VIEW Conference 2025 Celebrates Success in Style
Skwigly
VIEW Conference 2025
For six extraordinary days this October, the beautiful baroque city of Turin, Italy, was home to a diverse group of award-winning film directors, animation and VFX impresarios, and visionary thinkers from Hollywood and Silicon Valley, who came together to celebrate the latest achievements in animation, VFX, games and share unforgettable visions of the future. The event that drew them to the city was VIEW Conference 2025.
Celebrating 25 years of success, VIEW Conference 2025 attracted 6,511 attendees from 57 countries. Its carefully curated program of sessions boasted over 150 speakers – a 25% increase on last year’s event – who delivered 76 talks, 22 in-depth workshops, 14 panels, and nine masterclasses, plus portfolio reviews, screenings, keynotes and more, all designed to inform, educate and inspire the conference’s international audience.
Between sessions, visitors seized the opportunity to explore Italy’s scenic Piedmont Region, the only place in the world where the coveted white truffle can be found, and home to some of the country’s great red wines. Turin itself is filled with tourist attractions including the city’s world-famous Egyptian Museum, which houses the biggest collection of Ancient Egyptian art outside of Cairo.
The main VIEW Conference 2025 program took place in the spectacular Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR), where the legendary VIEW Conference vibe generated its customary energetic and inclusive atmosphere. Two full days of workshops took place on the Turin campus of the ITS ICT Piemonte technical academy.
Furthermore, VIEW Conference 2025, in partnership with Museo del Cinema di Torino, presented two special movie screenings at Turin’s historic Cinema Massimo. A singalong screening of “KPop Demon Hunters,” the hit musical animated feature from Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation, was introduced in person by its two directors, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans. Also shown was Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation’s live-action “How to Train Your Dragon,” with a live introduction by the film’s VFX supervisor Christian Mänz and animation supervisor Glen McIntosh.
“What makes VIEW Conference so successful year after year is the people,” says Conference Director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez. “Our incredible speakers, who give so generously of their time, their wisdom, and their experience. Our wonderful audience, drawn from all corners of the globe, who spread the love with their infectious enthusiasm. Our generous sponsors, partners and patrons, without whom none of this would be possible. Our amazing behind-the-scenes team who work so hard to make the magic happen. Best of all are the breathtaking presentations into which our speakers pour their hearts and souls, showing us their deepest humanity and the immense passion they have for their art.”
Leading the field of award-winning creatives at VIEW Conference 2025 was Oscar®-winner Doug Chiang, senior vice president and executive design director at Lucasfilm, who collected this year’s coveted VIEW Visionary Award. Previous recipients of the award, presented for outstanding contribution to the visual arts, include Oscar-nominated president of Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation Ramsey Naito, Oscar-winning cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins, pioneering visual effects supervisor and Oscar®-winner Dennis Muren, Oscar-nominated animated feature director Nora Twomey and Oscar-winning Pixar designer/director Ralph Eggleston. Chiang also delivered the conference’s closing keynote “A Life in Film Design.”
Matt Buehler, founder and CTO of 3D content specialists vrbn, presented an enthralling keynote entitled “The Purposes of Creativity & Art.” Shane Valdez, founder and CEO of Superfile, discussed the importance of digital security in a world dependent on global collaboration. The latest applications of AI were discussed by Rick Champagne, director of Global Media2 Strategy and Marketing at NVIDIA and Ian Massingham, head of developer relations at Griptape. John Canning, head of developer relations M&E, AEC, D&M, AMD, explored the impact of the latest technology and tools for small teams.
Alongside the directors of “KPop Demon Hunters,” VIEW Conference 2025 also welcomed film directors Madeline Sharafian and Academy Award®-winner Domee Shi (Disney and Pixar’s “Elio”), Alessandro Carloni (Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s upcoming “The Cat in the Hat,” due for release in theaters February 27, 2026) and Annie Award-winner Pierre Perifel (DreamWorks Animation’s “The Bad Guys 2”). Director Alex Woo took the stage with VFX supervisor Nicky Lavender and head of character animation Sacha Kapijimpanga to speak about Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation’s “In Your Dreams”.
VIEW Conference 2025 offered a sneak peek at some of this year’s most anticipated movies. In a specially recorded video interview, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Dan Laustsen ASC, DFF, talked in depth about lensing Netflix’s new adaptation of “Frankenstein,” written and directed by his long-time collaborator Guillermo del Toro. Production designer Dylan Cole transported the VIEW Conference to the exotic world of Pandora, sharing futuristic visions from the upcoming “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Meanwhile, in his presentation “To Infinity… and RenderMan XPU!” Pixar’s Dylan Sisson presented exclusive footage from Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5,” out June 2026.
Award-winning VFX maestros explored the fast-evolving world of visual effects. In a special fireside chat, Janet Lewin, senior vice president, general manager and head of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), discussed her 30-year career at the cutting edge of visual effects and virtual production. From the world of big-screen features came Oscar-nominated Pablo Helman and Framestore’s Dale Newton (Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good”), David Seager (Disney’s “TRON: Ares”), BAFTA Award-winner David Vickery (Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World: Rebirth”), Craig Hammack (Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch”), Oscar-nominated Ryan Tudhope (Apple’s “F1: The Movie”), Stephane Nazé (DC Studios’ “Superman”) and Michael Ralla (Warner Bros’ “Sinners”).
Also in the spotlight were the VFX for a range of episodic series including HBO’s “The Penguin” (with Johnny Han, Goran Pavles and Eugene Bondar), Apple TV’s “The Studio” (with Sandro Blattner and Wylie Co. VFX’s Jake Maymudes), Netflix’s “Wednesday” (with Rocket Science VFX’s Jethro Au and Kevin Buessecker), Netflix’s “The Sandman” (with Rodeo FX’s Martin Pelletier), HBO’s “Dune: Prophecy” (with Accenture Song VFX’s Apollonia Hartman and David Anastacio), Amazon Studios’ “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (with Rodeo FX’s Ara Khanikian), HBO’s “The Last of Us” (with DNEG’s Melaina Mace and Roberto Rodricks), and HBO’s “House of the Dragon” (with Pixomondo’s Claudia Marvisi).
Twice Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Ian Hunter discussed not only his work on Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” but also his remarkable career creating miniature effects for award-winning films including “Interstellar” and “First Man.” Meanwhile miniature unit supervisor and props designer Simon Weisse looked back at his 30-year career, including his extraordinary work with acclaimed filmmaker Wes Anderson.
From the realm of games, Sucker Punch Productions creative director Nate Fox gave a presentation on the PS5 game “Ghost of Yōtei.” Jan-Bart van Beek and Jochen Willemsen from Guerrilla Games discussed how they created a family-friendly apocalypse with “Lego Horizon Adventures.”
Big ideas were discussed by a collection of award-winning panelists, including “The Future of Storytelling,” for which our line-up of award-winning film directors was joined by Kris Pearn, director of “The Willoughbys,” and Camille Balsamo-Gillis, co-founder of Pro Machina. Other panels included “The Future of Filmmaking,” “Innovation and Creativity at the Service of Audiovisual Production,” “Women in Animation: VFX and Live Action,” “Cinema 3: A New Era of Film,” and “Bridging the Gap in VFX: Collaboration & Innovation,” presented in partnership with the Visual Effects Society.
In-depth workshops included “Creating the World of ‘Game of Thrones’” with environment concept artist Kieran Belshaw; “The Purpose and Principles of Architecture” with vrbn’s Matt Buehler. A special highlight was an all-day walking workshop “Evolve from Seeing to Vision, from Watching to Storytelling,” where legendary photographer Asa Mathat took participants and their cameras out on the streets of Turin.
Setting its sights on business and education, VIEW Conference 2025 introduced young talent to top-level professionals, in a series of sessions designed to help nurture the talent of the future. These included dedicated portfolio review sessions with experienced creative professionals, and panels such as “Inspiring the Next Generation – AI and Innovation Technologies in Education.” Career development and project management was explored in talks such as “Is VFX a Sustainable Business Model?” and “Creative Careers Unfiltered: Motivation, Mentorship and Meaningful Networking.”
“The VIEW Conference 2025 program was more wide-ranging than any we have offered before,” says Conference Director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez. “I offer my heartfelt thanks to our worldwide family of talented speakers, many of whom return year after year to help create the unique buzz that makes VIEW Conference an unforgettable experience for everyone. All that remains is to share this pledge for next year – VIEW Conference 2026 is going to be bigger and better than ever!”
VIEW Conference 2025 was made possible with support from Fondazione CRT, Fondazione Sviluppo E Crescita CRT, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Regione Piemonte, Camera di Commercio di Torino, Punto Impresa Digitale, Lenovo | Nvidia, Superfile, AMD, Accenture, Netflix, Industrial Light & Magic, Wylie Co. VFX, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Texas A&M University, vrbn, Claynosaurz, Iren, Alps Studios and Das Element.
Now Available – VIEW Conference 2025 Online Archive