May 2, 2024

DNEG to Lay Off Hundreds of VFX Employees

DNEG, the VFX giant with over 10,000 employees worldwide, has decided to lay off hundreds of people. [The company produces VFX for such high-profile films and series as "Dune," "Avatar: The Last Airbender," and "Ghostbusters": The company produces VFX for such high-profile films and series as "Dune: Part 2," "Avatar: The Last Airbender," and "Ghostbusters" The company may lay off up to 5% of its workforce in the UK and Canada, according to a report in Deadline. The company employs many employees in India, and it is unclear if anyone in that country will be affected.

According to the Deadline article: [The layoffs are somewhat concentrated on the R&D team and are understood to be a response to a tough market that has not eased since the Hollywood strike ended and has not improved sufficiently after DNEG made salary offers to staff last year.

DNEG expects to lay off about 100 people at its London studio. The company also laid off about 70 people at the same studio last summer.

Last September, DNEG made a bizarre offer to its Canadian employees to "loan" their salaries to employees, which resulted in the rapid unionization of both its Vancouver and Montreal studios. The number of people affected by the upcoming layoffs at the Canadian studios is unknown.

DNEG Animation, the company's new animation division, is fighting a better fight these days because the economics of animation production are different from those of VFX. The company's animation division produced "Nimona" and "Under the Boardwalk" last year and completed the upcoming "The Garfield Movie. Upcoming films from the animation division include "That Christmas" for Netflix and "The Cat in the Hat" for Warner Bros.