Mireille Soria, president of Paramount Pictures Animation, is set to keynote this year’s VIEW Conference, a uniquely intimate digital arts conference that takes place each October in Turin, Italy.

Mireille Soria.

“She is a driving force in the animation industry and an inspiration to women everywhere,” says conference director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez.

Soria joined Paramount Animation after serving as co-president of feature animation at Dreamworks Animation, where she oversaw the creative development and production on Trolls and Boss Baby, and produced Captain Underpants as well as the Madagascar franchise. At Paramount, Soria is responsible for all operations of the animation groups from creative development to release.

In addition to Soria, VIEW has also announced the first group of speakers who will present at the event this year. As always, the speakers come from the diverse worlds of animation, vfx, gaming, vr, and immersive/interactive storytelling. They are:

  • Don Greenberg, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics at Cornell University
  • Glenn Entis, Academy Award winner, co-founder PDI
  • David Misch, producer, stand-up comedian and screenwriter
  • Roger Gould, creative director, theme parks at Pixar Animation Studios & Walt Disney Animation Studios
  • Ralph Eggleston, 2002 Academy Award winner for the animated short For the Birds, production designer on Incredibles 2 from Pixar Animation Studios
  • Bill Watral, winner of Annie and VES awards, vfx supervisor of Incredibles 2 from Pixar Animation Studios
  • Dadi Einarsson, vfx supervisor for ADRIFT, co-founder RVX
  • Jay Worth, vfx supervisor for HBO’s Westworld
  • Vincent Morisset, winner of primetime Emmy for Best Interactive Program, director and founder of studio AATOAA, known for multiple interactive films with Arcade Fire and the National Film Board of Canada
  • Jan-Bart Van Beek, studio art director for Guerrilla Games
  • Henry LaBounta, studio art director at EA Ghost Games, BAFTA winner and Academy Award nominee
  • Aaron Allport, senior art director at King
  • Veselin Efremov, creative director at Unity Technologies, the creator of the Book of the Dead interactive realtime demo and ADAM, cg animated short
  • Milan Jovovic, co-founder, partner and chief creative officer at Nordeus

In addition to the conference, VIEW also has a film competition, for which it is currently accepting submissions. The VIEW Award 2018 for short animated films has a €2,000 first prize. Open to both professional and student films, the festival is accepting entries through September 15. Submissions can be made at this website.

For more information about the conference, including registration info, go to ViewConference.it.

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