The existence of Film Atlas and the upcoming 30th anniversary of the National Science and Media Museum’s Widescreen Weekend Festival (Sept 2026) provides the perfect opportunity to celebrate the wide range of Widescreen. As the Festival this year will celebrate the 70th anniversary of Technirama, that’s where my choices begin.

Also, as the Museum has the only publicly accessible Cinerama cinema in the world, it also had to be included. Cinerama – once seen, never forgotten – kickstarted the heyday of Widescreen cinema. But let’s not forget those earlier attempts which didn’t make the cut, such as Fox Grandeur, waylaid by the focus on sync sound. And whilst high-end widescreen cinema (exemplified by Todd-AO) is spectacular, we should also celebrate those amateur film makers creating and adapting technology to their own ends, in the spirit of true cinema pioneers. And finally VistaVision, which I am reminded of every time I go into the Museum’s stores and see the beautiful "elephant ear" VistaVision camera sitting majestically on its tripod.

These formats exemplify both the ambition and endeavour of the intrepid individual and the invention and success (sometimes) of the multinational corporation. The two could not be more different, but they both aimed to expand our cinematic horizons.

One of the pleasures of running one’s eyes and hands across the pages of an atlas is of discovery, of unknown wonders, colorful landscapes, ocean ways, and celestial bodies. Cinema too has long been conceived as a kind of atlas, a cartographic guide to the world, and like the treasured maps found in the earliest atlases—for instance in the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570)—films were meticulously produced in color from the very beginning. Indeed early atlases and early film were both technical feats of design and illustration, printing, and of color. Through these feats of ingenuity, they brought the world afar into chromatic visibility, inspiring  the imagination as well as a colonial gaze. One can see various climes reproduced in technical splendor across the immense range of color processes detailed here: the tinting and toning patterns illuminating the Antarctic in The Great White Silence (1924); the British Raj filmed in Kinemacolor; Sonia Delaunay’s experiments with the Keller-Dorian process in France; Native Americans filmed in Prizma Color (process #2), and Coney Island in Handschiegl in Pál Fejős’s luminous Lonesome (1928). One can go on, getting lost in countless examples, which is part of the wonder of the colors of the moving image and of this film atlas.

Film Atlas is a compendium of film in all of its different shapes and sizes. Although mainstream theatrical distribution has been limited in most part to a few select gauges like 16mm, 35mm and 70mm, this hasn't stopped creative inventors from pushing the boundaries of what's possible. As of February 2026, Film Atlas has published 150 essays – about one quarter of all essays planned for the site. What are the current record holders? For biggest film, the current winner is Vitalux, thousands of tiny images printed on film 127mm wide. For smallest format, Cine-System 3 takes the prize, just 3mm wide. For widest, the champion is Walt Disney World Hall of Presidents; this immersive format was photographed on 35mm film running sideways, with each frame measuring 22.6cm wide! And for tallest, IMAX can't be beaten; the largest-ever IMAX screen measured 35.7m tall. But as the website grows, will any of these record holders be toppled?