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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 and immersive services.
Divisions of Cinesite and its partner companies Image Engine, Trixter, L'Atelier Animation, The Imaginarium Studios, Squeeze and Assemblage Entertainment operate in London, Berlin, Munich, Skopje, Belgrade, Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver, Atlanta and Mumbai with more than 2,500 employees.
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.
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 for its visual effects on The Book of Boba Fett and Game of Thrones 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 Montreal-based L'Atelier Animation in July which had produced animated films and television series since 2012. Squeeze Studios followed in early August, Balkan-based visual effects studio FX3X later that month and in November, Assemblage Entertainment in Mumbai. In May 2023, Cinesite would purchase a majority stake in Andy Serkis' motion capture production studio The Imaginarium.
In 2024 Cinesite was featured in the first edition of Europe'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.
Notable feature film productions Cinesite has created visual effects for include Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical (2022), (2022), No Time to Die (2021) and (2019). Cinesite has completed work on all eight films in the Harry Potter franchise in addition to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and nine films in the James Bond franchise.
Cinesite's episodic work includes, Moon Knight, The Wheel of Time and Emmy nominated The Man Who Fell to Earth. It won a BAFTA craft award in 2022 for the second season of The Witcher as well as Emmy awards for Generation Kill (2008) and Rome (2006). Emmy 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."
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.
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 (2021); an animated version of the Irish stage show Riverdance, then took over production on the long-gestating feature (2022). 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).
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 L'Atelier Animation, and later in the year, purchased majority stakes in Squeeze Studio and Assemblage Entertainment.
The company also revealed 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.
| The Adventures of Pinocchio | New Line Cinema | |
| King Arthur | Buena Vista Pictures (via Touchstone Pictures) | |
| Troy | Warner Bros. | |
| Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire | Warner Bros. | |
| The Hitchhikers' Guide to The Galaxy | Buena Vista Pictures (via Touchstone Pictures) | |
| V For Vendetta | Warner Bros. | |
| Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix | Warner Bros. | |
| Underdog | Buena Vista Pictures (via Walt Disney Pictures) | |
| Moon | Sony Pictures Classics / Stage 6 Films |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 | Warner Bros. | |
| Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (via Walt Disney Pictures) | ||
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 | Warner Bros. | |
| Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (via Walt Disney Pictures) | ||
| Skyfall | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Columbia Pictures | |
| World War Z | Paramount Pictures | |
| Edge of Tomorrow | Warner Bros. / Village Roadshow Pictures | |
| Hercules | Paramount Pictures / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| Into the Storm | Warner Bros. / New Line Cinema / Village Roadshow Pictures | |
| Maggie | Lionsgate Films / Roadside Attractions / Grindstone Entertainment | |
| The Man From U.N.C.L.E. | Warner Bros. | |
| The Revenant | 20th Century Fox / Regency Enterprises | |
| San Andreas | Warner Bros. / New Line Cinema / Village Roadshow Pictures | |
| Spectre | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Columbia Pictures | |
| Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Warner Bros. | |
| 20th Century Fox | ||
| Now You See Me 2 | Summit Entertainment / Lionsgate Films | |
| The Commuter | StudioCanal / Lionsgate Films | |
| Mary Poppins Returns | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (via Walt Disney Pictures) | |
| Mute | Netflix | |
| Robin Hood | Summit Entertainment / Lionsgate Films | |
| Zero | Pen Marudhar Entertainment / Yash Raj Films / Zee Studios / Eveready Pictures / | |
| Warner Bros. | ||
| Respect | United Artists Releasing (via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) | |
| No Time to Die | ||
| Columbia Pictures / Marvel Studios | ||
| Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (via Marvel Studios) | ||
| RRR | Thameens Films | |
| Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (via Marvel Studios) | ||
| Ticket to Paradise | Universal Pictures | |
| Matilda | Netflix / Sony Pictures Releasing International | |
| Peter Pan & Wendy | Disney+ | |
| The Beanie Bubble | Apple TV+ | |
| Strays | Universal Pictures | |
| A Haunting in Venice | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (via 20th Century Studios) | |
| Dashing Through the Snow | Disney+ | |
| The Family Plan | Apple TV+ | |
| Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom | Warner Bros. | |
| Road House | Amazon MGM Studios (via Amazon Prime Video) | |
| The Fall Guy | Universal Pictures | |
| Blitz | Apple TV+ | |
| The Union | Netflix | |
| Warfare | A24 / DNA Films | |
| G20 | Amazon/ MGM Studios | |
| Crime 101 | Amazon/ MGM Studios |
| The Star | Sony Pictures Animation | |
| The Addams Family | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Bron Studios | |
| Mila | Aniventure | Short film |
| Netflix / Aniventure | ||
| The Addams Family 2 | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Bron Studios | |
| Hitpig! | Aniventure | |
| Animal Farm | Aniventure / The Imaginarium | |
| Harold Lloyd | ||
| Super Roach | ||
| Ray Gunn | Skydance Animation |
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