‘Baby Driver’ Director Edgar Wright Urges Filmmakers to Keep Shooting on Celluloid

Wright, Sean Baker, Luca Guadagnino and Dee Rees were honored at the Kodak Auteur Awards.

Filmmakers including Sean Baker, Dee Rees and Edgar Wright called on celluloid fans to keep film alive during Kodak’s Motion Picture and Entertainment division’s 2nd Annual Kodak Auteur Awards, Thursday night at Crossroads Kitchen in Los Angeles.

Wright — who shot Baby Driver on film, testified, “I’m an advocate of all mediums — it’s a larger canvas for us as artists — but we have to keep in mind that celluloid film is what created this wonderful art form, and we have to keep it alive.

“It’s perhaps our duty right now to talk to our producers, to talk to our financiers, talk to our studios, and demand shooting on film,” he continued, to applause from the capacity crowd.

Digital cinematography is widely used in Hollywood today, but during the pre-Oscars celebration, Kodak’s president of motion picture and entertainment Steve Bellamy said that film use is on the rise, with nine of the Oscar-nominated movies — including Baby Driver, Call Me by Your Name, Dunkirk and The Florida Project — using celluloid for production. He added that 22 Spirit Award nominees, up from 10 a year ago, were lensed on celluloid.

During the evening, Kodak also honored four directors — Wright, Sean Baker, Luca Guadagnino and Dee Rees — who “are unyielding in their artistic process and who Kodak believes will be making cinematic masterpieces for decades to come.”

Several of the honorees and presenters used the event to call on the industry to support film’s continued use.

Mudbound helmer Rees, whose award was presented by producer Cassian Elwes, made her Oscar-nominated film with digital cameras, though she said, “For all you celluloid lovers, the limiting factor now is not the film, it’s the processing. So you’ve got to get Fotokem in the conversation. You’ve got to get Deluxe in the conversation. You’ve got to get the processing to less than a dollar a foot — and we could have shot Mudbound on film.”

Sean Baker was presented his award by his Florida Project DP Alexis Sabe. Call Me by Your Name helmer Guadagnino received his trophy from James Grey. Baby Driver cinematographer, Bill Pope, presented Wright’s honor.