TRIXTER triumphs at the German Film Academy Awards

Munich, Germany – April 29th 2020 TRIXTER, one of Germany’s leading VFX studios, won the Lola award in the newly established category ‘Best Visual Effects and Animation’ for its work on The Kangaroo Chronicles, an X Filme production directed by Dani Levy, based on Marc-Uwe Kling’s book of the same name, which depicts the encounter between a hipster musician and a communist kangaroo.

Trixter’s team of artists, led by VFX Supervisor Jan Stoltz and Animation Supervisor Claudius Urban, created a total of 393 kangaroo shots and 74 environmental VFX shots for “The Kangaroo Chronicles,” which was released at the beginning of March. TRIXTER’s scope of work included the entire creative development of the kangaroo character, planning and supervision on set and of course the practical implementation in post-production. The environmental VFX shots consisted of complex 3D set extensions of a huge construction site wasteland in the middle of Kreuzberg with many matte paintings and retouching also being required.

The awards, dubbed Germany’s Oscars, were televised live on Friday 24 th April due to coronavirus fears. After virtually receiving the German Film Academy Prize for Best Visual Effects and Animation, Jan Stoltz said, ” We are honoured to have our VFX work recognised in the new category . Each year the depth and quality of the visuals become greater, demanding that we up our game. My biggest thanks of course go to the fantastic team at TRIXTER, Dani Levy & Marc-Uwe Kling for this great collaboration; and also to Stefan Arndt and Uwe Schott at X Filme for their trust in our work .”

Animation Supervisor Claudius Urban added “ It’s a special honour to accept this award on behalf of the entire kangaroo-team!! I’m incredibly proud of how we all rose to the challenge and delivered Zack’s fantastic performance through our animation .”

For Christian Sommer, CEO at TRIXTER the award win is “a great achievement” for the studio. “As a representative of our entire crew that put their heart and soul into this impressive VFX work, it’s great to see Jan & Claudius accept this recognition for the incredibly compelling animation. Now more than ever it’s great for us to showcase how visual effects can support storytelling when characters and places can’t be captured in camera.”

The Lola award is a great milestone for TRIXTER, one of Germany’s leading VFX studios. Their 20-year history has seen the completion of major projects for both television and film, bringing Iron Man, Baby Groot and Goose the cat to life—this includes work on the upcoming Marvel feature, Black Widow. In 2018, the studio joined forces with Cinesite, becoming one of the largest independent digital entertainment studios worldwide.