Press Release: World VFX Day Announces Speaker Line Up
An annual free event to shine a spotlight on the visual effects and animation industry every 8th December via YouTube livestream
World VFX Day, founded by Hayley Miller in 2023, has confirmed its first confirmed speakers for this year’s program. The 2025 edition will feature a series of international roundtable discussions, bringing together leading professionals from across the VFX community. With an emphasis on inclusivity, collaboration, and industry-wide progress, World VFX Day aims to provide dynamic conversations and actionable insights that drive meaningful change.
The program so far includes:
- VFX & Animation Supervisor Roundtable – with Denis Baudin, Genevieve Camilleri and Aidan Martin – WētāFX
- VFX: Hollywood’s Underdog – featuring Todd Vaziri – Compositing Supervisor at ILM and Valentina Sgro – Production Manager.
- Leadership Fireside Chat – with David Li – Founder at Dream Machine FX (ILP, FIN Design, Arc Creative, Zero VFX, Mavericks VFX) and William Sargent – Co-Founder at Framestore.
- VFX Innovation – Michael Ralla – Warner Bros., Johnny Han – HBO, Christina Caspers – Trixter & Cinesite, Kevin Baillie – Eyeline Studios, Christine Resch – Adobe. In association with the Visual Effects Society (VES) & View Conference.
- An Inside Look at the Future of VFX – with Alana Newell – CEO, Jasper Kidd – Senior VFX Supervisor/Head of Studio at Crafty Apes (UK), Jonathan Cheetham – VFX Supervisor and Clare Cheetham – EP/Head of Production.
- When 85 Artists Unite – with Delcio Gomes – Head of Department, Generalist and Environments at ILM – in association with Chaos Group
- 100 Years of Supporting the Film & TV Industry – with Marcus Ryder MBE, CEO
- Leadership Roundtable – with Laurens Ehrmann – Founder at The Yard VFX, Brian Carbin – Co-Founder at Stone Dogs, Lucy Cooper – MD at Union VFX, and Vikas Gandhi – MD at Gelaro Grace.
- Four Decades of VFX – with Neishaw Ali – CEO at Spin VFX
- And many more to be confirmed…
“I want to use World VFX Day as a platform not only to elevate our industry in the eyes of the wider world, but also to spark growth by encouraging new ideas and partnerships,” said Hayley Miller. “Our focus is on bringing together as many global and diverse voices as possible to discuss the health and future of our industry, and to recognize the extraordinary talent that drives it.” said Hayley Miller. “The conversations and initiatives we discuss here will continue throughout the year as we work to support, strengthen, and future-proof our industry.”
The event will be live from London across 12 hours, with in-person and online guests, and is hosted by Important Looking Pirates, a VFX studio based in Shoreditch, London. Additional speakers and program details will be announced in the coming weeks.
Find out more about World VFX Day: https://worldvfxday.com/ and subscribe to their YouTube to join the event on 8th December https://www.youtube.com/@WorldVFXDay
About World VFX Day
World VFX Day is an annual event on 8th December to celebrate, educate and inspire the industry and beyond through creative and topical showcases and panels. The 8th of December is in honour of the “grandfather of visual effects” filmmaker, Georges Méliès.
Since launching in 2023, World VFX Day has welcomed 460+ studio supporters, 150+ speakers, and over 40,000 viewers. The mission to shine a spotlight on visual effects and animation continues all year round through their meet up series, ‘Connects’ and through speaking at various conferences around the world.
Contact
Hayley Miller, World VFX Day