Millions of movie lovers are watching Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Only a lucky few are seeing it exactly as he intended.

That’s because Nolan’s latest epic is the first feature film ever shot entirely on IMAX 15/70 film, the highest-resolution film format in existence.

Only 41 cinemas in the world can project it exactly as intended. Australia has one. That cinema sits in Melbourne, the only IMAX 15/70 screen in Australia and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere.

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Universal PicturesThe Hype Is Already Real

The Odyssey already looks like one of the year’s biggest cinema events. Matt Damon leads as Odysseus, with Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o and Jon Bernthal rounding out a cast most directors would kill for.

Premium format screenings for Nolan’s films already sell out fast wherever they play. The Odyssey pushes that further, since IMAX 15/70 exists in so few cinemas that most of his usual audience will not get near one.

Universal PicturesIt Comes Down To The Film Itself

IMAX 15/70 uses enormous 70mm film that runs horizontally through the projector rather than vertically, and the result is an image so detailed it is still considered the benchmark for theatrical projection.

The cameras can only hold about three minutes of footage before they need reloading, and the finished reels are so large they need specialist handling and projection gear most cinemas simply do not have.

The format nearly disappeared once cinemas went digital. Nolan refused to let it die.

A Cinema Experience Few Will Ever Have

At Melbourne’s IMAX, projectionists still thread the film through the projector by hand before every single screening. The process is slower, more demanding and considerably more expensive than running a digital file. It is also worth every extra minute.

Film carries a warmth and texture that digital cannot fully copy. The grain, the tiny imperfections, even the odd fleck of dust, become part of the picture instead of something to be scrubbed out.

Nolan has spent years arguing that how a film is shown matters as much as the story itself, and Melbourne’s IMAX is that argument turned into a building.

Melbourne Is The Only Stop In Australia

Most countries lost their IMAX 15/70 cinemas years ago when digital took over. Australia kept one, and it happens to be in Melbourne.

That leaves Australian fans with a single option if they want to see The Odyssey exactly as Nolan shot it, dust, grain, three-minute reel changes and all.

Everyone else will still watch the film. Only the people who make it to Melbourne will actually see it.