Conference
Managing Change
Studio Insights
ON SITE
ROOM T brought to you by TRIXTER
Thursday, May 06, 22:00
Studio Insights with Victoria Alonso and Danielle Costa from Marvel Studios
The Studio Insights track focuses on the business side of the industry, delving into topics that rarely get covered in any detail with people actually making decisions. Topics range from changing business models, managing risk, building a career as an executive, and creating a modern workplace environment to understanding how all the money is spent and how creative decisions ultimately get made. The format is an informal “in conversation” format. The conversation is unscripted but new topics are selected each year to remain current with the industry and relevant to the year’s guests. The intent is to provide a forum for executives to share a bit of their perspective on the industry and for the audience to gain rare insight into a part of the business that many people never get to see.
Victoria Alonso, Executive Vice President, Production, Marvel Studios
A native of Buenos Aires, Alonso moved to the US on her own at the age of 19. She worked her way up through the industry, beginning as a PA and then working four years at the VFX powerhouse Digital Domain. She served as VFX producer on a number of films, including Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, Tim Burton’s Big Fish, Andrew Adamson’s Shrek and Marvel’s Iron Man. She won the Visual Effects Society (VES) Award for outstanding supporting visual effects/motion picture for Kingdom of Heaven, with two additional shared nominations (best single visual effects, outstanding visual effects/effects driven motion picture) for Iron Man.
Eventually, she joined Marvel as the company’s executive vice president of visual effects and post production, doubling as co-producer on Iron Man, a role she reprised on Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. In 2011, she advanced to executive producer on the blockbuster hit The Avengers and has since executive produced Marvel’s Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and most recently Spider-man: Far From Home. In her current role she serves as EVP, Production, for Marvel Studios as well as serving as an executive producer of all Marvel films which have amassed more than 20 Billion in box office earnings. Upcoming productions, for which Alonso will serve as Executive Producer, include the feature films Black Widow, The Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Blade, as well as a slate of programming for the Disney+ platform including Ms. Marvel, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye, She Hulk, WandaVision, Moon Knight, and What If…?.
Alonso has become an important voice in Hollywood as a producer, as a Latina and as a female senior executive. She was named one of People en Español Magazine’s top “Poderosa” Most Influential Hispanic Women in 2019. She was listed as one of Hollywood Reporter’s 2017/2018 Women in Entertainment Power 100 and was the 2015 honoree for the Muse Award for Outstanding Vision and Achievement from the New York Women in Film & Television. She was also the first woman to be presented with the Harold Lloyd Award from the Advanced Imaging Society, which is given to a filmmaker who has created a body of work, and specific achievements in 3-D, that advanced the motion picture art form. In 2017, she was the first woman to be honored with the Visionary Award at the 15th Annual VES Awards for her advancement of unforgettable storytelling through visual effects.
Danielle Costa, Vice President Visual Effects, Marvel Studios
Danielle Costa is the VP of Visual Effects at Marvel Studios, and has been with Marvel Studios since 2009 working on 29 of their films. She has 19 years experience in visual effects and animation, production and post-production. Besides spending long hours on set and in creative reviews, Danielle has spearheaded the creation of multiple studio-side pipelines for streamlining visual effects, animation, stereo, post production and the digital intermediate process at Marvel. She is also involved in new technologies, including virtual reality.