Los Angeles – The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is rolling out a new series called “Presented in VistaVision,” beginning Thursday with a 70 mm screening of John Ford’s 1956 western The Searchers. The program showcases 16 titles shot or printed in the historic VistaVision format, a side‑running film process that delivers greater depth and clarity than standard 35 mm.
Why VistaVision matters again
Developed by Paramount in the mid‑1950s to combat the rise of television, VistaVision runs the film strip horizontally through the camera and projector, producing a larger image area. Though the format fell out of regular use after 1961 because of the need for special equipment, it survived in niche applications such as special‑effects work on the original Star Wars and, more recently, in a handful of contemporary productions.
Local excitement and museum resources
“We already knew our Academy Museum audiences have an appetite for seeing film on film,” said K.J. Relth‑Miller, the museum’s director of film programs. “When the opportunity arose to present something on celluloid in an even rarer format, we couldn’t pass it up.” The museum’s collection includes a VistaVision projector built in the early 1990s for dailies screenings. After a recent refurbishment by Warner Bros., the machine was used for pre‑release screenings of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and now resides permanently at the museum’s David Geffen Theater.
First‑hand impressions
Bradley Morris, the Academy’s lead senior projectionist, described the experience of running a VistaVision print of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments: “It’s sort of a variation on what we already know. It runs on its side and the mirror image, so it runs backwards to what would be a logical assumption of its threading pattern.” The print moves at 180 feet per minute—twice the speed of a conventional projector—producing vivid, larger‑than‑life images that fill the theater’s giant screen.
Featured titles and guest appearances
In addition to The Searchers, the series will screen John Sturges’ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Robert Lewis’ musical Anything Goes, and Michael Curtiz’s comedy We’re No Angels using the VistaVision projector. Digital presentations will include a brand‑new 4K restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief and rare scans of The Girl Rush, Hot Spell, and The Joker Is Wild.
Special guests will introduce several films: actor‑author Peter Weller will present Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Brando’s One‑Eyed Jacks; Paramount senior director of film preservation Charlotte Barker and visual‑effects historian Craig Barron will discuss the effects work on The Ten Commandments. Director Paul Thomas Anderson will make his first appearance at the museum for a VistaVision showing of his own One Battle After Another.
Contemporary filmmakers embrace the format
Recent productions such as Brady Corbet’s 2024 drama The Brutalist, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, and Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights have chosen VistaVision for its distinctive visual quality. Upcoming releases—including Tom Cruise’s action film Digger and Greta Gerwig’s adaptation Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew—are also reported to have been shot in the format, underscoring a growing interest among filmmakers to offer audiences a tangible, immersive experience that streaming cannot replicate.
Connecting past and present
Relth‑Miller likens the resurgence of VistaVision to the vinyl revival, calling it “a novel way of experiencing something, especially one that you’ve maybe seen many times.” She adds, “It feels alive in a way; there’s just a different energy to seeing a VistaVision print onscreen.” The museum hopes the series will draw both longtime cinephiles and younger viewers seeking a fresh way to engage with classic and contemporary cinema.
As Hollywood continues to grapple with the shift toward streaming and mobile viewing, the Academy Museum’s VistaVision program offers a reminder that the theatrical experience—large, bright, and physically present—still holds a unique place in American culture.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
