VistaVision

VistaVision is a cinematographic technique which uses a higher-resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion-picture film format. It was created and designed by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount did not use anamorphic processes such as CinemaScope but refined the quality of its flat widescreen system by orienting the 35 mm negative horizontally in the camera gate and shooting onto a larger area, which yielded a finer-grained projection print. As finer-grained film stocks appeared on the market, VistaVision became obsolete. Paramount dropped the format after only seven years, although for another 40 years the format was used by some European and Asian producers for feature films and by American films such as the first three Star Wars films for high-resolution visual effects sequences. The format made a comeback in feature films in the 2020s after its use on The Brutalist in 2024, One Battle After Another and Bugonia in 2025, and Wuthering Heights and Digger in 2026. In many ways, VistaVision was a testing ground for cinematography ideas that evolved into 70 mm IMAX and OMNIMAX film formats in the 1970s. Both IMAX and OMNIMAX are oriented sideways, as is VistaVision.