FMX 2026 Announces Prominent Speakers: Spotlight on AI, Feature Animation, and Cinematography

FMX, the world’s leading conference for animation, VFX, games, and immersive technologies, will once again bring together industry top talents in 2026. The organizers have released a new lineup of heavyweight speakers and exciting sessions covering core tracks such as Artificial Intelligence, Feature Animation, and Cinematography, offering deep insights for digital creative professionals worldwide.

Feature Animation: Behind the Scenes of Global Blockbusters

The globally hit animated feature KPop Demon Hunters and Zoomania 2 — hailed as “the funniest Disney movie in years” — will both be featured at FMX. Adam Sarophim, Supervising Animator at Sony Pictures Imageworks, will present “KPop Demon Hunters & GOAT: Animating Performances,” sharing how emotion, personality, and character are crafted through movement, timing, and subtle details. Adam previously served as supervisor on the Academy Award®-winning Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and was a lead animator on The Mitchells vs. the Machines.

Jacob Frey, animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios, will take the audience behind the scenes of Zoomania 2, exploring the exciting and innovative collaboration between art and technology at the heart of Disney’s filmmaking process. Jacob is an alumnus of the Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg — the organizers of FMX — and returns to FMX as a “homecoming” guest.

In addition, two ambitious European animation projects will be presented: The Last Whale Singer and Zako (based on a true story). Jan Hofmann, CG Supervisor & Unreal Engine Expert at Telescope Animation, and Amir Ashkezari, FX Supervisor & Technical Director at PFX, will break down the procedural pipeline behind Trash Island in The Last Whale Singer: Houdini-generated assets flowing via USD into both realtime Unreal and traditional 3ds Max/V-Ray workflows, connected by custom tools enabling daily cross-pipeline collaboration. Tigran Arakelyan, director at OnOff Studio, will demonstrate how VR animation can be used as a core creative tool for sketching, staging, and animating directly in 3D space, balancing art and technology in modern animation production.

The previously announced session on Pixar’s Hoppers is also part of the Feature Animation track, curated by FMX.

Artificial Intelligence: The Next Era of HumanMachine Collaboration

This year’s AI track at FMX is themed “The End of the Beginning: AI and the Next Act for VFX.” It brings together some of the industry’s most respected voices to explore how fastevolving AI technologies can be combined with traditional VFX craft rather than viewed as opposing forces. The track is curated by Mike Seymour, CoFounder of FXGuide and AI researcher from Sydney.

Featured speakers include:

Ben Grossmann (Magnopus), Oscarwinning VFX supervisor and producer whose work spans The Lion King and the immersive experience The Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas. He will share pragmatic insights on where AI genuinely adds value in largescale productions, and where human judgment, design, and storytelling remain essential.

Mohsen Mousavi (EYELINE Studios), Emmy and VES awardwinning supervisor and Senior Director of EYELINE’s Visual Pioneering, leading the studio’s generative production efforts.

Hao Li (founder of Pinscreen), a leading figure in computer vision and facial performance technology, who recently completed AI work on Amazon’s Fallout Season 2.

Cinematography: The Secrets of StopMotion and Photorealistic VFX

The Cinematography track at FMX is curated by Sara CoppolaNicholson, Director of Research and Education at Cooke Optics. Highlights include:

Dave Alex Riddett BSC, awardwinning cinematographer at Aardman, who will take the audience behind 40 years of cinematography at Aardman, revealing the practical skills and intricate understanding required to bring magic to stopframe storytelling.

Victor Perez, VFX Supervisor & Researcher, will present “GLASS: Capturing the Lens Look for Photorealistic VFX,” explaining how optical characteristics such as distortion, chromatic aberration, field curvature, vignetting, and iris behavior can be analyzed, measured, and reconstructed inside VFX pipelines to seamlessly integrate CGI with liveaction photography.

Sponsors & Concurrent Activities

This year’s FMX silver sponsors include AWS Visual Computing and Foundry.

AWS will host “The AIEnabled Studio: Practical Tools for Accelerating Your Pipeline,” bringing together customers and partners including Outpost VFX, Untold Studios, Mosaic Studios, Engine Lab, and Oehmen Digital to share realworld experiences on how generative AI, agentic systems, and cloudnative infrastructure are reshaping VFX production.

Foundry will present showcases of compositing, lighting, look development, and texturing from global VFX and animation powerhouses such as ILM, RISE FX, Outpost VFX, and Mikros. Sessions will include deep dives into projects including Fallout Season 2, Netflix’s The Dinosaurs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Chrome Alone 2 – Lost in New Jersey, plus a talk from awardwinning Director and VFX Supervisor Hugo Guerra.

FMX 2026 continues to provide a forwardlooking platform for the global digital creative community. More speakers and agenda details will be announced soon. Stay tuned.