78th Emmy Nominations
Congratulations to this year’s Emmy nominees, revealed this week. Series leading the pack with the most nominations are The Pitt (with 25 noms), Hacks (with 24), Widow’s Bay (19), Pluribus (18), Beef (16) and DTF St. Louis (13). The 78th Emmy Awards will air on Sept. 14, and the Creative Arts Emmy Awards will take place on Sept. 5 and Sept. 6. You can find the complete list of nominees here.
VES Announces Honorees
Congratulations to the distinguished VFX veterans that will be feted at the Visual Effects Society’s VES Honors, Sept. 4 a the Skirball Cultural Center in L.A. Susan Zwerman will receive the Society’s Founders Award and Lifetime VES Membership. For VES, she has co-authored five books on VFX and served 18 total years on its Board of Directors. (Fun fact: She won a Grammy Award for Weird Al’s “I’m Fat” music video). Also receiving Lifetime VES Membership is VFX supervisor and CEO/co-founder of Synthespian Studios Jeff Kleiser, whose pioneering work in computer animation includes TRON, Stargate and Robocop.
VES will welcome two Honorary Members: Sir William Sargent, CBE and Scott Stokdyk. Sargent co-founded Framestore in 1986 and led its rise over 40 years as CEO and now Chairman. He received a CBE in 2004, and was knighted by the Queen in 2008. Veteran VFX supervisor Stokdyk is perhaps best known for the original Spider-Man trilogy, having won an Academy Award for Spider-Man 2.
This year’s new VES Fellows are Neishaw Ali, Rita Cahill, Barbara Ford Grant, and Susan Thurmond O’Neal.
During the evening, four influential members of the VFX world will be posthumously inducted into the VES Hall of Fame: Jon Landau (1960-2024), Gerry Anderson (1929-2012), Ishiro Honda (1911-1993), and Tomoyuki Tanaka (1910-1997).
Lastly, the Society plans to recognize five members for leadership in their local Sections: Aditya Talwar (Australia), Michael Conte (Bay Area), Jose Marin (New York), Rico Dober (Germany), and Mark Spatny (Los Angeles).
You can read more about this year’s honorees here.
Siggraph 2026
The VFX community will gather in Los Angeles July 19-23 for the annual Siggraph computer graphics conference. In advance of the confab, the org revealed the honorees of its Academy Award-qualifying Computer Animation Festival.
The Best of Show honor will go to animated short Apart from Pola Maneli and Social Popcorn Films (South Africa, U.S.). The story is set in apartheid South Africa and described as a forbidden friendship between two boys, tested by a life-saving act that forces them to confront the hate dividing their world. “Written by Spike Lee and brought to life by a team rooted in South African culture and history, the film blends four animation techniques — traditional 2D frame-to-frame, cut-out, 3D, and 2.5D — across roughly 18,000 frames crafted by a team of more than 250 creatives,” writes Siggraph.
You can read more about Apart, best student project winner Beyond Words and Jury’s Choice 18 Months and the Siggraph program here.
Labeling Program Proposed to Identify Gen AI in Sound Recordings
A collection of music industry groups including The Recording Industry Association of America, SAG-AFTRA and The Grammys has proposed voluntary track labeling to give fans clearer information about the use of Gen AI in sound recordings. More specifically, the organizations suggest labeling that distinguishes between “AI-Generated” (suggested icon, below left) and “AI-Assisted” (suggested icon, below right), with an aim of broad, global adoption across digital music services and other partners. The “AI -Generated” logo would mean that Gen AI “was used to generate the entirety or the primary portion of the creative elements of the recording,” while “AI-Assisted” would identify recordings that were “created substantially by humans and expresses human creativity; however, generative AI was used for some expressive elements. Humans performed the lead vocal and primary instruments.”
The participants suggest that these labels could be supported by metadata and related delivery systems. The organizations plan to work with digital music services, distributors, aggregators and standard-setting bodies with a goal of industry-wide implementation. The system currently does not cover the use of Gen AI in lyrics, composition, music videos or cover art.
“Transparency is essential, but it is only the beginning,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator in a released statement. “This framework is an important step toward giving listeners clear information. SAG-AFTRA continues to reinforce the principle that AI should not be used to replace, imitate, or exploit artists without consent and fair compensation.”
Said Harvey Mason jr., The Grammys CEO, “This initiative ensures that creativity, authorship, and artistic intent remain at the center of every song. Giving artists the ability to tell that story strengthens trust and supports a more sustainable future for music.”
IBC Reveals Innovation Awards Long List
IBC revealed the long list for its annual IBC Innovation Awards, in the categories for content creation, content delivery, content everywhere and social impact. The full list can be found here. A short list will follow and winners will be announced at the IBC convention, September in Amsterdam. (Creative + Tech Orbit’s Carolyn Giardina is on the jury.)
VIEW Conference Speakers Announced
Joel Crawford and Januel P. Mercado, the writers/directors of Universal and Dreamworks Animation’s upcoming Forgotten Island; and Kenna Harris, co-director of Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5 are among the latest filmmakers to join the program for the 2026 VIEW Conference, which will be held Oct. 12-16 in Torino, Italy.
Scheduled speakers additionally include Edward Douglas, VFX supervisor of Backrooms; and Alessandro Ongaro, VFX supervisor on the upcoming horror reboot Resident Evil. The program also includes the subject of AI, with speakers including Cristobal Valenzuela, CEO and co-founder of Runway; and writer-director Scott Mann, co-founder and co-CEO of Flawless. You can find more information about View Conference here.
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