Inside looks at the making of KPop Demon Hunters and Tomorrowland‘s collaboration with Sphere on a high-tech version of an open-air music festival are two highlights of next month’s Infinity Festival.
The eighth annual event is set for October 9 and 10 at two neighboring L.A. venues: the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the newly opened Sony Pictures Imageworks Mid-Wilshire campus. This year’s festival, organized around the theme of “Innovators in the Age of Change,” will bring together notable figures from the realms of entertainment, technology and design.
The Kpop conversation will feature Michelle Wong, the film’s producer, as well as Jacky Priddle, VFX Producer, and Josh Beveridge, Head of Character Animation at Sony Pictures Imageworks. The trio will take attendees behind the scenes of the smash animated feature, which became Netflix’s most-viewed original film upon the streaming release over the summer. The Sony Pictures Animation title, produced under a distribution and programming agreement between the companies, also drew strong returns from a weekend-only theatrical engagement of its sing-along version.
Another standout session will explore a collaboration between EDM festival promoter Tomorrowland and Sphere Entertainment, resulting in a reimagining of an open-air festival inside Sphere in Las Vegas. Tomorrowland, whose namesake electronic dance music festival takes place in Belgium, teamed up with U.S.-based festival creator Insomniac, to create UNITY. The partnership yielded a new experience of live entertainment.
Deadline is a presenting media sponsor of Infinity Festival.
The festival’s opening and plenary session, which will be attended by of HRH Princess Astrid of Belgium, will host Minister-President Matthias Diependaele. The festival’s partnership with Belgium yielded the Tomorrowland-Sphere session and will also drive session about the use of AI in audio production; immersive music production; adapting broadcast IP for games; and the immersive technology sector.
Keynote sessions are on tap from Jed Harmsen, VP and GM of Cinema & Group Entertainment, Dolby Laboratories, as well as top executives at Nvidia, HP, AMD, the Belgium Economic Mission, Dolby, AWS and the AI Studio Lab in association with ETC at USC.
“Infinity Festival has always been about uniting the most innovative voices from Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and this year we’re raising the bar,” Natalie Novak and Erik Weaver of the Infinity Festival programming team said in a joint statement. “From AI and gaming to immersive storytelling and studio innovation, our speakers embody the future of entertainment. We’re thrilled to create a space where bold ideas meet real-world applications to spark what’s next.”
Along with programming and showcases, the festival will also feature the annual Monolith Awards. Organizer plan to announce more information next week about programming focused on gaming, sports, immersive and 5G.