Cinesite

Industry	Film
Founded	1991; 34 years ago (1991)
Headquarters	Head office: 10 Little Portland Street,London, England, United Kingdom W1W 7JG International offices: 500-250 St-Antoine West,Montreal, Canada H2Y 0A3 500-565 Great Northern Way,Vancouver, Canada V5T 0H8
Number of locations	3
Key people	Antony Hunt (Group CEO)
Services	Visual effects Animation Immersive
Divisions	Cinesite VFX Cinesite Animation Cinesite Vancouver Image Engine Trixter L'Atelier Animation FX3X (majority stake) Squeeze Studio (majority stake) Assemblage Entertainment (majority stake) The Imaginarium Studios (majority stake) Aniventure (affiliate)
Website	https://www.cinesite.com/

Cinesite (also known asThe Cinesite Group) is an independent, multinational business which provides services to the media and entertainment industries. Its head office inLondon opened for business in 1994, initially offering services in visual effects for film and television, subsequently expanding to include animation and immersive services.

Divisions of Cinesite and its partner companiesImage Engine,^[1]Trixter, L'Atelier Animation,The Imaginarium Studios, Squeeze and Assemblage Entertainment operate in London,Berlin,Munich,Skopje,Belgrade,Montreal,Quebec City,Vancouver,Atlanta andMumbai with more than 2,500 employees.^[2]

Cinesite opened its doors inLos Angeles in 1991 to help with the digital restoration ofSnow 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 forKodak'sCineon digital film system. Both locations subsequently evolved to become full service visual effects facilities. In 2003, Kodak merged the Cinesite Hollywood office intoLaserPacific.

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.

After Cinesite became independent from Kodak in 2012, it began a sustained period of international growth.

In January 2014, with the support ofInvestissement 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 July 2015, Cinesite announced its acquisition of Vancouver-based visual effects facilityImage Engine, which has wonEmmy awards for its visual effects onThe Book of Boba Fett^[7] andGame of Thrones and also received anAcademy Award nomination for District 9 in 2010.^[8]

In March 2017, it acquired Vancouver-based animation studioNitrogen 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 Montreal-based L'Atelier Animation in July which had produced animated films and television series since 2012.^[11] Squeeze Studios followed 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 inAndy Serkis' motion capture production studioThe Imaginarium.^[15]

In 2024 Cinesite was featured in the first edition ofEurope's Long-Term Growth Champions by Financial Times and Statista. The list comprised 300 companies in Europe with the highest disclosed compound annual growth rate over the 10 years to 2023 the company was ranked at number 62.

The Cinesite group of visual effects companies includes its own brand services, along with partner companies Image Engine, TRIXTER and FX3X.

Notable feature film productions Cinesite has created visual effects for includeRoald Dahl's Matilda The Musical (2022),Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022),No Time to Die (2021) andAvengers: Endgame (2019). Cinesite has completed work on all eight films in theHarry Potter franchise in addition toFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and nine films in theJames Bond franchise.

Cinesite's episodic work includes,Moon Knight,The Wheel of Time^[16] and Emmy nominatedThe Man Who Fell to Earth.^[17] It won a BAFTA craft award in 2022 for the second season ofThe Witcher^[18] as well as Emmy awards forGeneration Kill (2008) andRome (2006). Emmy nominations includeAmerican Gods: Season 1 andBand of Brothers (2002).

Cinesite won aVisual Effects Society award in 2021 for its work onUniversal 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 onThe 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 completeCharming (2018),Gnome Alone (2018),Trouble (2019), andFearless (2020) for 3QU Media,The Star (2017) forSony Pictures Animation, andExtinct (2021) forHuayi Brothers.

In addition to providing production services for other studios, Cinesite produces its own animated features throughAniventure. Cinesite first collaborated with River Productions to produceRiverdance: The Animated Adventure (2021); an animated version of the Irish stage showof the same name, then took over production on the long-gestating featurePaws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022).^[21][22] They recently completedTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) &Hitpig (2024); a loose adaptation of theBerkeley Breathed bookPete & Pickles. Next set to produce the long in-development adaptation ofAnimal Farm directed byAndy Serkis and Paramount's untitled Smurfs musical (2025).^[23][24]

Vancouver-based animation companyNitrogen Studios was rebranded under Cinesite soon after its acquisition by the group in March 2017.^[25] Since then, it has worked for MGM onThe Addams Family (2019) andits sequel.^[26] In 2022, Cinesite acquired the Montreal-based L'Atelier Animation, and later in the year, purchased majority stakes in Squeeze Studio andAssemblage Entertainment.^[27][28][29]

In May 2023, Cinesite agreed to invest inThe Imaginarium Studios, a Performance Capture and Virtual Production company with facilities atPinewood Studios in the UK and atTrilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

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]

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.

• Digital Domain
• DNEG
• Framestore
• Industrial Light & Magic
• Moving Picture Company
• Rhythm and Hues Studios
• Sony Pictures Imageworks
• Blur Studio
• Weta Digital
• Image Engine

• 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

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use British English from December 2018
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from February 2024