Digital won’t becompletelytaking over the realm of moviemaking in the near future. Kodak announced on Wednesday that it has re-upped its deal with the five major film studios—Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros.—to commit to buying undisclosed amounts of celluloid film for the purpose of making movies. This guarantee that these studios will buy film from Kodak will keep the manufacturer in business, which in turn keeps celluloid film alive.
While we may take it for granted now, there was a time when the possibility lingered that Kodak might go away forever. The company was suffering from plummeting sales, but in 2015 filmmakerChristopher Nolanled a coalition of influential directors who lobbied their respective film studios to make a deal with Kodak to keep using film, and thus keep the company in business. Those filmmakers includedJ.J. Abrams,Quentin Tarantino,Edgar Wright, andJudd Apatow, and their lobbying worked—in 2015 the major studios signed their first agreement with Kodak.
This new agreement is believed to span an even longer period of time than the first one, perTHR. And while most feature films released today are shot digitally, film remains a major component of some of the biggest movies of the year. For example, in 2019Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerwas shot on film, as were Oscar contendersOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood,Little Women, andMarriage Story. EvenMartin Scorsese’s VFX-intensiveThe Irishmanused a mix of film and digital.
In 2020 that trend continues, as Nolan’sTenetwas shot entirely on film, as wasCary Joji Fukunaga’s Bond movieNo Time to Dieand Edgar Wright’sLast Night in Soho, and unsurprisinglySteven Spielberg’s first musicalWest Side Storywas shot using celluloid.
This is very good news. Back in 2015, Nolan wasn’t arguing that all studios shouldonlyuse celluloid, but instead was simply hoping to maintain the choice for filmmakers to use what best suits their vision. With this new deal, we can rest assured that celluloid will continue to be manufactured and filmmakers will still have the option of shooting on film when they deem it necessary. For some films, likeAvengers: Endgame, digital makes the most sense. But for others, there’s an unmatched texture to celluloid that makes it all worthwhile.
