Montreal’s ON Animation Studios (Playmobil: The Movie (pictured), Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie) is shutting down and stopping all work. 

The Mediawan Kids & Family-owned shop announced the closure in a LinkedIn post yesterday. ON opened its doors in 2016 and had 163 employees as of February 2023, but that number had dwindled to just 28 as of this month, according to self-reported figures on LinkedIn.

“Amid the changes in our industry, ON Animation Studios is ceasing its activities,” the company said. “It is sad to say goodbye to a team as incredible, talented and skilled as ours. We will deeply miss the joy and excitement of creating outstanding films alongside such remarkable people and partners.” 

The studio didn’t give any reasons for the closure, beyond noting that the industry is changing. Thalia Vitaniotis, ON Animation Studio’s head of talent and culture, echoed the company’s message in her own LinkedIn post: “ON Animation Studios, you will be greatly missed…Our community is going through a challenging time, but I know that there are better days ahead for us all…the show must go on!” 

Kidscreen first heard that the studio could be shutting down in October, but Mediawan spokespeople didn’t have any news to share at the time. 

According to the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité au travail (CNESST)—the arm of the Quebec provincial government that oversees employment regulations—before an employer can lay off workers due to reasons such as economic collapse of the company, it must provide advanced written notice to its employees. The length of the notice period is calculated based on the number of people affected. An eight-week notice is required if the company employs between 10 and 99 workers, and a 12-week notice is required if 100 to 299 employees are to be laid off. 

To put the closure in context, the Quebec Film and Television Council (QFTC) signaled that Quebec’s animation industry was in a state of collapse in September, sharing data that more than 4,000 of the 8,000 people employed in the province’s animation/VFX industry in 2022 had since lost their jobs. 

QFTC attributed the job losses to the 2023 Hollywood strikes and the Quebec government capping eligible expenses of its animation and VFX tax credit at 65% in May. Before this change, all eligible labor costs were covered. 

Last year, more than 20 Quebec studios—including ON Animation—added their names to a release from Rodeo FX warning that the industry was “facing a major revenue loss and reduced competitiveness” because of the tax credit change.  

ON’s closure is the latest blow to Quebec’s already reeling animation industry, which just heard this weekend that fellow Montreal studios Mikros and MPC could be shutting down as part of Technicolor’s collapse. 

ON Animation Studios ended its LinkedIn post with a message of optimism and hope: “We leave behind a testament to our work and the promise that we still want to do more. Keep on keeping on.” 

Kidscreen reached out to Mediawan prior to the publication of this article, asking for comments about the situation. They didn’t respond within our deadline. After the publication of the story, Mediawan submitted the following statement: “We would like to specify that Mediawan Kids & Family Cinema and Miraculous Corp continue to develop their animated film production line-ups in their France-based studios and will now collaborate with partner studios around the world for their animated films, selecting them on a project-by-project basis based on funding and the location of the talent attached to each production.”

Updated 1:15 p.m. ET with statement from Mediawan.