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HomeCraftsAnimationCinesite Opens Montreal Animation Studio

Cinesite Opens Montreal Animation Studio

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The first project at Cinesite’s new Montreal facility will be Klaus
The first project at Cinesite’s new Montreal facility will be Klaus

Cinesite announced the opening of a new 54,000-square-foot animation studio in downtown Montreal. The company plans to produce nine animated feature films over the next five years. The new facility will have the capacity to employ 500 permanent staff to work on animated films by 2020.

“Cinesite is amongst the world leaders in the visual effects and animation industry,” said Philippe Couillard, Premier of Quebec. “Our government supports this project’s realization, which will promote the advancement in Quebec of a leading-edge expertise in the production of animated films, a rapidly growing field at the moment. In doing this, my government is actively working to increase the competitiveness of Montreal. This investment acknowledges the talent, creativity and quality of Quebec’s labor force and the importance of Montreal as a world player in this industry.”

“The support we received from the Premier of Québec, Mr. Couillard, along with the Ministry of Economy, Science and Innovation, and Investissement Québec, has allowed us to make this decision to invest, for ourselves and the city of Montreal,” said Cinesite chairman Peter Nagle. “Together we can use this investment to kick-start a world-class animation hub in one of the coolest cities in the world. This will also allow our award winning visual effects capacity to increase by 100%. This is very exciting and our Cinesite team is working alongside the founding members of Animate Montréal, which we also announced today.  This initiative will help focus attention on what is needed to get Montreal animating; I expect we will all be busy.”

Eamonn Butler
Eamonn Butler

Investissement Québec on behalf of the Government of Québec is advancing a loan of $2.4 million to support the infrastructure costs. An additional loan guarantee of $19.6 million towards an overall budget of at least $90 million is being advanced to the production company to help with finance for the first three animated films. Six more films are planned to follow, which will see the facility at full capacity with over 500 new permanent jobs by 2020.

“Drawing on the sophisticated techniques developed over the last 20 years in the visual effects industry, we wanted to build a new creative home for the world’s best storytellers, writers, directors and animators,” said Eamonn Butler, Cinesite’s head of animation. “Whether you are an established filmmaker or an emerging writer, we want you to think of our studio as a new destination where your work can be nurtured and flourish.”

As part of its new slate, Comic Animations will join SPA Studios and Atresmedia Cine to co-produce the animated Christmas feature Klaus at the new facility. Comic Animations will also partner with Dublin-based River Productions to develop an animated feature, inspired by Riverdance.

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