Jellyfish Pictures files for administration

Howard Smith and Mike Pink from Interpath have been appointed joint administrators to the BAFTA, Emmy and RTS award-winning company founded in 2001.

Jellyfish Pictures has worked with clients including Disney, Netflix, DreamWorks, HBO, Sky, the BBC and Amazon. Its credits include animations How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming, Spirit: Untamed, Dog Man and Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed as well as drama series such as Black Mirror season 7 and The Rig 2.

The majority of the company’s 69 employees have been made redundant. A small number have been retained by administrators to help them wind down the business.

The news follows the collapse of VFX, animation and gaming group Technicolor earlier this month.

The administrators said that Jellyfish had experienced challenging trading conditions for some time as a result of high cost inflation and the cumulative impact of the writers and actors’ strikes which caused projects to be delayed or cancelled. They said that Jellyfish’s directors explored options including selling and refinancing the company before filing for administration.

Howard Smith, Managing Director at Interpath and joint administrator, said: “Sadly, this is the latest in a series of insolvencies across the animation and visual effects industry as studios up and down the country continue to battle fierce economic headwinds”.

The joint administrators are now seeking a purchaser for the assets of Jellyfish Pictures Limited which predominantly consist of computer and audiovisual equipment.