VFX House Cinesite Makes Three Senior Appointments in London and Montreal

VFX house Cinesite has made three new senior appointments at the studio’s London headquarters and at its Montreal facility.

Melissa Taylor joins as general manager for Cinesite’s London VFX studio. Taylor replaces Caroline Garrett, who has taken up the role of Netflix’s director of VFX, EMEA.

Taylor was previously global head of business development at Framestore, where she was involved with projects such as “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” “Wonder Woman 1984,” and “Lady & The Tramp.”

Siobhan Bentley has been appointed in the newly created role of head of production for VFX in London. She joins Cinesite from MPC where she oversaw the production teams on films such as “The Lion King,” “Roma,” “The Jungle Book,” “The Martian” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Meanwhile, Tamara Boutcher has been promoted to global head of production for feature animation, based at Cinesite’s Montreal studio. A former director of production at the Walt Disney Company, her work is featured in “The Addams Family 1 & 2,” “The Star,”  “Dinosaur,” and “The Angry Birds Movie.”

The hires come as Cinesite production continues on features and series amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Cinesite has recently delivered visual effects for Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow,” the 25th Bond film “No Time To Die” for MGM, the fantasy series “The Witcher “for Netflix and its first theme park attraction, “The Bourne Stuntacular” for Universal Orlando. The London crew is currently working on “Fate: The Winx Saga” for Netflix and “The Wheel of Time” for Amazon.

Its Canadian animation studios in Montreal and Vancouver are currently hiring for a number of features including the untitled “Addams Family Sequel” for MGM, and “Blazing Samurai” for Aniventure & GFM Films, an animated comedy based on Mel Brookes’ classic “Blazing Saddles.”

Cinesite’s animation crews are currently putting the finishing touches to “Riverdance,” an animated musical comedy inspired by the stage show and “MILA” a female directed CG animated short about a little girl whose life takes an unexpected turn during WWII.

Antony Hunt, CEO of Cinesite, said: “Melissa, Siobhan and Tamara are proven talented executives with deep knowledge of the visual effects and feature animation industries.”