Hader, Knight lead first live THR Animation Roundtable in Hollywood
Bill Hader and Travis Knight will share a stage in Hollywood on Sunday for the first live edition of The Hollywood Reporter’s Animation Roundtable.
The talk is a partnership between the industry publication and the Animation Is Film Festival in Los Angeles. It will run from 5 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 18 at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A roundtable here means a moderated group discussion, held in front of an audience.
Seven film-makers are booked. Hader is attending as star and executive producer of The Cat in the Hat, a role that combines leading the voice cast with helping steer the production. An executive producer credit signals senior creative and financial oversight. Knight is attending as director of Wildwood.
The rest of the panel spans studios and styles. Louis Clichy, director of Iron Boy, and Joel Crawford, co-director of Forgotten Island, will take part alongside Leah Nelson, director of Tangles, Phuong Mai Nguyen, director of In Waves, and Fawn Veerasunthorn, co-director of Hexed.
The festival is in its ninth edition. It runs Oct. 16-19, with TCL Chinese 6 Theatres as its main venue in Hollywood. The 2026 edition is based in Los Angeles, California. The Reporter has also launched its inaugural Animation Power List, recognising influential executives and talents working in animation.
Several of the roundtable films can be seen nearby on the programme. Iron Boy screens as a Competition Feature, the festival’s main contest section, on Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. in TCL 1, while Tangles screens in the same section on Oct. 17 at 5:30 p.m., according to Animation Is Film. A work-in-progress session titled Behind-the-Scenes: The Making of Disney’s Hexed is set for Oct. 17 at noon in TCL 6. Wildwood closes the run with a Special Event screening on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at the David Geffen Theater, currently listed as sold out.
What makes this stand out is the live setting. Studio roundtables are normally recorded and edited before release. In a theatre, the exchanges are uncut and immediate. For fans, this means shop talk about story, design and voice work, not clips and slogans.
