animators, multimedia developers… anyone who has produced anything for the screen is encouraged to enter the 2010 ATOM Awards. 

“The Awards program provides a fantastic opportunity for both students and industry professionals to show off their work and be recognised by their peers,” Mr Wilmot noted. 

“The ATOM Awards have been acknowledging the work of students and professionals for 27 years and we look forward to yet another year of inspiring contributions from our entrants. However, you have to be in it, to win it, so we are encouraging anyone in Australia or New Zealand who has created a production in the past twelve months to enter this year’s program,” he concluded. 

Entries for the 2010 ATOM Awards will close at 12pm on Monday 7 June June, 2010.  

Awards will be presented to the most outstanding entrants at the 2010 ATOM Awards Gala Presentation, held in the Plaza Ballroom at the Regent Theatre on Friday 22 October, 2010.

For more information or to enter the 2010 ATOM Awards please visit www.atomawards.org