Shooting on Kodak film is becoming increasingly popular among filmmakers. Several of this year’s Oscar frontrunners were shot on 35mm film. Chief among them is last year’s biggest success, Anora, directed by Sean Baker, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, with cinematography by Drew Daniels. Also notable is Lol Crawley’s work on The Brutalist, which earned him the Oscar for Best Cinematography. The Best International Feature Film winner, I’m Still Here by Walter Salles, was shot on both 35mm and Super 8mm film.
And it looks like 2025 will only strengthen this trend. Several major directors are once again choosing this format, including Luca Guadagnino, Wes Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Paul Thomas Anderson.
The vampire film The Guilty is set in the Jim Crow-era South of the 1930s and stars Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld. It follows twin brothers trying to escape their sinful past by returning home, hoping to start anew—honestly and in peace. But while they leave behind much evil, something even worse awaits them at home: Evil itself. Director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed) has described the film as one that hovers between the supernatural and the spiritual, defined by the subversive forces of light and darkness. Cinematographer Durald Arkapaw (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) shot the film on 65mm, incorporating Ultra Panavision 70 and IMAX 65mm footage.
Wes Anderson’s father-daughter drama The Phenician Scheme (starring Benicio del Toro and Mia Threapleton) is wrapped in the structure of a spy thriller, featuring an ensemble cast that includes Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Rupert Friend, and Benedict Cumberbatch. This marks Anderson’s first collaboration with Bruno Delbonnel, the six-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Amélie. Delbonnel, who shot the film on 35mm, has previously worked on A Very Long Engagement, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Inside Llewyn Davis, Darkest Hour, and The Tragedy of Macbeth—each earning him an Oscar nomination.
This summer, we’re heading back to the dino park for the seventh time! Jurassic Park: Rebirth is directed by Gareth Edwards (The Creator), featuring a new cast and an analog (!) visual aesthetic, courtesy of cinematographer John Mathieson (Gladiator). Scarlett Johansson plays a secret agent hired by a pharmaceutical company to infiltrate Jurassic Park’s original research site alongside paleontologist Jonathan Bailey and team leader Mahershala Ali. Their mission? To collect dinosaur DNA and develop a revolutionary medicine to save humanity. Yes, they need saving again!
Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s One Battle After Another is a nearly three-hour thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, and Sean Penn. Shot on 35mm by cinematographer Michael Bauman (Licorice Pizza), the film is rumored to have incorporated VistaVision cameras—though this has yet to be officially confirmed. Notably, this will be Anderson’s first film to be released in IMAX theaters.