The year 2023 may have a bit of a circle around it in the annals of movie history. If certain shifts in the industry start to happen down the road, we may look back at this past year and think this was when movies stopped being called content and started to become cinema again. And what helps that cause is that a lot of productions made the switch back from digital to its original form again, good, old-fashioned, celluloid film.
2023 brought audiences back to the movie theater in record fashion. A summer that sawBarbiesquare off againstOppenheimer.A marketing campaign of two films that felt like a battle of the sexes at times also made audiences kind of feel that the cinematic language had returned, no matter which film you prefer more. Marvel, a company known for always shooting on digital and loading itself up with CGI, now has its back against the wall. Martin Scorsese is probably smiling somewhere after what he and many others in the industry accomplished this year. Because after this year, it may be safe to say that film is not dead just yet.
Over 60 Movies Shot on Film in 2023
As per a report this monthvia Indiewire,this year had 60 major movies shot on Kodak, and there are still some that have yet to be released. As we move past a decade that told us that digital was the future, we may think that may have been the wrong outlook. Fear of technology has grown bigger in the market, so ditching the digital files, although faster, takes the flair of it all out of any filmmaker. And we were seeing that at the industry’s highest level. FromOppenheimertoKillers of the Flower Moon.Asteroid CitytoSaltburn.All of these titles were part of the year that may have saved cinema.
Related:Is Martin Scorsese Winning the Fight to Preserve Cinema?
More Dramatic Storytelling Was Told This Year
2023 was not a year for franchises and tentpole films at the box office. This year saw the release ofdramas such asPast Lives,Maestro, andPoor Things.And you know what these films all have in common? You guessed it; they were shot on film. It’s something about the look of a movie on either 35mm or 70mm that gives the viewer something they don’t get with digital.
It feels authentic and unfiltered, and the light that pops on the frame ignites something in the soul. Dramas have always been around, but something about the work we saw churned out this year, and whatever is still to come in 2024, felt like a raw observational look at the human condition. As a tool, only film has the ability to do that.
Art House Cinema Meets the Blockbuster
Between 2020 and now, we have begun to see blockbusters shift their approach. Budgets have dropped in moviemaking. It used to be that Netflix would take a well-known director’s script that the other studios wouldn’t fund and give them a ton of money to make it. Now, other production companies have caught on to this and elevated their game. A24 is the company we all think of now. Every month, it seems like another art-house-style film is appearing in theaters, produced by them. But the draw about them is that they all star many A-list talents and maybe a few actors that are due for a big screen comeback. And the plots of these movies all take something within a genre we love and infuse it with something deeper. And audiences are responding very well to it.
2023 saw films likeSkinamarinkmake waves at the box office back in January.It was a horror film that some don’t get, and then there are those who appreciate the avant-garde horror it brings to the table. Then, late in the year, we have Oscar contenders hit screens that have themes and even narrative structures that throw the average moviegoer for a loop. Films like Poor Things, Maestro, andOppenheimerall pull in big audiences, but at their core, they have an art film feel to them. And they have rained in big at the box office or on streaming.
Related:These Films Need to be Seen in a Movie Theater to be Appreciated
Going to the Movies is Back!
Okay, that statement has been used plenty of times over the last few years. But in fact, movie theaters have bounced back since COVID.Movie theaters are not dying, they are evolving. With the amount of films being churned out by theaters growing over the last two years, it’s safe to say that the selection of what’s on the big screen has given cinema some skin in the game. This is reflected in the technology being used to make these films. Ask anyone who understands the medium of film. Even cinematographers who shoot on Red cameras. They all know that nothing looks betteron the big screenthan something shot on film. And with more and more films coming out that are shot on film, going to the movies can go back to not just what it once was, but what it always should be.
A dozen more films have been produced on 35mm and 70mm Kodak than the previous year. Maybe 2024 will not outweigh what movies are shot on what, but it could even change the playing field. The fight over whether film is a dead medium may not have been put to rest just yet. If you want content, yeah, the iPhone-shot videos of the internet will work just fine. But if you want an experience unmatched, film may fill the void in all of us as of late.
