Official office: 10 Little Portland Street, London, England, United Kingdom W1W 7JG International offices: 500-565 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, Canada V5T 0H8 500- 250 St-Antoine West H2Y 0A3,
Cinesite (also known as The Cinesite Group) 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 animation.
Cinesite opened its doors in Los Angeles in 1991 to help with the digital restoration of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[3] 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.
In May 2012, Kodak sold Cinesite to a UK-based private investor.[4] 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.[5] Its initial employment target was reached 18 months early, in August 2015.[6]
In March 2017, it acquired Vancouver-based animation studio Nitrogen Studios and in August 2018 the German VFX studio TRIXTER.[9]
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.[10]
In 2022 the company announced a series of further acquisitions, beginning with L'Atelier Animation in July,[11] Squeeze Studios in early August,[12] Balkan-based visual effects studio FX3X later that month[13] and in November, Assemblage Entertainment in Mumbai.[14] In May 2023, Cinesite would purchase a majority stake in Andy Serkis' motion capture production studio The Imaginarium.[15]
Visual effects
The Cinesite group of visual effects companies includes its own brand services, along with partner companies Image Engine, TRIXTER and FX3X.
Cinesite won a Visual Effects Society award in 2021 for its work on Universal Studios' stage-based stunt show The Bourne Stuntacular.[19] 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."[20]
The studio won a BAFTA in Special, Visual and Graphic Effects for its work on The Witcher S2 at the 2022 British Academy Television Craft Awards.
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 (2018), Gnome Alone (2018), Trouble (2019), and Fearless (2020) for 3QU Media, The Star (2017) for Sony Pictures Animation, and Extinct (2021) for Huayi Brothers.
In addition to providing production services for other studios, Cinesite produces its own animated features through Aniventure. 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).[21][22] They recently completed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) & Hitpig (2024); a loose adaptation of the Berkeley Breathed book Pete & Pickles. Next set to produce the long in-development adaptation of Animal Farm directed by Andy Serkis and Paramount's untitled Smurfs musical (2025).[23][24]
In January 2024 Cinesite announced[30] it was opening an immersive division to create content that will span virtual, physical and mixed realities, location-based entertainment and theme park rides and attractions. The studio also confirmed it had entered a long-term partnership with Frameless Creative, the company behind the UK’s largest and London’s first permanent multi-sensory art experience.
The company also revealed[31] it had animated Forsaken a short film conceived and directed by award-winning filmmaker Roland Lane and supported by Greenpeace and Arts Council England. Forsaken played on Outernet London’s floor to ceiling wrap around screens to highlight the mass extinction of life on Earth.
The studio created stage-based stunt show The Bourne Stuntacular for Universal Studios Orlando. The project won Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project at the Visual Effects Society awards.[32]
Visualisation
In February 2024 Cinesite announced[33] it was opening a new division 'Cinesite VIS' to expand its previs, virtual production, techvis and postvis services. The newly created division is currently working on feature film projects as part of an integrated offering, but will also operate as a standalone visualisation vendor.
^2012-05-11T17:36:00+01:00. "Kodak sells Cinesite". Broadcast. Archived from the original on 28 January 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)