Written by Kianna Best on Feb 6, 2024. Posted in Awards and Festivals

Belfast’s RENDR festival returns with major lineup

Belfast’s RENDR festival is returning for its second edition from 29 February to 1 March. With a lineup from across the  film, gaming, interactive and animation industries, the festival includes speakers from Netflix, Pixar and Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Pawel Grochola, FX and Look of Picture Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, has been revealed as a speaker at RENDR. (Image courtesy of Sony Pictures)

Festival director Michael Weir comments: “RENDR offers opportunity to gain insight into unique perspectives within the fascinating worlds of film, gaming and animation, and to network with highly esteemed professionals in these industries. This is an important festival to the ever-growing creative industry in Northern Ireland and we’re proud to make a contribution. Building upon the success of last year, we hope RENDR can serve to inform, engage and challenge the creative community here to push the boundaries of technology in their work.”

Unit stills photographer Chiabella James, who has worked on the set of Dune, will speak at the event. (Image courtesy of Warner Bros.)

The two day creativity and technology festival will take place at Portview Trade Centre, supported by Northern Ireland Screen, Studio Ulster, Ulster University, Ulster Screen Academy and Belfast City Council. During the festival, attendees will be able to listen in on talks led by talented speakers including, Pawel Grochola, FX and Look of Picture Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, whose most recent feature, Spider-man: Across the spider-verse, is shortlisted for Best Animated Feature in this year’s Oscars, unit stills photographer Chiabella James, who has worked on the sets of Dune, the recently released Saltburn and Bob Marley biopic, One Love, and local talent Laura Livingstone.

Hal Hickel, from Industrial Light & Magic, is currently supervising animation for The Mandalorian and will speak at RENDR in Belfast. (Image courtesy of Disney+)

Armagh-born Livingstone is a VFX executive for Netflix who launched her visual effects career with Marvel's Iron Man 2. Recently the creative worked on the Addams’ Family spin-off series, Wednesday, and is Danny O’Reagen from independent television production company Poli Productions, whose credits include How to Train your Dragon, Game of Thrones, Skyfall and The Bourne Ultimatum. Simon Jung from leading visual effects company Wētā FX will also join the line-up, discussing the studios’ iconic films and TV shows such as The Last of Us, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar.

Armagh-born VFX Executive at Netflix, Laura Livingstone, who recently worked on Wednesday is among the homegrown talent joining this year’s line-up. (Image courtesy of Netflix)

Other speakers include, from Industrial Light & Magic, Hal Hickel, who is currently supervising the animation for the Mandalorian series on Disney+ and Charmaine Chan, whose most recent credits include Gareth Edwards' The Creator. The festival will host over 30 speakers, delivering keynote talks across the two evenings, with live and interactive demonstrations also taking place exhibiting new technologies, digital art and gaming experiences.

Digital Artist at Pixar Animation Studios, Dylan Sission, will share his 25 years’ of expertise in animation and visual effects. (Image courtesy of Pixar)