The Hollywood Reporter is teaming with the Animation Is Film Festival to stage a live animation roundtable, with Bill Hader and Travis Knight among the participants set to take part. The event, announced as a partnership between the trade publication and the Los Angeles-based festival, will bring together leading figures from the animation world for a candid, on-the-record conversation in front of a live audience.
The pairing marks a notable expansion of the festival's public programming. Animation Is Film, which has built a reputation for spotlighting both studio tentpoles and independent international work, has increasingly positioned itself as a gathering point for the creative community rather than simply a showcase for finished films. Partnering with The Hollywood Reporter, whose annual roundtables have become a staple of awards-season coverage, gives the festival a platform to push those conversations into a live setting.
A Roundtable Built for a Live Audience
The Hollywood Reporter's roundtable series has long been a fixture of its awards coverage, typically filmed in a studio with a moderated panel of nominees and key creatives. Moving that format in front of a live crowd changes the dynamic considerably. The discussion becomes less polished, more immediate, and subject to the reactions of an audience that knows the work being discussed.
For the Animation Is Film Festival, the appeal is straightforward. A live roundtable draws press attention, gives festival attendees access to a caliber of conversation usually reserved for invitation-only industry events, and reinforces the festival's identity as a place where animation is treated as a serious creative discipline rather than a genre ghetto.
Bill Hader and Travis Knight Headline the Panel
Bill Hader is the most prominent name confirmed for the event. Hader's animation credentials run deep: he spent years as a voice actor on "South Park" and has lent his voice to a range of animated features, in addition to his work as a writer, producer, and star of "Barry." His involvement signals that the roundtable will likely touch on performance and voice work as much as craft and technique.
Travis Knight brings a different perspective. As the president and CEO of Laika, Knight has directed stop-motion features including "Kubo and the Two Strings" and "Bumblebee," and he has been a persistent advocate for handcrafted animation at a time when the industry's economics increasingly favor computer-generated production. His presence on the panel suggests the conversation will address the tension between artistic ambition and commercial reality.
The two men occupy different corners of the animation world, which is part of what makes the pairing interesting. One comes from the improvisational, performance-driven side of the medium; the other from the meticulous, frame-by-frame tradition of stop-motion. Putting them on the same stage sets up the possibility of a genuinely substantive exchange rather than a series of promotional talking points.
Why the Festival Matters to the Industry
Animation Is Film has carved out a niche by refusing to treat animation as a single category. Its programming has ranged across stop-motion, hand-drawn, and CG work from studios and independent creators alike, and it has consistently highlighted films from outside the United States that might otherwise struggle to find a theatrical footing domestically.
That positioning has made the festival a useful counterweight to the awards conversation, which tends to concentrate attention on a handful of large studio releases. By hosting a live roundtable with figures like Hader and Knight, the festival is betting that audiences and industry professionals alike want to hear practitioners talk about process, constraint, and collaboration.
What to Expect
Roundtables of this kind tend to cover familiar ground: how projects originate, what the collaboration between directors and animators actually looks like, how technology is changing workflows, and where the medium is heading. The live format adds a layer of unpredictability. Panelists are more likely to go off-script, and the audience's presence can push the discussion toward more direct answers.
No date, venue, or additional panelists have been confirmed in the announcement, and further details are expected as the festival approaches. For now, the partnership itself is the news: two institutions with overlapping audiences are combining their reach to put animation practitioners in front of a live crowd.
For The Hollywood Reporter, the collaboration extends a strategy of turning its roundtable brand into a live-event franchise. For Animation Is Film, it's a chance to raise its profile at a moment when animation is drawing unusual levels of critical and commercial attention. And for the artists involved, it's a rare opportunity to discuss their work at length, in public, without the constraints of a press junket.
More details are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter