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NEW YORK<\/strong> \u2013 When Paul Thomas Anderson<\/a> told his cinematographer Michael Bauman that he wanted to shoot \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d<\/a> on VistaVision \u2014 a large-scale film format born in the 1950s \u2014 he had some questions.<\/p>\n \u201cQuestion one was: Is this even going to be reliable?\u201d Bauman recalls.<\/p>\n For much of the past 60 years, the few remaining VistaVision cameras have been mostly collecting dust on shelves. Though the format was widely used in the 1950s, when Alfred Hitchcock shot \u201cVertigo\u201d on it and Cecil B. DeMille used it for \u201cThe Ten Commandments,\u201d VistaVision went dormant by the early 1960s. <\/p>\n Yet at the March 15 Academy Awards<\/a>, a movie made largely with decades-old antique cameras is poised to win best picture<\/a>. Even in 2026, when most films are shot digitally and AI has begun filtering into moviemaking, \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d has \u2014 with film equipment borrowed from collectors and museums \u2014 showed that a vintage, analog film system can still astonish moviegoers.<\/p>\n \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d presented a major new test for an old format. A sprawling American epic filmed largely in dusty, rural locations, Bauman estimates it meant running 1.5 million feet of film through antique cameras.<\/p>\n \u201cVistaVision is great if you\u2019re sitting on a tripod and filming a nice, beautiful waterfall or something,\u201d says Bauman. \u201cBut when you\u2019re putting it on a Steadicam, using it as a handheld strapping it to cars, or doing any of the myriad things we were doing \u2014 because ultimately Paul wanted it to feel like \u2018The French Connection\u2019 \u2014 it was a question if the camera could hold up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n But it turns out that VistaVision isn\u2019t just holding up, it\u2019s enjoying a big-screen revival. At last year\u2019s Oscars, Lol Crawley won best cinematography for Brady Corbet’s \u201cThe Brutalist,\u201d<\/a> much of which was shot on VistaVision. This year, Bauman is nominated for the same award after shooting an even greater amount of \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d (he estimates 80%) on VistaVision.<\/p>\n Vistavision shows bigger is better<\/p>\n VistaVision is all about the size of the negative. First introduced by Paramount with 1954\u2019s \u201cWhite Christmas,\u201d it has double the resolution of standard 35mm. Normal film stock is four perforations wide, but VistaVision is eight. To make a higher-resolution image, the film runs horizontally through the camera, instead of vertically.<\/p>\n Before \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d the last film shot and projected on VistaVision was 1961\u2019s \u201cOne-Eyed Jacks,\u201d Marlon Brando\u2019s sole directorial effort. But, with some notable exceptions (George Lucas shot the visual effects to 1977\u2019s \u201cStar Wars\u201d in VistaVision), Hollywood moved on. <\/p>\n But now, VistaVision is back in a big way. After being impressed with it for parts of 2023\u2019s \u201cPoor Things\u201d Yorgos Lanthimos and his cinematographer Robbie Ryan shot the best picture-nominated \u201cBugonia\u201d<\/a> on VistaVision. Emerald Fennell\u2019s just-released \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d<\/a> was also made with VistaVision. Greta Gerwig turned to Vista for her upcoming \u201cNarnia\u201d movie. And Alejandro I\u00f1\u00e1rritu, with his celebrated director of photography Emmanuel \u201cChivo\u201d Lubezki, shot the upcoming \u201cDigger\u201d with it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a revitalization of a level of the craft of cinematography,\u201d Bauman says. \u201cPhotochemical has got a strong voice in the room, still.\u201d<\/p>\n The 1950s-set \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d helped spark the revival.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were excited by the colors and the feeling and the weight of the camera,\u201d Mona Fastvold, cowriter and producer of \u201cThe Brutalist,\u201d said in an interview last year. \u201cIt limits how you move it and dictates the shots, which I think is something that also helps to transport you back to the period.\u201d<\/p>\n A format that challenges<\/p>\n VistaVision has its drawbacks. The camera (which looks sideways) is awkward and noisy. You can film takes only for about five minutes. For her 2025 Shaker drama \u201cThe Testament of Ann Lee,\u201d<\/a> Fastvold considered VistaVision but ultimately decided its cameras were too loud for the quiet intimacy she wanted.<\/p>\n But for many filmmakers, the extra hassle is worth it for the beauty and clarity of the image it creates. Anderson has been pondering it for a while. He and Bauman first met when the director was experimenting with VistaVision for 2012\u2019s \u201cThe Master.\u201d Anderson decided not to use it then, but he tried it out in a short film for Thom Yorke\u2019s \u201cAnima.\u201d<\/p>\n Just tracking down the equipment for \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d was a challenge, though. Much of \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d was shot on a camera owned by the actor Giovanni Ribisi. He’s long been enamored by the capabilities of the format and the tactile, vinyl-like nature of the camera. Years ago, Ribisi acquired a Beaumont VistaVision camera, a more mobile camera than traditional VistaVision cameras. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not something that you can just press a button and you just let it roll for two hours It fights back a little bit, maybe too much,\u201d Ribisi says, chuckling. \u201cYou kind of have to earn it, and I like that.\u201d<\/p>\n For Ribisi, the VistaVision image speaks for itself: multidimensional, inviting, immersive. He thinks formats like VistaVision are more than analog novelty, but a rich future for increasingly image-savvy audiences. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s just a flash in the pan,\u201d says Ribisi. \u201cI think a lot of people \u2014 especially with the phone calls I\u2019m getting \u2014 are wanting to not just explore this but consider it their new sword in the battle for filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cOne Battle\u201d filmmakers added two other VistaVision cameras, rented from Geo Film Group, and augmented the production with Super 35mm. They continued testing the Vista cameras even once shooting began. To lessen the noise for some scenes, they built a blimp, or a box, around it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s its own personality on the set using that camera,\u201d Bauman says. \u201cIt would jam. It\u2019s noisy. It kept the camera team on their toes. There\u2019s a look of trepidation in their eyes in many of the photos I have.\u201d<\/p>\n Historically, VistaVision has been used for formally composed vistas. But Anderson wanted to approach \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d with a more \u201970s-style feel \u2014 essentially combining separate Hollywood eras, not unlike how the movie\u2019s revolutionary saga blends generations in political resistance. So they leaned into the organic process, intentionally underexposing the film and then leaving it longer in development to add grain and texture.<\/p>\n Sellouts, again, for VistaVision<\/p>\n VistaVision and CinemaScope were both first introduced as way to combat the rise of television. VistaVision\u2019s second life corresponds with a new age of anxiety for movies, where streaming and mega-sized flat-screen TVs have pushed films onto bigger and bigger screens.<\/p>\n