Antony Hunt, CEO of vfx house Cinesite, has made three new senior hires at the company’s Montreal facility and the studio’s London headquarters.
Melissa Taylor comes in as General Manager (London), Siobhan Bentley as Head of Production VFX (London) and Tamara Boutcher as Global Head of Production for feature animation.
Taylor will oversee Cinesite London’s vfx studio while working closely with the Montreal base and group VFX brands Image Engine and TRIXTER. Taylor brings over 30 years’ industry experience and joins from Framestore, where she was Global Head of Business Development involved with projects such as Spider-Man: Far From Home, Wonder Woman 1984, Lady & The Tramp, Tom and Jerry and Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw. Prior to Framestore, Taylor was EP at DNEG.
As Head of Production for VFX, Siobhan Bentley is tasked with leading, developing and motivating the production teams to “drive efficiency and continuous improvement throughout a show’s lifecycle.” She joins Cinesite from MPC where she oversaw the production teams on films such as The Lion King, Roma, The Jungle Book, The Martian & Guardians of the Galaxy.
Based at Cinesite’s Montreal studio, Tamara Boutcher has been promoted to Global Head of Production for feature animation. In this expanded position, she will be responsible for the production and day to day operations of Cinesite’s growing feature animation service slate, developed and produced out of the Montreal & Vancouver studios. With 20+ years of experience, her animation career began at The Walt Disney Company. As the studio transitioned from 2D features to 3D features, she worked as the Director of Production, helping to guide the teams and develop the necessary practices and technologies for pioneering Disney’s blend of traditional and CGI practices. Her work is featured in The Addams Family 1 & 2, The Star, Dinosaur, The Angry Birds Movie and We Are Not Princesses.
Hunt said, “Melissa, Siobhan and Tamara are proven talented executives with deep knowledge of the visual effects and feature animation industries. In joining our global leadership team they’ll bring a broader range of ideas and approaches to further strengthen Cinesite’s position in the market.”
On Cinesite’s previously expressed commitment to achieving diversity across all companies in the group. Hunt said, “Working towards equal representation in an industry which is statistically male-dominated is very important to us all and we’re working hard to improve the balance. Cinesite is driven by talented people, whatever their gender, race or orientation. We have a collective philosophy on diversity and inclusion which is embodied in our wider approach of encouraging everyone on the team.”
Cinesite’s London head office has recently delivered high-end 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.
Cinesite’s Canadian feature animation studios are currently hiring for a number of high-quality features including the untitled Addams Family Sequel for MGM, Blazing Samurai for Aniventure & GFM Films, an animated comedy based on Mel Brookes’ classic film Blazing Saddles. The crews are currently putting the finishing touches to Riverdance, an animated musical comedy inspired by the stage show featuring Bill Whelan’s multi-platinum Grammy Award-winning music and MILA a female directed CG animated short about a little girl whose life takes an unexpected turn during WWII.
pictured L to R: Siobhan Bentley, Melissa Taylor, Tamara Boutcher
Jon Creamer
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