Four Pixar Alumni Filmmakers Discuss The Future of AI Entertainment
A landmark event awaits you in San Francisco on October 22, 2025 as four Pixar Alumni, who worked on beloved films ranging from The Incredibles to Cars to Wall-E and beyond, gather to speak about the future of filmmaking with AI and Generative Video tools.
Presented by Genvid and KlingAI, you'll have a front row seat to hearing about what lifelong animators, film makers, and creators think about these tools, their challenges and opportunities.
This select group of leaders, including an Emmy award winner, will share firsthand perspectives from the front lines—what’s working, what’s breaking, and what comes next.
Attendance is reserved only for those directly involved in creative or technical work with generative media.
The event will begin promptly at 6pm with a screening of a new short film, The Seeker, at 6:30pm. The panel will begin promptly at 7pm until 8pm, and the event will conclude at 9pm.
The location is the offices of Samba TV, 118 King St. #110, San Francisco, CA 94107. This is in the Townsend Building (Green Building). Public transit is recommended: There is a MUNI stop directly in front of the office. Caltrain is 2 blocks away.
Panelist: Stephan Bugaj, Chief Creative Officer, Genvid
Stephan Bugaj is the Chief Creative Officer at Genvid, where he created and helmed SILENT HILL: Ascension for which he won an Emmy Award, and the currently running DC Heroes United. Past roles include CCO of DJ2 Entertainment (Sonic Films, Tomb Raider anime); VP of Creative at Hanson Robotics (Sophia android); and Studio Creative Director at Telltale Games (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead). Earlier in his career, Stephan spent a dozen years at Pixar on both creative and technical teams, with credits including The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Brave, and Wall-E.
Panelist: Gordon Cameron, Machine Learning Pipeline Director, Epic Games
Gordon Cameron works as Machine Learning Pipeline Director at Epic Games, in the Special Projects team. Before that he was a software engineer/TD and technical supervisor with Pixar Animation Studios, developing tools and technology used by artists on films such as “Turning Red”, "Ratatouille", "Brave", "Wall-E", "Finding Nemo" & "The Incredibles" (and their sequels) and others, and was Supervising TD on short film "Out". Cameron grew up in the North-East of Scotland, graduated from Aberdeen University, worked in the fields of robot vision, parallel programming, and scientific visualization with the University of Edinburgh & EPCC, edited SIGGRAPHs magazine, and worked on animation software as an animation tech lead and development manager at Softimage prior to joining Pixar. He moved to Berkeley in 2002, and is co-author of "Analogies" with Kate Joyce.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gocam/
Panelist: Catherine Hicks, Animation Leader
Catherine "Cat" Hicks is an animation leader with over 15 years experience at Pixar Animation Studios, where she contributed in leadership and as an animator on films, including Inside Out, Coco, Brave, and the upcoming Hoppers. Most recently, she served as Head of Animation Innovation at Cartwheel, a generative AI startup, where she guided the development of new tools, tested next generation workflows, and worked closely with engineers, scientists, and artists, to bridge traditional CG workflows with emerging technologies.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathicks/
Panelist: Mark Holmes, Art & Creative Director
Mark Cordell Holmes is an accomplished Art & Creative Director. With 16 years in the Pixar Art Department, Mark contributed to nearly a dozen classic features from A Bug’s Life to Monsters University, including as Graphics Art Director of WALL-E and Production Designer of the short, Lifted. With over 15 years in Games and Tech, with such companies as EA, Maxis, Facebook and Google, Mark has worked across numerous genres, platforms, and media. As a writer, consultant and instructor on Cinematic Design Thinking, Mark distills his cross-disciplinary experience into the alignment of Narrative, Visual and Emotional design for crafting audience experiences that are moving, meaningful and memorable.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcordellholmes
Moderator: Tony Pu, Product Marketing & Operations, Kling AI
Tony Pu has a diverse background spanning creative and tech industries. Currently, Tony spearheads the go-to-market efforts at Kling AI, a leading AI video generation platform, for its adoption in the global market across users at all levels. Previously, he has played a key role in the success of CapCut achieving millions of user growth. Before that, he has been actively involved in film project development, film festival curation, creative production, and advertising. With first-hand experience as a creative producer and a deep understanding of platform dynamics, he brings a unique perspective on storytelling and innovation.