2025 was a landmark year for creative technology in BC.

Across BC’s diverse creative tech ecosystem, our animation, VFX, video game, and XR studios worked on an impressive lineup of indie and blockbuster products for screens big and small – and received international recognition for the innovation, quality, and creativity of their work.

We invited our member studios to share their good news from 2025. Here are a few of the highlights….

• 81 Monkeys created and implemented a project funding partnership program, securing more than $1.5 million toward its upcoming title World of Anterra. 
• Atomic Cartoons Super Team Canada picked up two wins at the 2025 Leo Awards for Best Animation and Best Voice Performance.
• Buffalo Buffalo launched its debut game, Fresh Tracks, on PS5 in August, along with Birdseed VR, a new VR bird-watching game coming to Meta Quest and SteamVR in 2026.
• The Centre for Digital Media won the Technology Trailblazer Award at the 2025 Magnet Awards for Pioneering Leadership in the Ecosystem (MAPLE) for its role in shaping B.C.’s digital-product innovation ecosystem.
• Coal Car Studio launched Fruit Golf into early access on Meta Quest, Android, and iOS in June, with plans for Fruit Golf: Dash on Horizon Worlds, along with mixed reality experience CrossCraft.
• DNEG won the Academy Award for Visual Effects, the BAFTA Award for Special Visual Effects, the Critics Choice Award for Best Visual Effects and 4 VES Awards for its work on Dune: Part Two. 
• Electronic Arts (EA) teams in Vancouver contributed to a standout slate of releases in 2025, including the record-breaking Battlefield 6, the global launches of both EA SPORTS FC 26 and EA SPORTS NHL 26, and the early access release of skate.
• Scanline VFX and Eyeline Studios merged to form the unified brand, Eyeline. In 2025, Eyeline’s VFX Supervisor Sue Rowe won an Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie, and VFX Producer Gayle Munro was awarded a VES Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field. Eyeline is also back in Hawkins for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, with global VFX efforts on the season led by longtime Vancouver VFX Supervisor Julius Lechner, supported by a large local team here in BC.
• ILM moved into its new, expanded facility at The Stack in Coal Harbour, where its team contributed to a spectacular slate of work, including Lilo & Stitch, Sinners, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Frankenstein, Predator: Badlands, Avatar: Fire & Ash and the highly anticipated new seasons of Stranger Things, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. ILM received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for Andor along with a nomination for the forthcoming Children’s and Family Emmy Awards for the series Time Bandits.
• IM4 Media Lab was featured on CBC’s North By Northwest, highlighting the creative collaboration behind the intergenerational mural Thunderbird Dreams: Imagining Good Futures. 
• Ludic Lemur Entertainment‘s game Calm the Storm is nominated in the Indie Game Awards in the Achievement in Accessibility category.
• re:Naissance Immersive hosted their first ever Creative Collisions with Touch Designer YVR and MOV37XR –  bringing together performing arts and digital artists to to experiment with interactive and immersive performance.
• Silverstring Media launched its first Steam demo of Greenhearth Necromancer as part of the Games From Vancouver Steam event with a planned Spring launch of the full game.
• Simply Sweet Games soft launched its debut premium casual title Criss Cross Castle, with more than 15,000 mobile installs in early traction, a 4.8 star rating, and reaching the Top 100 Word Games in Canada after launch. Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Carina Kom was named to BIV’s 2025 Forty under 40, recognizing her leadership in inclusive design and premium casual game development.
• Sony Pictures Imageworks animated KPop Demon Hunters – the most-watched film of all time on Netflix (over 236 million views) – along with In Your Dreams, the Netflix feature which debuted at #4 on the streamer. The team also provided VFX work for A Minecraft Movie, along with The Fantastic Four: First Steps and The Bad Guys 2.
• Stellar Creative Lab celebrated the release of Sausage Party: Foodtopia Season 2 on Amazon Prime, along with Marvel Zombies, a 4-episode event series which premiered on Disney+.
• Walt Disney Animation Studios has been working collaboratively between its Burbank and Vancouver based studios to create Zootopia 2 and the short film Versa, featured recently at several short film festivals.
• Wildbrain Studios’ received 30 accolades this year — 9 wins plus 21 nominations — from the Children’s & Family Emmys, Canadian Screen Awards, Leo Awards, and more local, national and global honours. WildBrain also launched its latest Peanuts special, Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical, and announced an extension of its Peanuts partnership with Apple TV. In addition, the team celebrated the premiere of its work on LEGO DREAMZzz S3 and LEGO Ninjago: Dragons Rising S3.
• … and one more thing! Waterproof Studios produced the CG intro cinematic for Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, which debuted in style at the December 2024 Game Awards in LA with a full live orchestra performance (yes… technically 2024, but definitely worth a watch!)