Cinesite Acquires German VFX Powerhouse Trixter

LONDON -- Independent digital entertainment studio Cinesite has reached an agreement to partner with Germany’s TRIXTER, a leading European provider of visual effects and feature animation to premier international film, broadcast and streaming clients. This initial partnership will lead to Cinesite acquiring 100 percent of the TRIXTER business once regulatory and legal work is completed.

The new partnership will allow the existing senior TRIXTER team to lead the business in Germany and continue to build on its amazing reputation to grow the operations with the benefit and support of a larger parent company. As with Cinesite’s 2015 acquisition of Vancouver-based VFX studio Image Engine Design, TRIXTER will retain its brand and creative center.

“The TRIXTER team has a fantastic reputation for producing high quality concept art, character design alongside complex VFX and feature animation. In partnering with TRIXTER, we are executing our strategic objective of enhancing our market position in both visual effects and animation and getting the benefit of an amazing creative team of people in Munich and Berlin,” said Cinesite Group CEO Antony Hunt. “The skills transfer, technology collaboration, shared resources and approaches across our international studios brings benefits to all our teams and the quality of the work they create. This is borne out by the success of the Cinesite group, which has continued to grow its market share and has seen its revenue increase 40 percent year on year since 2014.”

Founded two decades ago by Simone Kraus Townsend and Michael Coldewey, a Professor at the Munich Filmschool, TRIXTER is Germany’s leading VFX and animation studio, creating high-end VFX work and character animation for film, broadcast and streaming media platforms. The studio, which has capacity for 220 professionals in Munich and Berlin, has collaborated with Marvel Studios to bring characters like Iron Man, Black Panther, Rocket and Baby Groot to life. The company also contributed to many other projects, including Spider-Man: Homecoming for Columbia Pictures, The Fate of The Furious for Universal Pictures, along with episodes for Netflix’s Lost in Space and AMC’s The Walking Dead.

“I am incredibly proud of our people and the business and brand equity we have all built,” said TRIXTER CEO Christian Sommer. “By joining forces with Cinesite we will benefit from both their global infrastructure and a broader range of clients to further strengthen our position in the international market.”

“This is an incredibly exciting time for everybody involved and there are huge opportunities for all of us,” Kraus Townsend and Coldewey commented. “We are pleased to have found a supportive and forward-thinking partner in Cinesite and are eager to share TRIXTER’s talents and expertise with the group.”

2018 has been a busy year for the Cinesite group, having secured a $70 million financial capacity plan with asset manager Pemberton Capital. The studio’s technicians and artists have been hard at work crafting some of the year’s biggest blockbusters. Recent VFX credits include Marvel’s Ant Man & The Wasp, Skyscraper, Avengers Infinity War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, HBO’s Game of Thrones and The Commuter with further standout projects coming soon such as Mary Poppins Returns for Disney, Robin Hood for Lionsgate and Warner Brothers’ Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Financial details of today’s agreement will not be disclosed.

Source: Cinesite