The 34th International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography — better known as Camerimage — closes its final competition screenings in Toruń, Poland on November 14, 2026, with the Golden Frog winner for best cinematography to be announced at the closing gala that evening. With two days remaining in the most technology-focused film festival on the calendar, TechTimes has surveyed the cameras, lenses, and formats behind all 15 films competing for the top prize.
The findings are both predictable and quietly surprising. Eight of the fifteen productions use ARRI digital cameras as their primary platform, confirming ARRI’s sustained grip on the top tier of prestige filmmaking. Two films are shooting primarily on 35mm photochemical stock — a format Hollywood’s accounting departments spent a decade trying to retire. Three entries are in black and white. And four cinematographers are pairing state-of-the-art digital bodies with glass that predates the invention of the transistor.
This year’s jury is led by jury president Joe Walker, the Oscar-winning editor behind Dune, Arrival, and 12 Years a Slave, whose perspective on how image and time interact at the editing table tends to favor cinematography that serves structural storytelling over pure pictorial spectacle. Walker will announce the Golden Frog winner at the closing ceremony on the evening of November 14.
The 15 Golden Frog Contenders
1. Project Hail Mary (USA) — Greig Fraser / Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Camera: ARRI ALEXA 65 | Lenses: Custom anamorphic set (ARRI Rental) | Format: 1.43:1 IMAX
The festival’s most technically audacious entry comes from the Andy Weir novel adaptation, shot by Oscar-winning DP Greig Fraser (Dune). To fill the 1.43:1 IMAX aspect ratio on a digital sensor, Fraser and the ARRI Rental team devised a custom anamorphic lens set mounted rotated 90 degrees, allowing the larger ALEXA 65 sensor to be squeezed into the native IMAX frame without cropping. For the Earth flashback sequences, the crew rephotographed a 4K monitor with an ARRI 435 film camera using a deliberately out-of-phase shutter, then graded the image, output it to film, and re-scanned it at FotoKem with colorist Dave Cole. The result is a tactile, temporally unstable look that separates the astronaut protagonist’s past from his present-tense alien encounter.
2. Disclosure Day (USA) — Janusz Kamiński / Steven Spielberg
Camera: Panaflex Millennium XL2 (primary); ARRI ALEXA 35 and Sony VENICE 2 (supplementary) | Lenses: Panavision C and T Series anamorphic; Primo Close Focus | Format: approx. two-thirds 35mm film, 2.39:1 anamorphic
Spielberg and Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kamiński shot roughly two-thirds of Disclosure Day on the Panaflex Millennium XL2 camera with Panavision C and T Series anamorphic glass and the Primo Close Focus, with the remainder captured digitally on the ARRI ALEXA 35 and Sony VENICE 2. Kamiński received the THR Visionary Award at the festival’s opening ceremony on November 7, with Spielberg reportedly sending a video tribute. A public seminar with Kamiński was held on November 8 at the Seminar Room in CKK Jordanki.
3. Fatherland (Ojczyzna, Poland/Germany/Italy/France) — Łukasz Żal / Paweł Pawlikowski
Camera: ARRI ALEXA 35 | Format: Black and white
The long-anticipated reunion of cinematographer Łukasz Żal with director Paweł Pawlikowski — the team behind Ida and Cold War — arrives with another rigorously monochrome image, rendered on the ARRI ALEXA 35. The film won Pawlikowski the Best Director prize at Cannes 2026 — shared ex-aequo with Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for La Bola Negra. The festival held a Q&A with Jan Komasa and Michał Dymek (from the competing Good Boy) on the same day, drawing attention to a strong Polish presence across this year’s competition.
4. Growth of the Soil (Norway) — Oskar Dahlsbakken / Hans Petter Moland
Camera: ARRI ALEXA 35 | Lenses: ARRI Signature Primes | Format: Digital
Norwegian DP Oskar Dahlsbakken chose the ARRI ALEXA 35 paired with ARRI Signature Prime lenses for director Hans Petter Moland’s adaptation of Knut Hamsun’s novel. The Signature Primes — ARRI’s native large-format prime set — deliver a low-flare, high-contrast rendering that suits the production’s austere Nordic landscapes. Dahlsbakken’s work on this film earned him the San Sebastián Jury Prize for Best Cinematography at the 2026 San Sebastián International Film Festival, making Growth of the Soil one of the most decorated cinematography entries arriving at Camerimage this year.
5. La Bola Negra (Spain) — Gris Jordana / Javier Ambrossi & Javier Calvo
Camera: ARRICAM | Lenses: Panavision Primo | Format: 3-perf 35mm, 1.78:1
Gris Jordana chose the ARRICAM loaded with Panavision Primo glass and shot in 3-perf 35mm at a 1.78:1 frame ratio. The 3-perf format — which pulls three frames of film through the gate per exposure rather than the standard four — is an economical 35mm approach that retains the organic texture of photochemical capture while reducing stock and processing costs by approximately 25 percent. It is one of only two films in the competition confirmed as predominantly photochemical.
6. Minotaur (France/Lat — Mikhail Krichman / Andrey Zvyagintsev
Camera: Sony VENICE 2 | Lenses: Cooke anamorphic | Format: 8K X-OCN XT
Cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, long-time collaborator of director Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Loveless), selected the Sony VENICE 2 with Cooke anamorphic lens series and recorded in Sony’s X-OCN XT codec at the full 8.6K resolution. Minotaur marks the VENICE 2 as the only non-ARRI digital camera confirmed in the main competition, and Cooke’s anamorphic set — known for its characteristic warm rendering and gentle oval bokeh — matches Krichman’s characteristically wide, formally precise compositions.
7. The Mosquito Bowl (USA) — Jacques Jouffret / Peter Berg
Camera: Not confirmed | Lenses: Not confirmed
Director Peter Berg (Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon) reunites with cinematographer Jacques Jouffret (Mile 22) on this Imagine Entertainment production. Camera and lens details have not been made public by the production ahead of the competition screening.
8. Through the Wall (Przez ścianę, Poland) — Jolanta Dylewska / Maciej Sobieszczański
Camera: Not public | Format: Black and white
Veteran DP Jolanta Dylewska (In Darkness, Spoor) brings the third monochrome entry to the competition. Dylewska is a member of both the Polish Society of Cinematographers (PSC) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The film’s camera and lens specifications have not been made public prior to its competition screening.
9. Ulya (Uļa, Lat — Wojciech Staroń / Viesturs Kairišs
Camera: ARRI ALEXA 35 (primary); Sony a7S III (secondary) | Lenses: Lomo Super Speed | Format: Digital, black and white
Wojciech Staroń combined the ARRI ALEXA 35 with the full-frame Sony a7S III and threaded both cameras with Lomo Super Speed lenses — fast Soviet-era spherical cinema primes manufactured by LOMO PLC, valued for their characteristic focus breathing and low-light rendering. The film is the second black-and-white entry shot on the ALEXA 35.
10. Visitation (Heimsuchung, Germany) — Axel Schneppat / Volker Schlöndorff
Camera: Not confirmed | Lenses: Not confirmed
Volker Schlöndorff’s latest production is in competition with cinematography by Axel Schneppat. No technical specifications have been disclosed prior to the competition screening.
11. Wicker (UK/USA/Australia/Hungary) — Lol Crawley / Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson
Camera: ARRI ALEXA Mini LF | Lenses: ARRI Signature Primes; Canon K35 vintage primes for interior scenes | Format: Digital, large format
Silver Frog winner Crawley — Silver Frog at Camerimage 2024 for The Brutalist — shot Wicker on the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF with ARRI Signature Primes as the main lens package, switching to Canon K35 vintage lenses for a fisherwoman’s hut sequence. The K35s, originally manufactured in the 1970s and prized for their low contrast and veiling flare, provide a deliberate textural discontinuity to mark the location.
12. Wild Horse Nine (UK/USA/Chile) — Ben Davis / Martin McDonagh
Camera: ARRI ALEXA 35 (primary); 16mm and Super 8 sequences | Format: Digital main body, with photochemical inserts finished
Ben Davis shot the main body of Martin McDonagh’s film on the ARRI ALEXA 35, supplementing with 16mm and Super 8 sequences that were finished through a film transfer — a workflow that integrates analogue grain and exposure latitude into an otherwise digital pipeline. The film stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell.
13. Woman Unknown (Kvinde ukendt, Denmark) — Jasper J. Spanning / May El-Toukhy
Camera: ARRI ALEXA Mini LF | Lenses: Vintage Olympus Zuiko primes; Petzval lenses rehoused by TLS | Format: Digital, large format
Jasper J. Spanning chose the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF and paired it with two sets of vintage optics: Olympus Zuiko still-photography primes adapted for cinema use, and Petzval lenses rehoused by True Lens Services. Petzval lenses — first designed by lens designer Joseph Petzval in 1840 and characterized by sharp central focus and pronounced swirling background blur — give the film a romantically distorted quality that suits director May El-Toukhy’s psychological drama. The original Petzval portrait lens was the first photographic optic designed by mathematical calculation rather than trial and error; its distinctive rendering has been deliberately sought by cinematographers for over a century.
14. Zero A.D. (USA) — Gorka Gómez Andreu / Alejandro Monteverde
Camera: Not confirmed | Lenses: Not confirmed
Gorka Gómez Andreu lenses Alejandro Monteverde’s Zero A.D. for 2521 Entertainment and Angel Studios. No technical specifications have been confirmed.
15. Behemoth! (USA) — Damián García / Tony Gilroy
Camera: ARRI ALEXA 65 | Lenses: Panavision Sphero
Damián García pairs the ARRI ALEXA 65 camera with Panavision Sphero prime lenses on Tony Gilroy’s (Andor, Michael Clayton) new feature. The ALEXA 65 — ARRI’s large-format, multi-format flagship — captures a native image larger than VistaVision on its 54.12 × 25.58mm (approximately 2.13 × 1.01 in.) sensor, and the Sphero lenses are among Panavision’s highest-resolution spherical optics, designed to resolve the full detail of that enlarged frame.
The Technology Breakdown
ARRI’s dominance in professional narrative filmmaking is confirmed again by this year’s lineup. Eight of the fifteen competing productions use ARRI digital cameras as the primary shooting platform. Breaking that down further:
- ARRI ALEXA 65 (large-format, multi-format, sensor: 54.12 × 25.58mm / 2.13 × 1.01 in.): 2 films — Project Hail Mary, Behemoth!
- ARRI ALEXA 35 (Super 35 / large format): 4 films — Fatherland, Growth of the Soil, Ulya, Wild Horse Nine
- ARRI ALEXA Mini LF (large format): 2 films — Wicker, Woman Unknown
- Sony VENICE 2: 1 film — Minotaur (also used as a secondary camera on Disclosure Day)
- 35mm film (primary): 2 films — Disclosure Day (Panaflex Millennium XL2, majority of shoot), La Bola Negra (ARRICAM, 3-perf 35mm)
- No confirmed data: 4 films — Through the Wall, Visitation, Zero A.D., The Mosquito Bowl
The lens picture is equally instructive. Panavision glass appears on three productions, and ARRI Signature Primes on two. Four cinematographers reached for old or modified optics — among them Lomo Super Speeds, Canon K35s, rehoused Petzvals, and the custom anamorphic set built to shoot sideways for the IMAX frame. That four of fifteen top-tier DPs are deliberately degrading state-of-the-art sensors with 50- to 180-year-old glass is not a quirk of this year’s competition — it reflects a systematic counter-movement in professional cinematography, in which the technical perfection of modern sensors is considered a problem to be solved rather than a virtue to be maximized.
Three of the fifteen entries are in black and white: Fatherland (Łukasz Żal), Through the Wall (Jolanta Dylewska), and Ulya (Wojciech Staroń).
Why the ALEXA 65 Shoots IMAX Sideways
The technical gambit on Project Hail Mary is worth unpacking, because it illustrates the real-world consequences of choosing a format before choosing a camera.
IMAX’s native aspect ratio — 1.43:1 — is nearly square. Standard anamorphic lenses are designed to compress a widescreen image horizontally, then expand it on the wider CinemaScope format. But the ALEXA 65’s sensor, at 54.12 × 25.58mm (2.13 × 1.01 in.), is itself a wide rectangle — not a tall one. To capture in the tall-ish 1.43:1 IMAX ratio, the camera and anamorphic lens package were rotated 90 degrees, using the sensor’s long axis as the vertical dimension of the frame. The anamorphic squeeze then compressed that vertically-oriented image, which was de-squeezed in post. The result: full-height IMAX coverage from a horizontal sensor, with the organic oval bokeh and horizontal lens flares that anamorphic glass produces — now running vertically in the final image.
3-Perf: The Economist’s Format
La Bola Negra shooting 3-perf 35mm at 1.78:1 is a choice driven as much by arithmetic as by aesthetics. Standard 4-perf 35mm advances four perforations — the sprocket holes along the edge of the film — per frame, producing the Academy 1.37:1 ratio. 3-perf advances only three, reducing the frame height by 25 percent while keeping the full frame width. That is exactly a 25 percent reduction in film stock used per unit of running time, with proportionally lower lab and processing costs. For a wide-format 1.78:1 composition, there is no visible quality penalty: the reduced vertical height precisely matches what will be cropped or unused in a widescreen frame anyway. The result is the organic grain, chemical tonal response, and depth of field latitude of genuine film capture at a cost structurally closer to digital acquisition.
The Festival: What’s On
Opening and Special Screenings
The 34th edition opened on November 7 with Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial film, photographed by Malik Hassan Sayeed; following the screening, the director and cinematographer met with the festival audience. The wider festival program extends beyond the main competition: Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, photographed by Tudor Vladimir Panduru and winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, is among the special screenings, alongside Netflix’s international award contender Possible Love, directed by Lee Chang-dong and shot by Kim Ji-yong.
Special Awards
At the opening gala, the THR Visionary Award went to cinematographer Janusz Kamiński. Director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Whale, Requiem for a Dream) is receiving a Special Award for a Director, while music video director Hype Williams is being honored with a music-video achievement award. Aronofsky, who earlier this year received the Honorary Leopard at Locarno Film Festival, led a directing workshop on November 8 at CKK Jordanki.
Seminars and Workshops
The seminar program on November 8 included:
- Pause & Reset Workshop (Conference Room, CKK Jordanki, 9:00 AM) — a mindfulness-oriented session aimed at crew wellbeing.
- Meeting with Janusz Kamiński (Seminar Room, CKK Jordanki) — a wide-ranging discussion on a career spanning Schindler’s List to Disclosure Day.
- Nikon ZR: Your Creative Test Drive (CAMERIMAGE Market, Nikon|RED booth) — two back-to-back hands-on sessions with Nikon’s cinema system, run in collaboration with RED.
- Presentation: Synapse Stage™ (ECFC Studio) — a demonstration of the latest LED virtual-production stage technology.
- Darren Aronofsky Directing Workshop (Seminar Room, CKK Jordanki) — extended session on visual storytelling.
- Panel: The State of the Picture: Challenges and Opportunities on Set in the Age of AI (ECFC Studio) — an industry roundtable addressing generative AI tools, virtual production pipelines, and the cinematographer’s evolving role.
- Workshop: Cinematography Contracts Without Surprises (Kino Centrum, CSW; Polish language) — a legal and practical session for emerging Polish DPs.
- Exhibition Opening: Andrzej Pągowski, WAJDA NA NOWO / ANEW (Camerimage cinema, Tumult Foundation, 28 Rynek Nowomiejski) — the celebrated Polish poster artist presents his reinterpretations of Andrzej Wajda’s film posters.
Q&As and Film Meetings (November 8)
- Q&A: Project Hail Mary — Conference Room, CKK Jordanki, with DP Greig Fraser
- Meeting with Jan Komasa and Michał Dymek (The Golden Age / Good Boy) — Kino Centrum, CSW
- Q&A: The Madison: Pilot and One Hundred Years of Solitude: The Armistice — Screening Room No. 10, Cinema City
- Q&A: I’ll Be Gone in June — Screening Room No. 09, Cinema City
- Q&A: Euphoria — Conference Room, CKK Jordanki
- Q&A: Wild, Wild East — Documentary Theatre, Horzyca Theatre
- Q&A: Visitation — Conference Room, CKK Jordanki
CAMERIMAGE Market
The Camerimage Market industry showcase, running throughout the festival in CKK Jordanki, is the industry’s most concentrated showcase of cinema and broadcast technology. Exhibitors include ARRI, Panavision, Sony, Canon, Nikon|RED, FilmLight color systems, and numerous lens, lighting, and post-production vendors.
FilmLight Colour Awards
FilmLight and ToruńCAMERIMAGE have expanded their partnership in 2026, with the awards now officially known as the FilmLight CAMERIMAGE Colour Awards and deeply integrated into the festival’s official program. Following a record-breaking 2025 edition with more than 600 entries from 49 countries, the awards introduced a Top 10 Shortlist stage for 2026 before announcing final nominees. The winners will be presented during a dedicated ceremony at ToruńCAMERIMAGE.
UNMUTE THE FRAME
The festival is also hosting the UNMUTE THE FRAME Silent Film Soundscoring Competition, inviting composers to create original scores for selected silent films — a lateral intersection of image and sound that has become a recurring Camerimage event.
Special Guest: Aidan Gillen
Actor Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, The Wire) is attending as a special guest to introduce Gorky Resort and participate in a Q&A with audiences.
Competition Sections Beyond the Main Event
The main Golden Frog competition runs alongside more than a dozen parallel sections. In addition to numerous non-competitive sections, the official program includes competitions for Directors’ Debuts, Polish Films, Cinematographers’ Debuts, TV Series, Documentary Features, Documentary Shorts, Music Videos, and Film and Art School Etudes. Each section carries its own Golden Frog, Silver Frog, and Bronze Frog prizes.
Notably, CAMERIMAGE holds Oscar-qualifying status in the Documentary Shorts Competition: productions awarded the Golden Frog in that category are eligible for the annual Academy Awards in the Documentary Shorts competition category without the standard theatrical distribution requirement, subject to meeting the Academy’s other criteria.
The Directors’ Debuts competition opened on November 8 with Jan Komasa’s The Golden Age (L’âge d’or), shot by Michał Dymek — the DP behind The Girl with the Needle, which won the Golden Frog at 32nd Camerimage in 2024.
Jury and Closing Ceremony
The 34th edition runs in Toruń, Poland, until November 14, when a jury led by film editor Joe Walker will name the winner from the official main competition lineup. Walker’s editorial credits span Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction epics and Steve McQueen’s historical dramas, making him an authoritative voice on how image and time interact in the editing room — a perspective that tends to favor cinematography that serves structural storytelling over pure pictorial spectacle.
The Golden Frog winner for best cinematography, the Silver Frog, and the Bronze Frog will be announced at the closing gala on the evening of November 14.
Camerimage runs November 7–14, 2026, at the CKK Jordanki venue, Cinema City, Horzyca Theatre, and partner venues in Toruń, Poland. Full schedule and tickets: camerimage.pl/en.
ⓒ 2026 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
