Torino, Italy – VIEW Conference, in partnership with OGR and the VFX Festival, is pleased to present a FREE virtual panel bringing together the production visual effects supervisors from the five films nominated for this year’s Academy Award® for Best Visual Effects. The online session takes place on Wednesday, March 9th, 2022, at 10am PST / 6pm UK / 19:00 CET.
The five panelists are Paul Lambert from the science fiction epic “Dune,” Swen Gillberg from the videogame-inspired action comedy “Free Guy,” Charlie Noble from the latest James Bond adventure “No Time to Die,” Christopher Townsend from the Marvel Studios blockbuster “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” and Kelly Port from the superhero smackdown “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” The moderator is Carolyn Giardina, tech editor for The Hollywood Reporter.
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Each visual effects team faced a set of unique challenges. The “Dune” team conjured up the forbidding planet of Arrakis with its vast desert landscapes, giant sandworms, and futuristic vehicles and environments. The team behind “Free Guy” team transported the film’s reluctant hero Guy (Ryan Reynolds) into a synthetic videogame world filled with animated characters and outrageous action. The ‘invisible effects’ deployed by the “No Time to Die” team augmented a range of international environments and enhanced the film’s gritty action sequences. On “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” the visual effects team’s wide-ranging work included creating the mysterious dimension of Ta Lo, with mythological creatures such as the Great Protector and the hideous Dweller-in-Darkness. The team responsible for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” opened a gateway to the multiverse, breathed life into digital characters, and introduced web-slinging spectacle at every turn.
“The nominees for this year’s visual effects Oscar are all experienced professionals at the top of their game,” says Conference Director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez. “Visual effects is the perfect blend of art, science and technology, and every year I am astonished by what its practitioners are able to achieve. I am thrilled that VIEW Conference has brought all five Academy Award nominees together for this free panel, and I cannot wait for our talented guests to reveal their secrets.”
The full list of Oscar® nominees for 2022 in the Visual Effects category is as follows:
- Dune – Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor, Gerd Nefzer
- Free Guy – Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis, Dan Sudick
- No Time to Die – Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner, Chris Corbould
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker and Dan Oliver
- Spider-Man: No Way Home – Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein, Dan Sudick
The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects recognizes the achievements of two key departments. The special effects department is responsible for practical on-set spectacle such as fire and pyrotechnics, water and atmospherics, and moving set pieces. The visual effects department is primarily responsible for elements that cannot be physically realised, including animated characters, environments and simulation effects.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences formalized its recognition of technical effects in 1939, when it introduced an award for ‘Best Special Effects,’ which embraced sound as well as picture. In 1965 the award was recategorised as ‘Best Special Visual Effects,’ with the current title ‘Best Visual Effects’ being adopted at the 50th annual awards ceremony, at which John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune and Robert Blalack picked up the award for “Star Wars.”
An international community of over 10,000 artists, filmmakers and executives, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded in 1927, with Douglas Fairbanks as its first president. The 94th Oscars is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood. The ceremony will be televised live on ABC and worldwide in over 200 territories.
Paul Lambert
Paul Lambert is a visual effects supervisor with 25 years of experience in the motion picture industry. He has collaborated with some of the most acclaimed directors in Hollywood, culminating in back-to-back Oscars for his work on “First Man” and “Blade Runner 2049.” He has also won multiple BAFTAs, EMMYs and VES awards. On “Blade Runner 2049,” Lambert drove the look of the Joi hologram, the ‘threesome’ scene between Joi, Mariette and K, and the Visual Effects Society award-winning Los Angeles environments. For “First Man,” he conceived the term ‘in camera visual effects’ with the use of a huge LED screen which displayed interactive backgrounds used in principle photography. In 2008, Lambert was one of the architects of the on-set lighting capture and processing techniques for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and is the sole inventor of the bluescreen keying algorithm ‘IBK’ used in Nuke, the visual effects industry’s compositing software of choice.
Swen Gillberg
Swen Gillberg began his visual effects career in 1997 and has been focused on the integration of live elements and CG for more than two decades. He holds a BS degree in structural engineering from UCLA. Gillberg worked as a CG Supervisor on features including: “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and “Letters from Iwo Jima,” and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on “Real Steel.” His 3D integration credits include “A Beautiful Mind,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.” He was the on-set visual effects supervisor for “Jack the Giant Slayer,” and supervised plate photography on set for “XXX,” “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” “Stealth,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Red Planet” and “Enders Game.” He was visual effects supervisor on “Night at the Museum,” “Fast and Furious 7” and Captain America: Civil War, additional visual effects supervisor on “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: End Game,” and visual effects supervisor on Netflix’s “The Gray Man.”
Charlie Noble
Charlie Noble is a visual effects supervisor with over 30 years of experience, and is one of the co-founders of DNEG. He worked as second unit on-set visual effects supervisor on “Wonder Woman 1984,” and on-set visual effects supervisor on films including “The Kid Who Would Be King,” “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” “Pacific Rim Uprising” and “The Mummy.” In 2016, Noble reunited with director Paul Greengrass as production visual effects supervisor on “Jason Bourne,” having previously worked with the director on “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “Green Zone” and “Captain Phillips.” Noble supervised DNEG’s visual effects work on “Exodus: Gods and Kings” and “Bridge of Spies.” Since co-founding DNEG in 1998, Noble has lent his skills to numerous other high-profile movies, including “Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban,” “Attack the Block,” “Batman Begins,” “The Duchess” and “Captain America: The First Avenger.” In 2004 he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on the HBO series “Dreamkeeper.”
Christopher Townsend
Christopher Townsend is a three-time Academy Award-nominated visual effects supervisor and Marvel Studios film veteran, having served as visual effects supervisor on “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Iron Man 3,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Captain Marvel,” and most recently, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” His other film credits as a visual effects supervisor include “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “Ninja Assassin” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Townsend previously worked as a visual artist and supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic on films including four Star Wars movies, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “The Island,” “Hulk,” “A.I: Artificial Intelligence,” “Space Cowboys,” “Deep Impact,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “Daylight,” “Eraser” and “Congo.”
Kelly Port
An accomplished and award-winning visual effects supervisor, Kelly Port has contributed to more than 30 feature films. In 2019, he was one of the BAFTA and Academy Award nominees in the Best Visual Effects category for his groundbreaking work in “Avengers: Infinity War,” realizing over 50 minutes of running time for the fully digital villain, Thanos. Kelly also received the top honor of Outstanding Visual Effects from the Visual Effects Society for Thanos – a task he reprised for the follow-up blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame.” As production visual effects supervisor on “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Kelly was responsible for guiding the creation of over 2,500 visual effects shots. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences since 2008, Kelly has received multiple BAFTA and VES nominations, a Hollywood Film Award, and L.A. Online Film Critics Society award for his visual effects work.
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About VIEW Conference 2022
The international VIEW Conference, Italy’s premiere event for Computer Graphics, Interactive & Immersive Media, Animation, Visual Effects, Games, Real-time Rendering, Virtual Production, AI, VR, AR, and Mixed Reality, brings top professionals from those fields to the beautiful baroque city of Torino, Italy for a week of talks, presentations, and workshops. The 2022 VIEW Conference will take place from October 16 to 21 in Torino’s state-of-the-art OGR venue, and virtually.
