The weather is starting to turn, and that means that the fall market & festival season is nearly upon us! One of the highlights on the calendar is VIEW Conference, Italy’s premiere event for computer graphics, interactive & immersive storytelling, animation, VFX, games and VR/AR/MR. Taking place Oct. 22-26 in Torino, the conference never fails to attract a high caliber of speakers to share their insights in keynotes and panels.
“Each year, a group of brilliant people at the top of their profession come together for a week of sharing their work and learning from others in their field and in other fields. This is truly a place where the whole becomes greater than the individual, which is amazing because the individuals who come to VIEW are among the greatest filmmakers, animators, artists, storytellers and researchers in the world,” said Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez, director of the curated conference.
“We have invited our industry’s best and brightest to present talks or workshops at VIEW Conference 2018. I’m immensely proud that these renowned artists, industry leaders, and educators are coming to Turin to share their knowledge. The students and professionals who attend VIEW this year will have their minds blown.”
Recently joining the lineup that has been revealed throughout the summer is keynote speaker John Gaeta, SVP for Creative Strategy at innovative tech firm Magic Leap. Gaeta is well known for his Oscar-winning work as overall VFX supervisor on the Matrix trilogy, for which he implemented radical new filmmaking techniques now in common practice. His VFX credits also include Judge Dredd, Eraser, Speed Racer and Jupiter Ascending. Gaeta was also co-founder and (from 2013-2017) executive creative director of Lucasfilm’s ILMXLAB, where he helped conceive and collaborated on future-gen immersive entertainment projects.
VIEW 2018’s Keynote roster includes:
- Hans Zimmer, composer and record producer
- Dennis Muren, Creative Director, Industrial Light & Magic
- Mireille Soria, President, Paramount Animation
- Rob Bredow, SVP, Executive Creative Director and Head of ILM
- Donald Greenberg, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics, Cornell University
- Nora Twomey, Director and Co-founder, Cartoon Saloon
- Jan Pinkava, Creative Director, Google Spotlight Stories
- Kim Davidson, Founder and CEO of SideFX
More luminaries can be found throughout the program. VFX supervisors sharing their work on major feature films include Dan Glass (Deadpool 2), Geoffrey Baumann (Black Panther), Bill Watral (Incredibles 2), Matt Aitken (Avengers: Infinity War), Dadi Einarsson (Adrift), Mike Ford (Hotel Transylvania 3), Jaoa Sita (Image Engine), Jay Worth (HBO), Juri Stanosske (Mackevision) and Karl Herbst (Smallfoot).
From the world of animation, VIEW welcomes Emmy Award-winning director Vincent Morisset of Studio AATOAA; Marino Guarieri, director of Cinderella the Cat (Gatta Cenerentola); Simone Giampaolo, director of animation at Aardman Animations; Alex Williams, head of animation at Escape Studios; Troy Saliba, director of animation at Double Negative; Ronald Kurniawan, production designer for Smallfoot; and Annie Award winner Danielle Feinberg, director of photography for Coco at Pixar Animation Studios.
Attendees of VIEW’s many talks and workshops can also glean some nuggets of wisdom from PDI co-founder and media consultant Glenn Entis; Baobab Studios head of story and Daytime Emmy winner Kan Lee; LAIKA storyboard artist Emanuela Cozzi; Epic Games art director Peter Ellis; Unity Technologies creative director Veselin Efremov; and many more.
When asked why industry pros should make room in their busy calendars to mark VIEW down as must-attend event, Gutierrez enthuses: “To gather information and knowledge they can use to raise the level of their own endeavors once they return. To network and make new connections. To learn. To be inspired. To share. To grow personally and artistically. Each VIEW conference becomes a world unto its own, shaped by the speakers and attendees. I have a feeling this year’s conference will evolve into one of the most unique, thought-provoking, and creative collaborations we’ve had yet.”
Registration, additional information and full program available at www.viewconference.it.

