Felix & Paul: the moon cameras, sold before the first meeting

Two camera systems built by a Montreal film studio are in integration for flights to the Moon: one with Astrobotic, scheduled to launch in November 2026, and one with Intuitive Machines, scheduled for December. They are 3D 360° immersive cameras designed to work on the lunar surface, developed over several years with the support and participation of the Canadian Space Agency and Meta, and the five engineers who designed them had been out of work for three weeks when the studio's trustee in bankruptcy asked the Superior Court of Québec to let it sell them without waiting for creditors to meet, per the Trustee's Motion for Authorization to Sell Assets Before the First Meeting of Creditors, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 31, 39–40, 42.

The studio is Felix & Paul Studios Inc., a private company incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act, founded in 2013 and headquartered in Montreal. The trustee's first report describes it as a studio creating and producing immersive audiovisual content, "in particular cinematic virtual-reality experiences and other interactive works intended for entertainment and cultural dissemination" [translation]. Its president and chief executive, Stéphane Rituit, is its authorized representative in the bankruptcy, per the First Report of the Trustee, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 7–10.

On September 10, 2026, at 13:11, the company filed an assignment under s. 49 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, and the official receiver appointed Restructuration Deloitte inc. trustee of the estate, in court file 500-11-067751-269, estate no. 41-3421776, per the Certificate of Appointment, Sept. 11, 2026, p. 1. The bankruptcy is the company's own assignment; articles 18, 19 and 34, which head the case's first motion, are the grounds on which the trustee later asked to sell.

A studio that stopped in August

The trustee's report gives three periods of results in U.S. dollars. Revenue was US$2,336,000 in the year to December 31, 2024, US$3,144,000 in 2025 and US$3,164,000 in the seven months to July 31, 2026; the net losses over the same periods were US$5,488,000, US$7,655,000 and US$6,075,000, or US$19.2 million across the three, per the First Report of the Trustee, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 12–13. The trustee's motion, sworn the same day, sets out somewhat higher losses for each period and a three-year total of about US$20.3 million.

The company's account of its difficulties, as the trustee reports it, runs against a background of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical and tariff tensions: accumulated losses at the production studio; revenue from its production Interstellar Arc growing less than expected; the cancellation of a major project in June 2026, which limited its ability to raise financing and generate future revenue; and the delay of two lunar missions, which raised costs and pushed back the revenue attached to them, per the First Report of the Trustee, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 29. The motion places the Interstellar Arc shortfall in the United States, per the Trustee's Motion, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 24.

Given the results of its sale process and its limited liquidity, the company ceased operations in mid-August 2026 and laid off nearly all of its staff. The report puts the workforce at about 46 people, all but two of whom were let go on August 17, with those two still employed at the date of the bankruptcy; the motion puts the workforce at about 75, per the First Report of the Trustee, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 11, 14 and the Trustee's Motion, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 15. The statement of affairs lists employees as unsecured creditors, in aggregate, for $1,079,435.39, per the Notice of Bankruptcy and First Meeting of Creditors, Sept. 16, 2026, Form 78, p. 5.

Six secured lenders

At July 31, 2026 the company's books carried US$34,459,000 in liabilities, of which US$22,191,000 was secured: a bank loan of US$1,617,000, long-term debt of US$16,724,000 and US$3,850,000 of secured debentures. The report lists the secured claims as Export Development Canada, US$6,257,000; Investissement Québec, US$5,773,000; National Bank of Canada, US$3,075,000; BDC Capital, US$2,877,000; Canada Economic Development, US$2,772,000; and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles, US$1,437,000. The unsecured side held US$4,260,000 of payables and accruals, US$4,874,000 of deferred revenue, US$1,335,000 of unsecured debentures and US$1,799,000 of deferred lease inducements, per the First Report of the Trustee, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 25–27. In August, US$0.9 million was paid to National Bank after the federal tax credits for 2025 came in, per the same report, para. 28.

The security itself is a stack of movable hypothecs without delivery registered in Québec's personal and movable real rights registry: Investissement Québec in April 2021, PME MTL Centre-Ville in June 2021, National Bank on October 27, 2023, then, within five days in November 2023, SODEC (two registrations, one of them on the universality of the company's intellectual property), BDC Capital and Export Development Canada, each over the universality of the company's property. The trustee had Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt review that security, and the motion reports the opinion as confirming that the hypothecs are valid and enforceable, per the Trustee's Motion, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 22–23.

The statement of affairs Mr. Rituit signed on September 10 frames the same debt in Canadian dollars and a different shape. It declares assets of $4,614,985 — $1,200,000 in cash, $3,331,985 in film tax credits and $83,000 in receivables — and carries secured claims of the same $4,614,985: National Bank at $3,331,985, Export Development Canada at $1,283,000, and BDC Capital, Investissement Québec and SODEC at nil. The lenders' balances sit in the unsecured list instead: Investissement Québec at $8,047,061.26, Export Development Canada at $7,438,165.70, BDC Capital at $4,010,716.32, Canada Economic Development at $3,863,333.00, SODEC at $2,004,016.78 and National Bank at $953,645.12. Total liabilities are $32,599,074.05 and the declared deficit $27,984,089.05. The Canada Revenue Agency, Revenu Québec, the CNESST and Hydro-Québec appear for $1 each, per the Notice of Bankruptcy and First Meeting of Creditors, Sept. 16, 2026, Form 78, pp. 3–5.

What the estate holds

On the books at July 31, total assets were US$22,055,000, and most of it, by the trustee's account, is worth far less. Leasehold improvements of US$5,058,000 in more than 19,947 square feet of Montreal premises have nil value on the appraisal the trustee obtained. Virtual-production equipment carried at US$571,000 has a liquidation value the trustee calls "almost nil, owing to its extremely limited usefulness to potential buyers" [translation]. The largest line, US$11,587,000 in intangibles, is mostly the studio's immersive and interactive works in virtual and augmented reality, whose revenue "has been marginal in recent years" [translation]; the trustee tried without success to have them appraised and considers their value marginal in a forced liquidation, per the First Report of the Trustee, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 15, 22–24.

The tax credits are the one current asset with a known payer. At July 31 the company expected about C$1.3 million from the federal government and C$1.4 million from the province; the federal amounts for 2025 were collected toward the end of August, the provincial portion was still awaited, and the balance, about C$550,000, is the estimate for 2026. The federal government has written to the company that it intends to set off against any amount that might be owed to it, tax credits included. Prepaid insurance of US$507,000, receivables of US$183,000 and work in progress of US$67,000 make up the rest of the short-term assets, per the First Report of the Trustee, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 17–21.