The last place on Earth where 70mm prints are still made
In a California lab that may be the last of its kind, Christopher Nolan completed 'The Odyssey' — the first feature film ever shot entirely on IMAX film stock — at FotoKem, the world's sole remaining 70mm print facility. The choice is less a nostalgic gesture than a philosophical one: a belief that the highest fidelity of human vision deserves the highest fidelity of capture. In an age when entire industries dissolve quietly into the digital stream, Nolan's act raises the oldest question in craft: what do we lose when we stop making things the hard way?
- The analog filmmaking ecosystem is so fragile that a single lab — FotoKem in Burbank — stands as the last place on Earth capable of producing 70mm prints, making every project shot on large-format film a race against institutional extinction.
- Nolan's choice to shoot 'The Odyssey' entirely on IMAX film is an act of creative defiance against an industry that has overwhelmingly chosen digital for its economics, not its artistry.
- The technical demands are unforgiving: IMAX cameras are loud, massive, and expensive to operate, forcing a discipline of intention that digital's infinite-take culture has largely erased.
- The film's completion marks a genuine milestone, but it also throws the sustainability question into sharp relief — one director's conviction cannot alone fund an ecosystem, and FotoKem's future remains uncertain.
- If FotoKem closes, the knowledge, the equipment, and the possibility itself disappear — not gradually, but all at once, the way specialized crafts tend to end.
Christopher Nolan arrived at FotoKem in Burbank to witness the completion of something that feels almost anachronistic: a feature film shot entirely on IMAX film stock. The lab is the last of its kind — the only facility on Earth still manufacturing 70mm prints — and its continued existence is itself a minor miracle of institutional will.
Nolan, armed with the rare combination of artistic conviction and studio leverage, made a choice that most of his peers would not. Digital cameras are cheaper, digital projection is everywhere, and the infrastructure for celluloid has been quietly dismantling itself for decades. But for 'The Odyssey,' he wanted something that digital cannot yet replicate: the extraordinary resolution and physical presence of large-format film, projected at the scale it was designed for.
The discipline required is real. IMAX cameras are unwieldy and loud. Film stock is expensive. Every frame carries a cost that demands intentionality — there is no shooting endlessly and deciding later. Cinematographers working in this format must think in a fundamentally different way.
What makes Nolan's decision resonate beyond the technical is its preservationist dimension. FotoKem's technicians carry knowledge that is becoming rare in the way that all specialized craft knowledge becomes rare — slowly, then suddenly, when the last person who holds it moves on. By commissioning an entire feature through this process, Nolan kept those lights on for another season.
The harder question is what comes next. Whether 'The Odyssey' inspires other filmmakers to follow, or whether it stands as a singular monument to a technology the industry has quietly decided to leave behind, remains genuinely open. One director, however celebrated, cannot sustain an ecosystem alone.
Christopher Nolan walked into FotoKem on a California afternoon to watch technicians put the final touches on something that shouldn't exist in 2026: a feature film shot entirely on IMAX film. The lab itself is a relic—the last place on Earth where 70mm prints are still manufactured. Everything else has gone digital. But Nolan, the director behind "Inception" and "Oppenheimer," decided to swim against the current. "The Odyssey" is now the first feature ever completed using nothing but IMAX film stock from start to finish.
It's a choice that feels almost defiant. For decades, filmmakers have been abandoning celluloid. The economics are brutal: digital cameras are cheaper, digital projection is ubiquitous, and the infrastructure for film is vanishing. Studios have largely moved on. Yet here was Nolan, one of the few directors with enough clout and conviction to demand something different. He wanted the scale, the resolution, the tactile reality that only large-format film can deliver. Not as a gimmick. As the entire foundation of the work.
FotoKem's existence is itself a small miracle. The lab in Burbank has become a kind of last outpost for a dying craft. Technicians there know how to handle 70mm stock in ways that are becoming obsolete knowledge—the kind of expertise that disappears when the last person who knows it retires. They develop the film, color-correct it, prepare it for projection. It's meticulous work, and it's expensive. Most studios won't pay for it anymore. But Nolan did.
The decision to shoot "The Odyssey" on IMAX film wasn't made lightly. IMAX cameras are massive, unwieldy machines. They're loud. They require specialized training. The film stock itself costs more than digital. Every frame is precious in a literal sense—you can't just shoot endlessly and sort it out in post-production. There's a discipline to it, a commitment. Cinematographers working with IMAX film have to think differently. Every shot has to matter.
What Nolan was after, fundamentally, is fidelity. IMAX film captures more visual information than any digital camera currently available. The resolution is extraordinary. When projected on an IMAX screen—and "The Odyssey" is designed to be seen that way—the image has a presence, a weight, that digital projection struggles to match. It's not nostalgia. It's a technical argument about what cinema can be.
The existence of FotoKem as the sole remaining 70mm lab in the world underscores how precarious this entire enterprise has become. If FotoKem closes, there's nowhere else to go. The knowledge walks out the door. The equipment becomes scrap. The possibility of shooting on large-format film doesn't just become harder—it becomes impossible. Nolan's decision to use IMAX film for an entire feature is, in that context, an act of preservation. He's keeping the lights on at a place that might otherwise have gone dark.
But the larger question lingers: Is this sustainable? Can one director, however celebrated, sustain an entire ecosystem of analog filmmaking? Or is "The Odyssey" a beautiful last stand, a final monument to a technology that the industry has decided to leave behind? The film itself will be extraordinary, almost certainly. But what happens next? Will other filmmakers follow Nolan's lead, or will FotoKem remain a museum piece, kept alive by one man's refusal to accept that film is finished?
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Why would Nolan choose the harder path? Digital is faster, cheaper, more flexible.
Because he believes the image matters more than the convenience. IMAX film captures information that digital can't. It's not about being old-fashioned—it's about what the medium can actually do.
But FotoKem is the only lab left. Doesn't that make the whole thing fragile?
Completely fragile. If that lab closes, you can't shoot on 70mm anymore. Nolan knows this. That's partly why he did it—to keep the possibility alive.
Is he trying to save film, or just make the best movie he can?
Both, probably. But they're not separate things for him. He thinks shooting on IMAX film makes a better film. The preservation is a consequence of that choice, not the reason for it.
Will other directors follow him?
That's the real question. One filmmaker can't sustain an entire infrastructure. If nobody else shoots on film, FotoKem dies anyway, and then Nolan's choice becomes a beautiful anomaly instead of a movement.
So "The Odyssey" might be the last feature shot entirely on IMAX film?
It might be. Or it might be the beginning of something. We won't know until we see what other filmmakers do next.