‘Wallace & Gromit,’ ‘That Christmas’ Directors Join View Conference Lineup

Merlin Crossingham, who shared directing duties with Nick Park on “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” and Simon Otto, who helmed “That Christmas,” are among the newest speakers to join the lineup for View Conference, the annual VFX and animation conference slated to be held Oct. 14-19 in Turin, Italy.

Otto, the “How To Train Your Dragon” trilogy animation supervisor, makes his directorial debut with the upcoming Richard Curtis-penned holiday film for Netflix. Crossingham’s time at “Wallace & Gromit” studio Aardman Animation included the Emmy-nominated “Creature Comforts America.” “Vengeance Most Fowl,” which features the return of Wallace and Gromit’s “Wrong Trousers” nemesis, villainous penguin Features McGraw, comes to Netflix this winter.

View will also host a session on Marvel hit “Deadpool & Wolverine,” featuring VFX supervisor Sven Gilberg, who was previously VFX Oscar nominated for “Fall Guy” and “Real Steel.”

Newly announced View speakers also include filmmaker and animator Amanda Strong, who will discuss her experiences of directing a TV series, independent animation and building a stop motion studio centered on collective Indigenous storytelling.

Industry vet Richard Kerris, general manager for media & entertainment at NVIDIA, has additionally joined the speaker lineup for View, where topics will also include AI.

Previously announced speakers include directors of several of the year’s animated movies including Chris Sanders, for Universal/Dreamworks’ “The Wild Robot” based on the Peter Brown book series; Kelsey Mann, for “Inside Out 2,” the sequel to Pixar’s Oscar winner; Josh Cooley, for Paramount’s Transformers origin story, “Transformers One;” and Shannon TIndle, for Netflix’s “Ultraman: Rising,” a superhero adventure based on the Ultraman franchise.