Tuesday, September 20th, 2016 Posted by Jim Thacker

VIEW Conference announces 2016 speaker line-up


Imagining Zootopia, Fusion’s documentary on Disney’s hit animated feature. Director Byron Howard is one of the keynotes at this year’s VIEW Conference, alongside speakers from DreamWorks and Sony Pictures Imageworks.


Italy’s VIEW Conference has finalised this year’s speaker events, including keynotes from the directors of Zootopia, Trolls and Sausage Party, plus long-time Marvel VFX chief Victoria Alonso.

This year’s show also features an extensive set of sessions of VR, headed by a keynote from researcher and Cornell University professor Donald Greenberg.

Major speakers from the worlds of animation, VFX and VR
Now in its 17th year, VIEW is one of Europe’s leading CG festivals, with a five-day program of talks, workshops and screenings, alongside its own animation awards, the VIEW Award, and sister film festival VIEWFest.

There is a typically strong set of talks on animated features, including keynotes from Zootopia director Byron Howard, Trolls co-directors Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn, and Storks producer Brad Lewis.

(Or if family-friendly animation isn’t your bag, Sausage Party co-director Conrad Vernon will be on hand to discuss the very much more adult parody of Disney and Pixar films.)

VFX sessions include veteran ILM VFX supervisor Roger Guyett talking about the studio’s work on The Force Awakens and MPC CG supervisor Audrey Ferrara discussing The Jungle Book.

Other speakers include brilliant Pixar DoP Sharon Calahan, Media Molecule co-founder Siobhan Reddy, and Steve Emerson, VFX supervisor of LAIKA’s stop-motion feature Kubo and the Two Strings.

Marvel fans can also get a glimpse into how the company works during a keynote with long-time VFX chief Victoria Alonso, now Marvel Studios’ EVP for physical production.



This year’s show also features a strand of talks on virtual reality, headed by Cornell professor Donald Greenberg, supporters of whose research include Oculus, Microsoft, Intel, Valve and Autodesk.

Other sessions include Lucasfilm CTO Rob Bredow discussing the work of its new VR division, ILMxLAB; and production designer Tuna Bora on Pearl, Google Spotlight Stories’ beautiful 360-degree short.

The animation (embedded above) was co-produced by Passion Animation Studios and Evil Eye Pictures and directed by Disney veteran Patrick Osborne, also responsible for Oscar-winning short Feast.

Dates and details
The 17th annual VIEW Conference takes place in Turin, Italy, from 24-28 October 2016. Day passes cost €70 (around $78), while a full-access pass to the entire show costs €300 ($335). Students get a discounted rate.


See the full program for the 2016 VIEW Conference on the festival’s website