Joseph Bell, Senior Manager, Visual Computing, AWS Visual Computing

Joseph leads the Visual Computing specialist team at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Prior to joining AWS, he worked at some of the most respected names in the field, including Industrial Light & Magic / Lucasfilm, FuseFX, and The Mill / Technicolor, building and leading award-winning teams in feature films, television, and advertising. Joseph is a graduate of UCLA Anderson School of Management and USC School of Cinematic Arts. He has over 70 film and television credits, and has been nominated for two Emmys for his work in visual effects.

Christian Bohm, FX TD

Christian Bohm is an FX TD with 15 years of experience in VFX for Film, Advertising and Episodic and worked in Companies like ILM, MPC, Framestore and Psyop. He started as a Lighting TD at ILM London working on films like "Avengers - Age of Ultron", "Ant Man" and "Spectre". He then moved into the FX Department and worked on some VES nominated commercials, movies like "No time to die" and series like "The Lazarus Project", "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "The Witcher". Besides his work Christian is a Lecturer for over 10 years and is currently teaching Houdini in universities and his online course.

Heiko Burkardsmaier, VFX Executive Producer / Head of Business & Legal Affairs, Accenture Song Content Germany GmbH

Heiko Burkardsmaier has long-standing expertise with visual effects and legal affairs. After finishing his law degree, he joined EM.TV in Munich as legal counsel where he was responsible for Merchandising contracts and International Co-Productions. He subsequently worked as General Counsel of the EuroArts-/Medici Group and came to Pixomondo in 2008 where he managed the Stuttgart branch and was responsible for legal affairs worldwide.

In April 2013 he joined Mackevision as VFX Executive Producer and Head of Business & Legal Affairs where he is responsible for running the VFX Department of Mackevision. Heiko contributed to various award winning Feature and TV-projects such as Academy Award winning “Hugo” and Emmy Award winning HBO Series “Game of Thrones”. He’s an and expert in VFX contracts, international tax credits and subsidy schemes and a regular lecturer at Filmakademie Baden Württemberg   and an adviser on the audio-visual media course at the Media University in Stuttgart (HDM). Heiko is member of the board of the “section animation” of the German Producers Alliance (ProduzentenaIlianz Deutschland) and a member of the Deutsche Filmakademie.

In 2014 Heiko’s team at Mackevision won an Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for Season 4 of HBO’s Game of Thrones.  Since 2018 Heiko’s team was nominated for more 7 Emmys (“Lost in Space, season 1,2,3”; “Watchmen”; “The Nevers Season 1a “The Nevers, Season 1b”; “Shadow & Bone, Season 2”).

Simon Legrand, Head of Innovation, Untold Studios

Jenny Leupold, CG Supervisor, RISE | Visual Effects Studios

Jenny Leupold is a CG Supervisor at RISE FX with a background in texturing and look development. She has spent her career as a CG Generalist and LookDev artist in Berlin, London, and Los Angeles, developing a strong eye for detail and material realism. She has recently worked on Fallout (Season 1 & 2) and The Last of Us (Season 2), bringing that experience into leading teams to create cohesive and believable visual effects.

Paolo Tamburrino, Sr. Industry Strategist, Executive VFX Producer, Autodesk

Some paths begin with a single image that never quite leaves you. For Paolo Tamburrino it was Disney that first suggested storytelling could be a place you lived inside, not just watched. The Matrix revealed the craft. Paperman and Interstellar gave him the philosophy. He never stopped chasing that feeling. He simply built his life around enabling it in others.

Over nearly two decades, Paolo has evolved from 3D artist to Executive Producer to Industry Strategist, working on productions for Apple, Netflix, Paramount and Warner Bros. A graduate of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and recipient of a VES Award, his work at Pixomondo helped bring Canada's first LED Volume to life, redefining how Paramount's Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds were made, not just technically but humanly. His work, both on screen and behind the scenes, has touched Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning projects, often by connecting the right people at the right moment.

Today he serves as Senior Industry Strategy Manager for Media and Entertainment at Autodesk, staying close to the conversations and people shaping what comes next. A member of the PGA, Television Academy and VES, he continues to connect the right minds across the industry with one shared goal: making productions one percent better, every day.