Following its debut last year, Belfast’s RENDR festival returns to the city next month with a line-up of creative talent from the global film and television industries.
RENDR is a two-day creativity and technology festival, supported by Northern Ireland Screen, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Studio Ulster, Ulster University, Ulster Screen Academy and Belfast City Council.
Over 30 speakers will deliver keynote talks across two evenings alongside live and interactive demonstrations of new technology, digital art and gaming experiences. For the first time, RENDR will also offer live virtual access to the event from anywhere in the world.
Speakers include award-winning French costume designer Jany Temime, best known for her work on the Harry Potter film franchise for which she earned numerous Saturn Award nominations, and 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, Saltburn and the upcoming Bob Marley biopic, One Love will also give a keynote speech, as will Suzy Fagan Parr from Aardman, who served as a director and lead character animator on the recent Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
Other speakers include Hal Hickel from Industrial Light & Magic, who is currently supervising the animation for the Mandalorian series on Disney+, and Charmaine Chan, whose most recent credits include Gareth Edwards' The Creator.
Simon Jung from visual effects company Wētā FX will join the line-up to discuss the studios’ work, including The Last of Us, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar.
Among the local talent joining the line-up is Laura Livingstone, the Armagh-born VFX Executive at Netflix who launched her visual effects career with Marvel's Iron Man 2 and recently worked on the Addams’ Family spin-off series, Wednesday. 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, will be in attendance also.
“RENDR offers the 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,” commented festival director Michael Weir.
“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.”
RENDR takes place from February 29th to March 1st at Portview Trade Centre in East Belfast.
