The creative team behind DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” led by writer-director Chris Sanders, will discuss the making of the film at this fall’s VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy. The weeklong English-language gathering is celebrating its 25th year curating talks, workshops and masterclasses with top talent from film, TV, animation, VFX and gaming.
Sanders, whose credits include “Lilo & Stitch,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and “The Croods,” will be attending the conference along with Raymond Zibach, the film’s production designer, and VFX supervisor Jeff Budsberg. The story, adapted from Peter Brown’s novel, follows the adventures of a robot (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) who learns to co-exist with wildlife after being shipwrecked on an uninhabited island.
Also attending is “Transformers One” director Josh Cooley, who will be presenting a masterclass at the conference, which runs from Oct. 14-19. The film, from Paramount Animation and Hasbro, recounts the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron. Cooley is best known for his work on the Pixar films “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “Up” and “Inside Out” and for directing the Academy Award-winning “Toy Story 4.”
Short films will get their time in the limelight at the conference this year. Among filmmakers discussing their shorts are Loïc Espuche (“Beurk!”), and Christian Arredondo Narvaez and Diego Alonso Sánchez de la Barquera (“NUBE”). In addition, Joseph Wallace, best known for his animated short “Salvation Has No Name,” will present “Handmade Fantasies: The Stop Motion Worlds of Joseph Wallace” on stage at the event.
“I am thrilled to welcome Chris Sanders and his creative team to VIEW Conference 2024,” says conference director Maria Elena Gutierrez. “Chris’s reputation is nothing short of spectacular and I know his new animated feature ‘The Wild Robot’ is going to blow us all away. I am equally excited to have so many talented animated short film directors on the VIEW Conference program, including the legendary Joseph Wallace and many more. Without question, 2024 is shaping up to be a stellar year for animation and I am proud that VIEW Conference will be at the heart of it.”
Previously announced speakers include “Inside Out 2” director Kelsey Mann, “Ultraman: Rising” director Shannon Tindle, “Dune: Part Two” VFX pros Paul Lambert and Patrick Heinen, “Fallout” overall VFX supervisor Jay Worth, fantasy artist Jesper Ejsing, artist/production designer Pascal Campion and Industrial Light & Magic chief creative officer Rob Bredow.
More information and tickets for the conference are available at the View Conference website.
