‘Nosferatu’ Was Shot on Film

Not many 2024 films were shot on film. There’s Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers,” Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap,” and Jane Schoenberg’s “ I Saw the TV Glow.”

Anything else? I can’t think of many others, but I’m sure plenty of foreign films from Cannes 2024 were shot on film. I’d also bet on Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest. Ditto Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kind of Kindness,” and Jim Jarmusch’s “Brother Mother Father Sister”

Another one we can look forward to is Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” which IndieWire is confirming was shot on 35mm. The look of the film is fast becoming just as interesting as the story being told:

Eggers’ on-again-off-again reworking of the legendary silent vampire film by F.W. Murnau (1922), later remade by Werner Herzog in 1979, finally gets released as a Christmas feast. Shot in 35mm in color by go-to cinematographer Jarin Blaschke.

Willem Dafoe stars in "Nosferatu" and had this to say about the look of the film.

I saw some footage when we were shooting, and I can honestly say, visually, it was like unlike anything I have seen…The look of it and how it was shot was extraordinary.”

Nosferatu” was, technically speaking, shot in color by DP Jarin Blaschke, with a look reminiscent of 19th century Romanticism. In fact, an entirely new filter was engineered just for this film, which is also said to have an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Eggers used a combination of lenses and filters to get the effect he was going for — he actually asked a glass manufacturing company to assist him in making the unusual filter. The goal was for the film to look like it was shot in black and white while allowing a few colors, especially blue, to come through into the frame.

“Nosferatu” is set to be theatrically released on Christmas Day 2024.