In Uptown New Orleans, the Prytania Theatre is special.
“This is our 70 mm projector. It’s actually a 35 and 70 mm projector,” said Robert Brunet, owner of the theater.
“This projector is about 70 years old, and we are the only theater in New Orleans for sure that has this,” he said.
With old-school bells and whistles, the Prytania is one of only five theaters in the country with this type of projector, and back in 2024, it was exactly what Warner Bros. Studios and director Ryan Coogler were looking for.
“They got the projector up to top performance, and they came in and tried five to 10 different film stocks and decided what they were gonna use to actually film the movie on, which is very important because of several reasons,” Brunet said.
That tune-up would have cost the Prytania about $15,000, but thanks to Coogler’s smash hit movie “Sinners,” the machine got a new lease on life.
“‘Sinners’ to this date is the most successful film that’s ever played at the Prytania Theatre in its 111 years. Not only was it the best picture we ever did, but it blew away by almost double every other film that’s ever played here,” he said.
“This is where we showed a lot of our dailies, so this is also where we checked the film format,” said film production assistant Harvey Dixon Jr.
“Sinners” was shot in small towns like Bogalusa and Napoleonville, Louisiana, hiring locals, like Dixon, for production work.
“I was blessed to be able to be in some unique situation where I got to spend a good bit of time with people like Delroy Lindo and Saul Williams, where we’re driving them from New Orleans to wherever the shooting location is. So in those moments, you get to have a little bit more personal conversations and really get to see who these people are that you know a lot of people only get to see on the screen,” he said.
Louisiana-native Lala Roberson was able to see behind the scenes up close from the first woman of color ever nominated for director of cinematography at the Academy Awards, Autumn Arkapaw.
“To see her working every day, like she is a lens fanatic,” Roberson said. “She’s very particular about the lighting in the lenses, and just to watch her in her element was just exciting.”
For these young people from Louisiana, this experience was special and will never be forgotten.
“Just to know that they chose Louisiana to shoot it, because they were thinking about other places, but being from a small town and then we shot in a bunch of small towns, it just like the idea of working in film and television is not so far-fetched,” Roberson said.
With 16 nominations, the most for any film ever in the history of the Academy Awards, “Sinners” is breaking records and leading the nominations into Sunday.
When asked for predictions of how many awards the movie would win, Roberson, Dixon, and Brunet have high expectations.
“I think we got nominated for 16. I’m hoping we have a clean sweep,” said Dixon, sweeping an imaginary broom across the floor.
“I want a clean sweep. I want them to take all 16,” Roberson said.
“We know they’re gonna win a bunch of awards, but hopefully it wins the coveted Best Picture award,” Brunet said.
The Oscars are scheduled for Sunday, March 15, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
The Prytania Theatre has tickets available for an Oscar viewing party Sunday night at 7 p.m.
If you still haven’t seen the film or want to see it in its intended 70 millimeter format, “Sinners” will be playing at the Prytania Theatre again from March 20 through March 26.
You can purchase tickets on their website: https://www.theprytania.com/
READ MORE:‘Sinners’ breaks records at an Uptown theater and the Oscars
