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SIGGRAPH Asia 2025, themed “Generative Renaissance,” concluded on Wednesday, 18 December, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Organized by Koelnmesse Pte Ltd and ACM SIGGRAPH, a special interest group within the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the conference marked a major milestone in advancing animation, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and computer graphics and interactive techniques.
With 6,000 attendees from 60 countries and more than 70 exhibitors and sponsors, SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 reflected the industry’s accelerating innovation and global reach.
Taku Komura, SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Conference Chair and professor at The University of Hong Kong, said, “I extend my deepest gratitude to the entire program committee and the innovators who traveled from around the world to participate in SIGGRAPH Asia 2025. This collective effort has showcased our city’s vibrant ecosystem and reinforced Hong Kong’s role as a hub for technological advancement.”
Key Highlights
Keynotes: Big Ideas Shaping What’s Next
SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 featured compelling keynote presentations that explored emerging opportunities across research and industry:
- Harry Shum examined the economic potential of low-altitude airspace, outlining new pathways for innovation.
- Jamie Shotton spotlighted the rise of synthetic data in artificial intelligence, highlighting its transformative role in autonomous vehicles.
- Dr. Chunchao Guo shared insights into building intelligent 3D worlds, with a focus on the groundbreaking “Hunyuan World” model.
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Featured Sessions: Storytelling, Craft, and Production Insight
The Featured Sessions program brought together industry leaders in animation, visual effects, virtual production, and digital storytelling. A standout presentation, “Alien Abduction! The Truth Behind the Making of Pixar’s ‘Elio,’” featured creators from Pixar Animation Studios: Claudia Chung Sanii, David Luoh, Emron Grover, Jordan Rempel, Renee Tam, and Sajan Skaria.
Additional sessions featured an all-star lineup of speakers, including Paul Debevec (Eyeline), Richard Chuang (d1n0), Momo Wang (animation director and creator of “Tuzki”), Scott Ross (co-founder of Digital Domain), Raman Hui (“Monster Hunt,” “Shrek”), and Chris Bremble (Base Media, “Ne Zha 2”). The program was further enriched by Shalini De Mello (NVIDIA) and Alex Woo (IN YOUR DREAMS, Kuku Studios), creating a dynamic and inspiring series of sessions.
Fostering Future Talent: Computer Animation Festival
The SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Computer Animation Festival celebrated outstanding creative achievement from around the world.
- Best in Show was awarded to “Windy Day,” directed by Martin Chailloux, Ai Kim Crespín, Elise Golfouse, Chloé Lab, Hugo Tallez, and Camille Truding, with producer Julien Deparis.
- Best Student Project went to “A Sparrow’s Song,” directed and produced by Tobias Eckerlin.
- Jury’s Choice was awarded to “Son,” directed and produced by Zhanna Bekmambetova, with producer Timur Asadov.
- The newly introduced Audience Choice Award was presented to “Amen,” directed by Orphée Coutier, Bettina Demarty, Kimié Maingonnat, Laurène Perego, Louise Poulain, and Avril Zundel, with producer Julien Deparis.
This year’s festival featured 488 entries from 39 countries, highlighting the extraordinary creativity and innovation shaping the future of animation.
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Breakthrough Research and Technological Showcases
SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 delivered a robust showcase of emerging technologies poised to redefine the field. More than 1,100 Technical Papers were submitted and evaluated by 119 experts and over 1,800 anonymous peer reviewers.
The Technical Papers Fast Forward presentations combined creativity and technical rigor, featuring demonstrations such as a magic wand controlling light to illustrate complex physics, advances in context-retaining video through AI, realistic liquid simulation, and real-time facial animation. Each presentation transformed advanced research into engaging, immersive experiences.
The Technical Papers Awards recognized cutting-edge contributions across computer graphics research, with Honorable Mentions awarded for work in UAV simulation, color calibration for 3D printing, and perceptual quality metrics. The Test-of-Time Awards honored influential past research, reinforcing the enduring legacy of the Technical Papers program.
See the full list of winners on the SIGGRAPH Asia website.
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Inspiring Discussions and Connections
SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 fostered meaningful dialogue through insightful panels and networking events.
The Educator’s Forum Education Panel, “Cultivating Intrinsic Motivation in the Generative Renaissance,” explored how generative AI is reshaping computer graphics education. Five experts from academia, industry, and policy discussed human-AI collaboration, project-based learning, and interdisciplinary approaches that promote deep, intrinsic motivation.
The WiGRAPH Women in Research coffee session provided a welcoming networking space for students, faculty, and industry researchers. Speakers Maria Larsson (The University of Tokyo) and Ruizhen Hu (Shenzhen University) shared perspectives that encouraged collaboration, inclusivity, and professional growth.
Trade Exhibition and Experience Hall Highlights
The SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Exhibition energized attendees with demonstrations from Adobe, FORUM8, Foundry, Huawei Technologies, Meta Reality Labs Research, Morpho Inc., NVIDIA, Pixar’s RenderMan, Tencent, Vicon, and more.
The Experience Hall hosted a lively exchange of ideas. Program Chair Isaac Leung led intimate Art Gallery Talks, Kening Zhu showcased transformative Emerging Technologies, and Yifan Peng concluded with inspiring XR Talks that explored how technology bridges cultures and redefines storytelling.
The Exhibitor Talks program highlighted major advancements across the industry. Notable sessions included “To Infinity … and RenderMan XPU!” by Wendy Wirthlin and Dylan Sisson (Pixar Animation Studios), and “Crafting the Visual Language of K-Pop Demon Hunters” by Elise Testa and Jiwoon Kim (Foundry). Additional presentations featured “Ultra-Accurate 4D Facial Capture with Stereo HMC” by Andrei Krovopuskov (Faceform), the “Tencent Workshop on Neural Graphics and Generative AI,” the “Adobe Substance 3D Keynote and Demo” with Pierre Bosset, and “VTubing: How Precision Motion Technology Powers the Next Era of Creativity” by Andrew Ray (Vicon).
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To Hong Kong and Beyond
SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 made a lasting impact on Hong Kong’s creative and technology communities, welcoming many first-time attendees and reaffirming the city’s role as a global hub for digital innovation.
The conference concluded with a warm welcome from SIGGRAPH Asia 2026 Conference Chair Frank Guan of the Singapore Institute of Technology. The 19th edition of SIGGRAPH Asia will take place at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia from 1–4 December 2026, under the theme “Weaving the Future.”
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