See the speakers for the 2026 Digital Storytelling conference
Project Hail Mary: one of the major VFX movies featured at Digital Storytelling 2026, the 20th anniversary edition of the Norwegian CG conference, which takes place next month.
One of Europe’s coolest small CG conferences celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
For the past two decades, Oslo’s Digital Storytelling has brought VFX artists, filmmakers and technologists together – both from Norway itself, and the international community.
And to mark 20 years of Digital Storytelling, the show returns to the stylish Cinemaketet cinema on Friday 9 October 2026, with a program that traces the history of Norwegian VFX, celebrates its current achievements, and looks forward to its future.
In an edition subtitled Art and the New Machine, Digital Storytelling explores image-making in an age where advances in AI are causing many to question what artists are for.
Hear Academy Award-winner Paul Debevec trace the history of image-based lighting
The show is headlined by three-time Scientific and Technical Academy Award-winner Paul Debevec, whose keynote talk, Image-Based Lighting: Past, Present and Future looks back over a technology that has underpinned two decades of Hollywood filmmaking.
Debevec traces the evolution of image-based lighting, from his pioneering research and its use on The Matrix, through the development of the Light Stage systems used on the 2000s Spider-Man movies, to the modern LED volumes used on shows like The Mandalorian.
Sinners: featuring Oscar-nominated VFX from Norway’s Storm Studios.
Celebrate current landmarks in Scandinavian VFX and game development
Other speakers include Espen Nordahl, head of VFX at Norway’s Storm Studios, discussing the collaboration between practical and digital effects on projects like The Last of Us, Percy Jackson, and Sinners – for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.
He will be joined by Framestore VFX Supervisor Stuart Penn, whose talk explores the similarly practically led effects work for sci-fi blockbuster Project Hail Mary, tracing how the alien Rocky was brought to life alongside a physical puppet.
Embark Studios Creative Director Tahir Tanis will be talking about the Swedish game developer’s world-building on ARC Raiders, and two sessions – presented by Kristiania University College’s Professor Morten Moen and Stephanie Erso, Chair of the Norwegian VFX Association – trace the history of VFX in Norway.
Explore the impact of new technology on the future of film-making
The day will be closed by a panel discussion (full disclosure: I’m moderating it) between Espen Nordahl, Stuart Penn and Rebel Unit co-founder Theodor Groeneboom – a VES Award-winner for his work on Gravity – in which we explore the use of AI technology in production today, and how it will shape the role of the artist in future.
We don’t pretend to know where the technology will lead, but there are few better places to wonder about it than among the people now building what comes next. Why not join us?
How to attend Digital Storytelling 2026
Digital Storytelling: Art and the New Machine takes place at Cinemateket, Oslo on 9 October 2026. All of the sessions are in English.
Tickets cost NOK 1,250 (around $350) and include entry to the anniversary reception.
Read more about Digital Storytelling: Art and the New Machine on the event website
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