See the Debut Trailer for ‘The Odyssey,’ the First Feature Film Shot Entirely on IMAX

The first public trailer for Oscar-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic, “The Odyssey,” has arrived. The movie, shot on Kodak 65mm film and IMAX film cameras, is slated to make cinematography history and required the use of over two million feet of Kodak film.

As PetaPixel reported in May, “The Odyssey” is the first major Hollywood feature film to be shot entirely using IMAX film cameras. Nolan, no stranger to IMAX cameras, worked alongside IMAX to overcome the typical imitations of the format for “The Odyssey.”

IMAX film cameras are typically deployed for only specific sequences in movies, as filmmakers don’t want to use them all the time due to their size, weight, noise, and cost. However, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year that Nolan called him up and asked him to solve these problems. Nolan reportedly told Gelfond that if he could “figure out how to solve the problems,” he would shoot “The Odyssey” entirely using IMAX.

Thanks to Nolan’s input following the production of “Oppenheimer,” IMAX completely redesigned its cameras to make them easier to use. One of the biggest advancements was using more carbon fiber for the body to make it lighter. The new fleet of cameras, which other filmmakers can now use now that “The Odyssey” has wrapped filming, boasts features such as wireless connectivity, new optics, a new display, and more.

One of the biggest tweaks is new housing that reduces the operational noise of the IMAX camera. This “blimp system” makes it much easier for filmmakers to record clean dialogue, Nolan told Empire Magazine.

“The blimp system is a game-changer,” Nolan told Empire. “You can be shooting a foot from [an actor’s] face while they’re whispering and get usable sound. What that opens up are intimate moments of performance on the world’s most beautiful format.”

Armed exclusively with IMAX cameras, Nolan and his longtime collaborator, Oscar-winning cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, used more than two million feet of Kodak film for “The Odyssey.” A foot of Kodak 65mm film is about $1.50, so that would put the film’s film stock costs at around $3 million.

When “The Odyssey” hits theaters on July 17, 2026, it will not only make history as the first feature film shot from front-to-back on IMAX cameras, but it is also poised to be one of the most beautiful films of the year. Nolan will be aiming for his third Oscar, while van Hoytema is eyeing his second. Hoyte van Hoytema won the 2024 Oscar for Cinematography for his work on Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and was nominated in 2018 for Nolan’s “Dunkirk.”

Image credits: Universal Pictures