Makers of 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day,' 'The Odyssey' and 'Project Hail Mary' join executives from ILM, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Skydance Animation in Turin over Oct. 12-16 Brad Bird, Roger Deakins and the teams behind “Toy Story 5,” “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Project Hail Mary” head to Turin next week for the 27th View Conference, where AI and the economics of animation and VFX are set to dominate the agenda. Four of the films being unpacked at the Oct. 12-16 event — “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “The Odyssey,” “Toy Story 5” and “Project Hail Mary” — have collectively generated more than $6 billion worldwide this year. Those sessions sit within a lineup spanning Pixar, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Animation, Disney Animation and Aardman, alongside senior executives from Industrial Light & Magic, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Skydance Animation.
The gathering comes as animation and visual effects companies navigate pressure on production economics, global competition and investment in artificial intelligence. Across five days, View’s filmmaking presentations and executive discussions offer different perspectives on how those pressures are reshaping production. Animation’s Franchises and Original Ambitions Brad Bird returns to Turin with “Ray Gunn,” his long-gestating animated sci-fi noir, on a program that brings original projects into the same conversation as some of Hollywood’s most established franchises.
Pixar presents “Toy Story 5” and “Hoppers,” while DreamWorks directors Joel Crawford and Januel P. Mercado discuss “Forgotten Island.” Sony Pictures Animation brings “GOAT,” and Disney Animation producer Yvett Merino presents “Hexed.” Aardman’s Merlin Crossingham addresses stop-motion filmmaking. Bird’s project offers a different timescale from the industry’s emphasis on faster production.
Developed across decades of changes in financing, studio ownership and technology, “Ray Gunn” provides an opportunity to examine how an original animated feature retains its creative identity over a prolonged development process. The executive program may offer the clearest view of the decisions shaping where and how films are made. Michelle Grady, president of Sony Pictures Imageworks; Holly Edwards, president of Skydance Animation; and Janet Lewin, senior VP, general manager and head of ILM, join Cinesite Group VFX COO Shawn Walsh and other senior figures for Industry Executives Shaping the Future of Cinema.
At last year’s View, Tippett Studio CEO Gary Mundell described AI as a tool to accelerate production, saying the challenge was to make it serve the studio’s purposes rather than the other way around. The question for this year’s executive panel may be how such ambitions translate into investment, staffing and sustainable business decisions. Their companies operate across different parts of the production business, but face overlapping questions: how to manage capacity, retain experienced artists, compete internationally and assess investment in new tools while protecting margins.
Those decisions have consequences beyond individual productions. They influence where work is commissioned, which skills companies recruit and how much scope filmmakers have to develop increasingly complex vfx and animation within a fixed budget. Presentations on “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “The Odyssey,” “Project Hail Mary,” “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” and “The Mandalorian & Grogu” move the discussion from corporate strategy to production practice at the peak.
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