One of the animation and visual effects industry’s most-watched events is back. VIEW Conference returns to Turin, Italy, from 12 to 16 October for its 27th edition, and the programme announced this week is packed with the studios and artists behind the year’s biggest films and games. Cartoon Brew describes it as an increasingly vital stop for animation and VFX hopefuls heading into awards season.
- 12–16 OctDates, in Turin
- 100+Talks, panels, workshops and screenings
- 27thEdition of the conference
- 3,200 sq ftVirtual production stage with LED walls
Animation: Bird, Pixar, Disney, Laika and Aardman
Brad Bird will discuss his long-gestating animated feature Ray Gunn in an hour-long conversation on 13 October. The programme includes sessions on major upcoming animated films, among them DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island, Pixar’s Toy Story 5 and Sony Pictures Animation’s GOAT. Pixar director Daniel Chong and producer Nicole Paradis Grindle will discuss Hoppers, and RenderMan artist Dylan Sisson will look at the RenderMan XPU renderer and how it was used on Toy Story 5. Disney Animation’s Yvett Merino will preview the holiday release Hexed with exclusive clips, and Laika’s Steve Emerson will talk about the stop-motion fantasy Wildwood. Aardman’s Merlin Crossingham will break down directing a stop-motion feature, and a four-day Stop-Motion Lab led by Oscar-winning filmmaker Chris Lavis will let participants build puppets and shoot their own short sequences.
VFX: the year’s biggest films
Several of the year’s largest productions get dedicated visual-effects presentations. Wētā FX’s Eric Saindon will revisit Avatar: Fire and Ash, Oscar winner Andrew Jackson will present a prerecorded session on The Odyssey, and Paul Lambert and Mag Sarnowska will unpack the effects of Project Hail Mary. ILM’s Hal Hickel will discuss animating creatures and characters for live-action environments on The Mandalorian and Grogu. Other sessions cover Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Disclosure Day, Resident Evil, Masters of the Universe, House of the Dragon season three, Coyote vs. Acme and A24’s Backrooms.
A Visionary Award for ILM’s Janet Lewin
Industrial Light & Magic’s senior vice president, general manager and head, Janet Lewin, has been named the recipient of the 2026 VIEW Visionary Award, Animation World Network reported. Lewin oversees ILM’s global studios across VFX, feature animation and immersive entertainment. She was overall VFX producer on five Star Wars films (The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, Solo and The Rise of Skywalker) and co-producer on The Mandalorian, where she helped drive ILM’s StageCraft virtual production method. Past winners include Nora Twomey, the first recipient in 2018, Pixar’s Ralph Eggleston, ILM’s Dennis Muren, Henry Selick and Wētā FX’s Joe Letteri. An executive panel with Lewin, Sony Pictures Imageworks president Michelle Grady and Skydance Animation president Holly Edwards will look at the future of cinema and the businesses behind its images.
AI, games and virtual production
Artificial intelligence will be a frequent topic. A keynote conversation titled Every Pixel Will Be Generated will bring together NVIDIA’s Richard Kerris and Runway co-founder and co-CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela, and other panels will examine AI-assisted animation, artist-centred machine-learning tools, automated production and the impact on hiring and creative control.
Games are a growing strand, with God of War Ragnarök game director Bruno Velazquez explaining the game’s one-shot camera approach, plus sessions on Wolverine, Saros and the Horizon series. Every ticket-holder gets access to a fully working virtual production stage, built with Sony Corporation Japan and Texas A&M University’s Virtual Production Institute, in the 3,200-square-foot, 62-foot-high Duomo hall at Turin’s OGR venue. Hands-on workshops on 12 October cover concept art, Unreal Engine 5, Gaussian splatting, stylised rendering, virtual production, character development and portfolio preparation.
How it closes
Sir Roger Deakins, a past Visionary Award winner, and his creative partner James Ellis Deakins will close the conference with a conversation called Reflections on Cinematography, moderated by Cartoon Brew’s editor-in-chief Jamie Lang. VIEW is an English-language event, and the full schedule and ticket information are on the conference website.
