Cinesite Studios (also known as Cinesite VFX or simply Cinesite) is an independent, multinational business which provides services to the media and entertainment industries. Its head office in London opened for business in 1994, initially offering services in visual effects for film and television, subsequently expanding to include feature animation. Divisions of Cinesite and its partner companies Image Engine TRIXTER, L'Atelier Animation, Squeeze and Assemblage Entertainment operate in London, Berlin, Munich, Skopje, Belgrade, Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver and Mumbai with more than 2,500 employees.

History

Foundation

Cinesite opened its doors in Los Angeles in 1991 to help with the digital restoration of '' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. The restoration was released in 1993, and Cinesite opened a division in London in 1994. There, it originally operated as a service bureau for Kodak's Cineon digital film system. Both locations subsequently evolved to become full service visual effects facilities. In 2003, Kodak merged the Cinesite Hollywood office into

LaserPacific LaserPacific Media Corporation was a television and motion picture post-production facility operating in Hollywood, Burbank, Calif., New York, and in Vancouver, Canada. Laser-Pacific was formerly a publicly traded corporation, prior to being a subsi ...

. In May 2012, Kodak sold Cinesite to a UK-based private investor. Current ownership is a combination of its existing management team supported by private investment.

International growth

After Cinesite became independent from Kodak in 2012, it began a sustained period of international growth. In January 2014, with the support of Investissement Québec, Cinesite announced its opening of 27,000 sq ft studios in Montréal and a feature animation division at that location. Its initial employment target was reached 18 months early, in August 2015. In July 2015, Cinesite announced its acquisition of Vancouver-based visual effects facility Image Engine, which has won

Emmy awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for its visual effects on The Book of Boba Fett and

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

and also received an Academy Award nomination for District 9 in 2010. In March 2017, it acquired Vancouver-based animation studio Nitrogen Studios and in August 2018 the German VFX studio TRIXTER. In June 2018, Cinesite was placed in the annual Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table, which ranks the UK's highest performing private firms by international growth. In 2022 the company announced a series of further acquisitions, beginning with

L'Atelier Animation L'Atelier Animation is a Canadian animation company. History L'Atelier Animation was formed in 2012 as a partnership between Laurent Zeitoun and Yann Zenou to produce the film Ballerina. In early 2017, L'Atelier announced plans to make ''Fireh ...

in July, Squeeze Animation Studios in early August, Balkan-based visual effects studio FX3X later that month and in November, Assemblage Entertainment in Mumbai.

Visual effects

The Cinesite group of visual effects companies includes its own brand services, along with partner companies Image Engine and TRIXTER. Notable feature film productions Cinesite has created visual effects for include '' Avengers: Endgame'' (2019), '' Mary Poppins Returns'' (2018), '' Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018), '' The Commuter'' (2018), '' Ant-Man and the Wasp'' (2018), '' Independence Day: Resurgence'' (2016), '' Spectre'' (2015) and '' The Revenant'' (2015), for which it won a Visual Effects Society award in 2015. Cinesite has completed work on all eight films in the ''Harry Potter'' franchise in addition to ''

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' (often referred to as simply ''Fantastic Beasts'') is a 2001 guide book written by British author J. K. Rowling (under the pen name of the fictitious author Newt Scamander) about the magical creat ...

'' and seven films in the ''James Bond'' franchise. Cinesite television work includes '' Lost in Space'' Seasons 1 & 2 (2019), '' The Witcher'' (2019), '' Raising Dion'' (2019), ''Outlander: Brave New World'' (2019), ''

Murder Mystery Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

'' (2019), ''American Gods'': Season 1 (2018) and Tom Clancy's ''Jack Ryan'' (2018). Cinesite has won Emmy awards for '' Generation Kill'' (2008) and '' Rome'' (2006) and nominations include ''American Gods'': Season 1 and '' Band of Brothers'' (2002). Cinesite won a Visual Effects Society award in 2021 for its work on Universal Studios' stage-based stunt show The Bourne Stuntacular. The show also won an award from the TEA ( Themed Entertainment Association) which stated, ''"The high level of technical achievement and the creative application in creating a spectacular, immersive experience makes The Bourne Stuntacular a worthy recipient of this honor."''

Feature animation

On 8 February 2016, Cinesite announced the launch of a dedicated feature animation division at its Montréal Studios. Since then, it has worked with production partners to complete ''

Charming Charming may refer to: Fiction * ''Charming'' (film), a computer-animated musical comedy film * Charming (''Sons of Anarchy''), a fictional town where the television series '' Sons of Anarchy'' is set * Prince Charming (disambiguation), a stock ...

'' (2018), '' Gnome Alone'' (2018), '' Trouble'' (2019), and '' Fearless'' (2020) for 3QU Media, ''

The Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (2017) for Sony Pictures Animation, and ''

Extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

'' (2021) for Huayi Brothers. In addition to providing production services for other studios, Cinesite produces its own animated features through

Aniventure __NOTOC__ Aniventure is a British content creation and intellectual property company based in London and set up in 2013 to produce family-oriented feature animation. Aniventure works with production partners to take feature film concepts fro ...

. Cinesite first collaborated with River Productions to produce '' Riverdance: The Animated Adventure'' (2021); an animated version of the Irish stage show of the same name, then took over production on the long-gestating feature '' Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank'' (2022). They recently completed ''Hitpig'' (2023); a loose adaptation of the Berkeley Breathed book ''Pete & Pickles'', and are next set to produce the long in-development adaptation of ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to crea ...

'' directed by Andy Serkis. Vancouver-based animation company Nitrogen Studios was rebranded under Cinesite soon after its acquisition by the group in March 2017. Since then, it has worked for MGM on '' The Addams Family'' (2019) and its sequel. In 2022, Cinesite acquired the Montreal-based

, and later in the year, purchased majority stakes in Squeeze Studio and Assemblage Entertainment.

Credits

VFX 1996-2019

TV series

Animation credits

References

{{Reflist

External links

Cinesite's website

The UK Screen Association

Cinesite on the IMDB
British animation studios Television and film post-production companies Visual effects companies Mass media companies based in London Entertainment companies established in 1991 1991 establishments in California Companies based in the City of Westminster 2012 mergers and acquisitions Private equity portfolio companies Privately held companies based in London