One of the pioneers in visual effects and animation is on the verge of collapse. Technicolor Group, the venerated brand representing several major VFX companies, is facing “severe financial challenges” and in a whirlwind of activity over the last 72 hours is cutting hundreds of jobs and threatening hundreds more.
Technicolor Group is the parent company to advertising VFX firm The Mill, film and TV visual effects brand MPC, global animation house Mikros Animation, and video game VFX team Technicolor Games.
On Friday, Reel 360 first published a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act memo to staff saying that operations for the U.S. offices of all of Technicolor Group’s brands, including The Mill, MPC, and Mikros, would cease as early as today, February 24.
Monday brought worse news, when Interpath, an administration and advisory firm in the UK, informed staffers that a “majority” of Technicolor Group’s 440 employees in the UK were made redundant, according to a report in Deadline. A similar notice was sent informing Paris-based employees, where Technicolor is headquartered, that it too was undergoing a receivership procedure and would impact staff unless a third party swooped in to acquire the company’s assets.
IndieWire has reached out to Technicolor Group and Interpath for comment.
Technicolor Group between its major brands employs over 10,000 people and many VFX professionals. MPC most recently worked on “Mufasa: The Lion King” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” and upcoming films on its slate include Disney’s “Snow White” and live-action “Lilo & Stitch,” as well as “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” Mikros, which has worked on the “PAW Patrol” movies, is at work on “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.”
Dating back to 1915, Technicolor defined the Golden Age of Hollywood by lending its color techniques to Disney animated shorts and to its features like “Pinocchio,” and it became vividly realized on films like “The Wizard of Oz” in 1939. But the company filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy in 2020 and sold Technicolor Post to Streamland Media for $36.5 million in 2021. It relaunched MPC in 2022.
