Eastman Kodak committed to making film 'as long as there is demand' (2024)

Eastman Kodak will continue to make photographic film as long as there is demand, the film producer’s executive chairman said in a call to shareholders this week.

Eastman Kodak’s CEO Jim Continenza made the pledge during the Q2 2023 earnings call on Wednesday (9 August).

“We recently renewed our supply agreement for film with our long-term customer, Kodak Alaris in a deal that will run through 2028,” he said. “We are committed to manufacturing film as long as there is demand from the filmmakers and photographers worldwide.

“In addition, we continue to see growing demand in our still and motion picture film business. A great example of the ongoing relevance of film as an artistic medium is Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer,’ which was shot on Kodak large-format film, including both colour film and a 65mm black-and-white film created by Kodak,” he said.

Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’, one of the big blockbuster movies of the summer, is the use Kodak’s classic XX black-and-white cinema film in 65mm format, which enables the film to be shown on IMAX formats.

Since 2013, Kodak Alaris has had the global right to distribute still photography products – such as Kodak-branded film – made by Eastman Kodak.

Eastman Kodak’s commitment to film comes after it has struggled to keep up with demand for amid resurging interest.

In 2020, the film producer said demand had doubled between 2015 and 2019, after a decade-long period of decline following the advent of digital photography.

And last year the company put out a call for dozens of new film technicians as demand showed no sign of tailing off.

Last year, Kodak introduced its Gold 200 colour negative film in 120 format for the first time as a cheaper film for medium format photographers. In 2017, it reintroduced Ektachrome slide film, five years after it had been discontinued amid falling sales.

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