MOVE Summit, Scotland’s animation and VFX gathering, returns this year to the historic Pleasance Courtyard from 19 - 21 February 2025. The conference brings local industry leaders, international creatives, students, and educators to Edinburgh to celebrate industry successes and inspire the next generation of artists.
MOVE Summit boasts three days of talks, workshops, creative reviews, screenings, recruitment, networking, and business development. The Emerging Talent Day (Wednesday 19 February) is dedicated to students, with a programme focused on industry-ready skill development.
MOVE’s Industry Days (Thursday 20 and Friday 21 February) bring together practitioners from all over the UK and beyond, highlighting Scotland’s work to a global audience.
This year’s Industry schedule features keynote presentations from:
- Chris McDonald (Visualisation Supervisor, Framestore), delving into the craft of previs, techvis and postvis and demonstrating how these techniques were instrumental in developing iconic scenes from Jon M. Chu’s critically acclaimed film Wicked.
- Director Mike Mitchell, taking the audience on a journey through his illustrious career, including his workon many major IP’s including Shrek, Madagascar, Lego, Spongebob Squarepants, and many more.
- Renfrewshire-born James Hodgart (Environmental Model Supervisor, Walt Disney Animation Studios), willspeak about his work in 3D environments over the last decade, including recent projects Moana 2 and Disney+’s upcoming Tiana series.
- Maurissa Horwitz (Lead Editor, Pixar) will take delegates behind the scenes of Inside Out 2, sharing how theiconic alarm scene came to life and which new emotions were left on the cutting room floor.
Other notable highlights from the programme include a talk from Blinkink’s Bart Yates on the company’s journey from a boutique production company into an original development studio, creating unique IPs for film, TV and games, while Stephen McNally will take attendees through the adventure of creating HBO mixed media special Peter & the Wolf.
Navigating the funding landscape can be extremely challenging, and MOVE aims to demystify the process with panel discussions covering both traditional and non-traditional founding routes for animated projects. Delegates can hear about the BFI’s UK Global Screen Fund with first-hand case studies from companies who’ve been supported, plus representatives from the BFI, Screen Scotland, UKRI and the Edge competition will provide the lowdown on their available opportunities.
1:1 meeting opportunities continue to be an important part of the MOVE experience, and the conference has introduced Pitch Prep 1:1s to the Business@MOVE strand this year. Attendees will have the opportunity to test their show pitches on a selection of industry experts in an intimate 10-minute 1-to-1 format, receiving vital feedback and top tips on how to improve.
Returning for 2025 is also MOVE’s live pitching showcase, where a selected shortlist of creatives pitch their showconcepts in front of a panel of industry experts and commissioners - as well as a live audience! Participants will receive invaluable feedback on their pitches and concepts as well as the chance to win a cash prize.
MOVE Summit 2025 is made possible thanks to the generous support of the event’s funders and partners, who include Screen Scotland, Rockstar Games, Wild Child Animation, SideFX, Wacom and Moho Animation.
The full conference agenda is expected to be released within the coming days. Visit the MOVE Summit website for more information.