Sony Pictures Imageworks

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Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. is an Academy Award-winning, state-of-the-art visual effects and character animation company headquartered in Culver City, California, USA.

Individuals at the company have been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars for their work on Spider-Man 2 and the computer-animated short film The ChubbChubbs! and other teams have received nominations for visual effects work on Spider-Man, Hollow Man, Stuart Little and Starship Troopers. Imageworks provides leading edge technology to its artists. The company also recently produced effects for Superman Returns & Watchmen. The are currently working on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland & Roland Emmerich's 2012.

SPI has also provided visual effects for several of director Robert Zemeckis' most recent films, including Contact, Cast Away, The Polar Express, Monster House and more recently, Beowulf. SPI's president, Ken Ralston, collaborated with Zemeckis on the Back to the Future Trilogy, Death Becomes Her and Forrest Gump while working at Industrial Light & Magic.

Sony Pictures Imageworks began operations in 1993, and completed its first feature animation project in 2006 with the release of Open Season.

SPI is a division of Sony Pictures Digital Production, which oversees the digital production and online entertainment assets of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

In 2007, SPI acquired the majority of the shares of FrameFlow, an Indian visual effects studio based in Atlanta with most of its work being done at its Chennai (Madras) centre. The company has been renamed Imageworks India. SPI has announced that it will establish new satellite production facilities in Novato, California and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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