Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Nolan Dedicates The Odyssey to IMAX Pioneer David Keighley

The director honored the IMAX engineer who completed critical technical work during a terminal illness, a milestone that helped realize Keighley's long-held aim of a feature shot entirely on IMAX.

Overview

  • At the BFI IMAX premiere in London, Christopher Nolan publicly dedicated The Odyssey to David Keighley, praising his decades-long guidance on shooting films in the large-format system.
  • Nolan and Keighley worked together for more than 20 years, with Keighley mentoring Nolan as he moved from optimizing scenes for IMAX to shooting whole sequences on IMAX cameras.
  • Geoff Keighley wrote that his father learned he had terminal cancer in January 2026, asked doctors to keep him alive long enough to finish the film, and remained committed to completing the work.
  • Keighley completed essential technical tasks — printing dailies and approving all photography — before he died soon after principal photography wrapped on The Odyssey.
  • The film is reported to be the first feature shot entirely on IMAX cameras and has prompted an IMAX-focused rollout that reflects both a technical milestone and Keighley’s 53-year career at the company.