‘One Battle After Another’ is the Latest Hollywood Blockbuster to be Filmed in VistaVision

Sep 26, 2025

Matt Growcoot

A man with a goatee and tied-back hair sits in a car, looking out the window with a serious expression. Sunlight casts a shadow across his face, and he wears a seatbelt and a plaid shirt. — Leonardo DiCaprio is Bob Ferguson in ‘One Battle After Another.’

Today marks the release of the much-hyped One Battle After Another starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is yet another production filmed in VistaVision — a mid-20th-century format that has been making a strong comeback after years in the wilderness.

VistaVision was created in 1954 by Paramount Pictures engineers who realized that by running 35mm film horizontally through a camera, they could create a higher-definition, widescreen variant of motion picture film.

VistaVision image is captured eight perforations wide (the space between the sprocket holes), compared to the standard four perforations in the vertical 35mm format. This makes for a much larger negative area and produces a finer grain.

For One Battle After Another, the film is being blown up and printed onto 70mm film stock, to take advantage of the format’s brightness and prestige presentation. But you will need to look up local cinema listings to check exactly which format the movie is playing in.

Only four theaters are projecting it on VistaVision: New York, Boston, London, and Los Angeles. But it will also be presented in 70mm film and IMAX.

Anyone with an eye for cinematography who witnessed The Brutalist — a film also shot on VistaVision — at an IMAX theater could not have helped but be blown away by the sharpness, depth, and colors of the film. The Academy agreed as it was awarded The Brutalist best cinematography at the 2025 Oscars.

‘Like Having a Lawn Mower on Set’

The cinematographer of One Battle After Another, Michael Bauman, tells The New York Times that the director Anderson was searching for a “raw look” and settled on VistaVision.

However, Bauman adds that the camera is like “having a lawn mower on set” because of how noisy it is. Nevertheless, he says the stunning picture quality offers people a chance to experience something they cannot while watching a streaming service at home on television.

“In a world where everyone’s all about streaming, this is like, OK, here’s a reason to go back to the cinema,” Bauman tells The Times. “Because this is an experience you’re just not going to get on your amazing 52-inch TV.”

Anderson isn’t the only director attracted to the once-forgotten format, M. Night Shyamalan is using VistaVision to film his upcoming 2026 flick Remain. Meanwhile, directors Greta Gerwig and Yorgos Lanthimos are also working on VistaVision projects.