Framestore is a British Oscar-winning visual effects company[1] based near Oxford Street in London. Formed in 1986, it acquired (and subsequently merged) the Computer Film Company in 1997. The company works across several different areas of the media: feature films, commercials, music videos, feature animation and digital.
The company's registered office is at 9 Noel Street, London. In 2004, the company set up an office in New York's SoHo district to serve the US advertising market.
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Framestore was founded in 1986 by Sharon Reed, William Sargent, Jonathan Hills, Mike McGee and Alison Turner. Starting with London's first application of computers for the creation of graphics and visual effects the company's work covered award winning images in commercials, music videos, television graphics and television drama. In 1994 its film visual effects division was set up.
Framestore acquired the Computer Film Company in 1997 which was one of the first digital film special effects companies, developing technology for digital film scanning, compositing, and output. It was founded in London in 1984 by Mike Boudry, Wolfgang Lempp (now CTO at Filmlight) and Neil Harris (Lightworks). Between them the companies have worked on over 200 feature films.
Framestore and CFC's achievements in film and television have been recognised throughout the industry, with CFC being awarded two Scientific and Technical Academy Awards, and 14 Primetime Emmys. In 2008, Framestore won their first Oscar for Best Visual Effects for the film The Golden Compass; they also won the BAFTA Award for that film the same year. Framestore was also nominated for Oscars in 2007 (Superman Returns), in 2009 (The Dark Knight) and again in 2010 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1). In advertising the team has also won all the major awards including Cannes Lions, British Television Advertising Awards, Clios, D&AD and many more.
Other achievements for the companies include (i) the delivery of its first feature animation project The Tale of Despereaux with Universal; the completion of Europe's first digital intermediate for the film Chicken Run in 2000; contribution of scenes for the 2009 film Avatar, and the completion as a production project of four British feature films which opened in theatres between during 2009 and 2010.
The company's R&D team spun off to create leading technology company Filmlight which in 2010 received four Scientific Academy Awards.
Today Framestore delivers award winning images for feature films, television drama, advertising, console and online games, internet and mobile phone applications as Europe's largest post-production house.