Project Hail Mary, The Mandalorian and Grogu, Moana, and ILM Minis will be among the topics presented at the Los Angeles event between July 18 and 23, 2026.
If you’re attending SIGGRAPH 2026, be sure to check out the many ILM presentations offered throughout the week at the Los Angeles Convention Center. See our full list of programming below.
DigiPro – A Wearable Shader Ball with principal R&D engineer Andre Mazzone – JW Marriott – Diamond Ballroom, 4:10 – 4:30 PM
OpenVDB: Major Changes to File Format, Nano VDB and Tools with senior staff production engineer Dan Bailey – JW Marriott – Gold Ballroom 3-4, 10:30 – 10:50 AM
Bringing Arbitrary MaterialX BSDF Networks to RenderMan XPU with Lucasfilm senior staff software engineer Jonathan Stone – JW Marriott – Gold Ballroom 3-4, 4:05 – 4:20 PM
The Perpetual Pipeline – 50 Years of Symbiosis with Lucasfilm SVP creative innovation, digital production Rob Bredow – Petree D, 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
ASWF Machine Learning Working Group with core pipeline director Tommy Burnette – JW Marriott – Gold Ballroom 4, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
MaterialX and Open PBR with Lucasfilm senior staff software engineer Jonathan Stone – JW Marriott – Gold Ballroom 4, 1:30 – 3:00 PM
Women in Technology – Knocking Down Barriers with R&D director Rachel Rose – JW Marriott – Plaza 1, 2:00 – 3:00 PM
VFX Reference Platform – A Common Platform for VFX Software with Lucasfilm chief technology officer Francois Chardavoine – JW Marriott – Plaza 1, 9:00 – 10:00 AM
Crafting Characters Beyond the Reef: Translating Moana’s Animated World into Live Action with ILM with animation supervisor Maia Kayser – Petree C, 3:45 – 4:30 PM
The Previs Battleground – Precision Planning vs Creative Freedom with pre-visualization supervisor Kyle Winkelman – 411 Theater, 3:45 – 5:15 PM
The Fate of Humanity rests with Project Hail Mary. ILM’s Contribution to visual effects behind the film with visual effects supervisor Tristan Myles, CG supervisor Shaun Roth, and senior staff software engineer Ron Radeztsky – Hall K, 9:30 – 10:30 AM
NVIDIA RTX Rendering Day – Real-Time Short Form Content: Behind the Scenes of the ILM Minis with real-time principal creative Landis Fields – Room 502A, 3:00 – 3:50 PM
Bringing The Mandalorian and Grogu to Life: Virtual Production, Creatures, and VFX Innovations with visual effects supervisor John Knoll, animation supervisor Hal Hickel, and senior lookdev technical director Rebecca Forth – Hall K, 4:15 – 5:15 PM
How to Get Your Resume and Reel Noticed with senior recruiter Shannon Wiggins – Room 404AB, 9:00 – 10:00 AM
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