I’ll be attending FMX again this year and it’s hard to believe it was 16 years ago when I made my first trip to Stuttgart for the event. Mike is also curating a track at FMX this year, which I’ll be highlighting in this article listing just a few of the many sessions I’m interested in checking out this year.
The conference runs from May 5 – May 7 with an online/on-campus day on May 8. Many sessions are being recorded for VOD and Friday will have 20 online-only sessions – all of which will be available for watching through June 9. For ticket information (including the €90 online-only ticket) and more, visit the FMX website.
If you’re on the fence about going to FMX, hopefully one or more of these tracks and sessions will pique your interest and cause you to pull the proverbial lever on the trip. The conference is still my favorite after all these years and if you’re in Europe it’s really easy to get to.
Be sure to check out the FMX Program Schedule for all of the sessions.
So without further ado…a few of my starred talks for the show.
The End of the Beginning: AI and the Next Act for VFX
As I mentioned earlier, Mike will is chairing an Artificial Intelligence track, which will bring together some of the industry’s most respected voices to explore not just what AI can do, but what it should do within modern production. Framed around the idea of how we keep the human artist in the loop – while harnessing the power of a very fastly evolving technology — the track will focus on how artists, supervisors and technologists can combine emerging AI systems with traditional VFX craft, rather than viewing them as opposing forces.
The sessions will feature Oscar-winning VFX supervisor and producer Ben Grossmann, whose work spans projects such as The Lion King and the immersive experiences at The Sphere in Las Vegas with The Wizard of Oz. Ben brings a pragmatic understanding of where AI genuinely adds value in large-scale productions, and where human judgement, design and storytelling remain essential. Joining him is Emmy and VES award-winning supervisor Mohsen Mousavi, now at Eyeline Powered by Netflix. Mohsen’s career has evolved from advanced simulation systems for crowds, fluids and procedural environments into cutting-edge work with machine learning and generative AI.
Also presenting is Hao Li, founder of Pinscreen and one of the leading figures in computer vision and facial performance technology, whose work bridges academic research, visual effects innovation and entrepreneurship, and who most recently completed AI work on Amazon’s Fallout Season 2.
The track will examine how the industry can move beyond hype and fear, and instead focus on building practical, artist-driven workflows for the next era of VFX.
Mike’s day job is as an AI researcher at Sydney University, where he earned his Ph.D. He’ll be leading a roundtable discussion on Wednesday, May 06 at 18:15. I always enjoy discussion sessions lead by him because he does a great job of keeping the talk on track as well as tossing in some though-provoking counter points to get the panelists going.
Hao Li: Tuesday, May 05, 10:00 @ Meidinger-Saal
Ben Grossmann: Wednesday, May 06, 15:45 @ Meidinger-Saal
Panel discussion: Wednesday, May 06, 18:15 @ Meidinger-Saal
Then & Now
Our good friend and intrepid vfx industry writer Ian Failes is once again running the Then & Now track, taking a look at visual effects past and present. Here are a few highlights of what he’s helped bring to the conference.
30 years of Independence Day with director Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich returns to his home town Stuttgart to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Independence Day. Emmerich’s blockbuster hit, which received the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, combined large-scale miniature work, practical creatures and explosions, cloud tanks, and early digital compositing, setting a new benchmark for disaster spectacle and influencing countless effects-driven films that followed.
In this keynote session at FMX with befores & afters journalist Ian Failes, Emmerich will reflect on his own career in filmmaking, share untold stories from the making of Independence Day, and discuss its key place in visual effects history.
This session will be available on video on demand.
Wednesday, May 06 18:15 @ König-Karl-Halle,
Stop Motion Guerrilla Style!
Andy Kaiser, Director, will break down his journey into filmmaking, including on his stop-motion animated film The Lighthouse Keeper, which was produced in VistaVision both on analog 35mm 8-perf. motion picture film and digitally in large format. Should be a fun talk.
Thursday, May 07, 11:15 @ Bertha-Benz-Saal
Pixar & RenderMan
The Stylized World of Pixar’s Hoppers
Pixar Visual Effects Supervisor Beth Albright breaks down the distinctive visual language crafted for the studio’s latest film — a world that had to feel simultaneously funny, suspenseful, and epic. Albright will detail how the team approached felted characters, tactile environments, and a novel brushstroke projection pipeline, while maintaining enough physical realism to keep emotional stakes intact.
The talk is a deep dive into stylization as a holistic production system, tracing how design decisions flowed through modeling, animation, simulation, and lighting in service of story — making it essential viewing for anyone interested in how a major studio codifies an unconventional aesthetic across an entire pipeline.
Tuesday, May 5, 11:15 @König-Karl-Halle
To Infinity… and RenderMan XPU!
Pixar’s new hybrid CPU + GPU renderer, RenderMan XPU, brings final-frame rendering into interactive workflows for production. It’s faster, but the more interesting shift is what that speed allows artists to do, from physically based rendering to painterly, stylized looks.
Dylan Sisson will also highlight work from the RenderMan Challenge, where artists from around the world are exploring the same tools and arriving at completely different results.
And, yes….it’s verified…a limited number of walking teapots will be available for early attendees.
Thursday, May 07, 10:00 @ Meidinger-Saal
GLASS: Capturing the Lens Look for Photorealistic VFX
Victor Perez’s session, GLASS: Capturing the Lens Look for Photorealistic VFX, focuses on one of the more subtle—but critical—areas of visual effects: replicating the unique optical signature of real-world lenses. Perez explores how characteristics such as distortion, chromatic aberration, field curvature, vignetting, and iris behavior can be carefully analyzed and reconstructed, allowing CG elements to inherit the same visual identity as the original plate photography.
The talk looks at both the technical and artistic sides of this process, outlining practical approaches for measuring lens behavior and integrating those results into a modern VFX pipeline to achieve more convincing photorealism.
Perez will be well known to the fxguide and fxphd community—he’s been a longtime friend and collaborator, teaching numerous courses with fxphd since 2014 (view courses) —and this session continues his ongoing exploration of the intersection between cinematography, compositing, and physically grounded image-making.
Wednesday, May 06, 14:30 @ Raum Reutlingen
The Predator from Yautja—Made in Europe
This is a joint session in which VFX supervisors Laurens Ehrmann (The Yard VFX) and Dominik Zimmerle (TRIXTER) pull back the curtain on the cross-studio European collaboration behind Predator: Badlands. The two studios worked in closely together sharing assets, look development, and ongoing artistic dialogue to ensure visual continuity across environments, characters, creatures, and effects.
Beyond the production overview, both supervisors also plan to dig into their favourite sequences, framing the session both as a discussion about the value of inter-studio collaboration as well as a technical breakdown of the film itself. It’s always interesting (and useful) to hear the challenges of cross-studio sharing, something that is commonplace in today’s productions.
Wednesday, May 06, 11:15 @ König-Karl-Halle
Manufacturers
Manufacturers also have a strong presence at FMX and this year is no exception. Here’s a quick overview of what SideFX and Foundry have planned.
SideFX Houdini HIVE
Wednesday @Bertha-Benz-Saal / Thursday @Raum Mannheim
SideFX is hosting two full days of Houdini HIVE presentations at FMX 2026 on Wednesday and Thursday . Day one is anchored by production talks from RISE VFX on the large-scale fire and environmental FX for the Oscar-nominated The Lost Bus, Framestore’s mid-production pipeline shift to Houdini on Project Hail Mary, and Pixar’s Solaris/RenderMan/AWS cloud workflow for the short Outpost Alpha. Storm Studios cover the Sirens sequence in Percy Jackson S2, and SideFX’s own developers offer a sneak peek at new Copernicus terrain and ML features.
Day two leans into pipeline architecture alongside strong production case studies. RISE return to break down the procedural destruction of Los Angeles for Fallout Season 2, beloFX detail their Oscar-nominated Houdini/Solaris pipeline for The Lost Bus, and Important Looking Pirates explore how Vellum brought the demon Azazel to life for The Sandman. Further sessions cover USD workflows at Milk VFX, Houdini in automotive advertising, and a standout talk from Untold Studios on blending traditional 2D animation techniques with 3D VFX for Disney’s 2025 Christmas commercial.
For more details and full rundown, check out the schedule on the SideFX web site here.
Foundry
Wednesday @Raum Mannheim
Foundry’s program brings together a full day of sessions on Wednesday in Raum Mannheim focused on real-world production workflows across compositing, lighting, look development, and texturing. Drawing on work from studios including ILM, RISE FX, Outpost VFX, and Mikros Animation. Among the highlights is a session centered on Fallout Season 2, offering a look at how teams are approaching large-scale episodic VFX using modern pipeline approaches, alongside additional talks that explore production-proven techniques for managing complexity, shot assembly, and cross-department collaboration.
Alongside other project-driven presentations, the lineup also includes a session tied to Netflix’s The Dinosaurs, with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) artists Andreas Feix and Andrés Carreno. Hugo Guerra will also be leading a session right before lunchtime.
Stuttgarter-Frühlingsfest
Before closing out the article, I’d be remiss to not mention the Stuttgarter-Frühlingsfest, which was first held in 1934 and it is the world’s largest spring festival thanks to its combination of festival tents, rides, carnival attractions, and market stalls.
And beer. And meat. And lots of it. A cool aspect of this is that at least 75 percent of the food and beverages on offer are sourced from Baden-Württemberg.
It’s taking place during the entirety of FMX, located at Cannstatter Wasen, which is a quick 10 minute ride from the central train station.
The festival is great place to unwind after a day at FMX.
Mike and I hope to see you there.
