Movies using unorthodox aspect ratios like 4:3 and 1.66:1 have surged in recent years. Notably, this trend has grown beyond arthouse and festival circuits into mainstream releases like Longlegs, Maestro, and The Holdovers.
For the right movie, boxier ratios convey intimacy, making the shift both welcome and long overdue. The narrower and taller frame mutes the impact of landscapes, moving action, and large ensembles of actors. Characters take center stage, and this focus can make them loom larger than life. This approach harkens back to the classic 1.5:1 aspect ratio of 35mm photography, a format especially flattering for portraiture and full body shots. As director Andrea Arnold notes, who has favored the 4:3 ratio for her films, people are “not small in the middle of something.”
It’s understandable that several of my favorite recent films using 4:3 or 1.66:1 feature humble, low key character studies. For example, Perfect Days follows the routines of a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. The Holdovers presents a holiday-set chamber piece featuring a college professor, a few of students, and a school cook. All We Imagine As Light centers on the lives of two nurses in Mumbai.
But a shakeup in aspect ratio benefits more than small scale stories; it’s also an effective visual signifier of history. The 4:3 ratio originated in television and early studio films like Casablanca and The Third Man. When Osgood Perkins shoots Longlegs in 2:39 for present day scenes while setting flashbacks in 4:3 with rounded corners, he cleverly nods to seventies and eighties VHS horror. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro captures the Leonard Bernstein’s early days in 4:3 and black and white, matching the cinematography of the era.
The 1.66:1 ratio was popularized in 1950s American and European cinema, including classics from Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window), James Bond (Dr. No, From Russia With Love), and Hammer Horror (The Mummy). For the Josh O’Connor starring drama La Chimera, the eighties Italian backdrop and focus on archeology and tomb raiding connect the movie to vintage European cinema. Capturing most of the movie in Super 16mm and 1.66:1 is a natural fit. Brady Corbet shot the immigrant epic The Brutalist on VistaVision in 1.66:1, mirroring the film stock and aspect ratio typical of the era.
However, if unorthodox aspect ratios help capture history and a certain visual aesthetic, why do so many movies made before the 2010s, even those from the indie arthouse scene, stick to 1.85 or 2.39? Why the shift to new aspect ratios now?
I see this trend partly as a rejection of streaming and blockbuster norms. For scripted streaming shows, the 2:1 “univision” aspect ratio is practically inescapable. Netflix’s influential House of Cards used the ratio back in 2013, and ever since, prestige TV has relied heavily on this format. Blockbuster action-adventure movies also increasingly dominate movie theaters, making 2.39 scope a dominant ratio on the big screen. In contrast, the boxier 1.66:1 and 4:3 ratios create a noticeably narrower and taller “window” into the film.
A passionate cinephile community, more reliant on streaming and independent theaters, helps fuel these daring filmic choices. The discerning audiences on services like Mubi or The Criterion Channel will likely embrace a square-like aspect ratio that might unsettle casual viewers at a multiplex. Filmmaker influence is another underrated factor. Many filmmakers in preproduction saw the boxy aspect ratios of The Witch, First Reformed, or The Lighthouse in the late 2010s, which inspired a similar style for movies shot in the 2020s.
In the long term, I expect unorthodox aspect ratios to remain a lasting trend. Mainstream audiences will occasionally bump into sequences that aren’t widescreen, while arthouse and indie crowds will find boxier aspect ratios commonplace, though still a minority. Unlike in the early 2000s, audiences will gradually warm to these creative choices. Solid box office returns and critical praise will ease financiers’ concerns. Ultimately, aspect ratio will become just be another creative decision in a filmmaker’s toolkit, no different than choosing shooting in black in white, using handheld cameras, or filming on 16mm.