Mosfilm will close the film processing laboratory due to unprofitability

The film concern Mosfilm will close the film processing laboratory, this decision was made due to its unprofitability. This was stated by the head of the film concern Karen Shakhnazarov, transmits Interfax.

“This is such an objective process, which, first of all, is not connected with sanctions, but with the fact that digital has completely killed the film,” he said.

Shakhnazarov noted that the closure of film processing laboratories is a global practice. According to him, the situation was aggravated by the departure of the film manufacturer Kodak from Russia. He added that the laboratory has almost no orders, its main clients are students of VGIK, who “sometimes order 300-400 meters of processing.”

The head of Mosfilm specified that the Gosfilmofond laboratory remains in Russia. He drew attention to the fact that the film archive receives subsidies from the state, unlike Mosfilm, which is an extra-budgetary organization.

Previously on the film concern’s website appeared a message about the closure of the laboratory from March 1, 2023. At the time of writing, it has been deleted. In a material from 2018 on the Mosfilm website saysthat the laboratory is the only one in Russia for professional film processing.

In April 2022, the EU introduced the fifth package of sanctions against Russia, which, among other things, affected the supply of Polaroid cassettes, photographic paper and film to the country. Then the representatives of specialized stores “Momentography” and Pola Store notedthat stocks of cassettes and films in Russia will last for one or two months.