Skopje, 15 September 2022 (MIA) – FX3X, a Macedonian animation and visual effects studio,  has become a partner company of the world-famous visual effects group – Cinesite from London, Great Britain. The founders of the company, Kristijan Danilovski and Milivoje Gjorgjevikj, who in the past 25 years together wrote one of the greatest entrepreneurial success stories in the country, announced the merger at a press conference Thursday. “Joining Cinesite is a natural next step in the evolutionary development of FX3X, whose team with a lot of creativity, persistence and dedication managed to reach and survive in the Hollywood market and to even include the most famous movie blockbusters in its portfolio,” said Danilovski. Gjorgjevikj underscored that they have cooperated with Cinesite in the past, but joining forces with them and the homegrown talent they have in the region, will allow them to realize the full potential of their business. “The partnership will have a significant positive effect on the visual effects industry in Macedonia, but also in the entire region,” said Gjorgjevikj. Antony Hunt, CEO of the Cinesite group, expressed his delight at the partnership with FX3X, which he said he expects to significantly increase the company’s global capacities by adding high quality managers, producers and experienced and creative staff to the Cinesite team, thus helping it meet the requirement of constant improvement in the quality of visual effects. “We have already collaborated with talented people from Macedonia in our team. After our expansion in Canada, in our plans for expansion to the east, towards Southeastern Europe, the Balkans remained an unknown area to us. After the initial conversations with Kristijan and Mishko, chemistry happened, and that is a very important part of the business. We found good partners in both of them, and for us that was a normal growth of the group in this region, just like in Vancouver and Montreal,” said Hunt. Gjorgjevikj announced that the company will soon begin intensive training of 60 candidates who are expected to become a part of the FX3X Cinesite team in six months. The costs of the training program have been fully covered by FX3X and Cinesite, thus allowing talented young people who are determined to work in the industry to receive professional training without a large financial burden. The FX3X and Cinesite management announced a continuous increase of the capacities in the country with at least 120 newly trained employees per year, they are additionally working on expanding the capacities in Serbia, in order for the company to readily respond to the latest demands of the film industry, which require a continuous increase of the quantity and quality of visual effects. In response to a journalist’s question, FX3X also brought up an issue with the existing film industry legislation in the domain of subsidizing foreign investments in the film industry, which needs to be amended. “The legislation itself is made dysfunctional by two articles that require foreign investing partners to submit their financial reports for the entire projects, even the parts that are done outside the country. We are talking about information on projects worth up to two hundred million dollars, while only a part of the project is worked on in the country in the value of one or two million dollars,” said Gjorgjevikj, adding that just in the last year they had to transfer and work on four projects in the value of four million dollars in other countries due to the legal circumstances. He estimated that their company alone has lost over 30 million dollars in the past 10 years because of this legislation, while at country-level it loses 10-15 million dollars annually due to the dysfunctionality in the existing legislation. Cinesite is one of the most famous visual effects studios in the world with offices in England, Germany and Canada. FX3X has worked on several global blockbusters, and many of the movies that they have worked on thus far have been recipients of Emmy awards or the prestigious Academy Awards (Rango, Life of Pi…). They are currently working on: Indiana Jones 5, Crater, the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the third season of Star Trek: Picard, Peter Pan and Wendy, Vikings Valhalla, and Strays. ad/ba/