Why Ottawa film fans are shut out of the ultimate experience of The Odyssey
The Canadian Museum of History was a pioneer of Imax projection starting in 1989 but the future of its theatre is in doubt.
By Matteo Cimellaro, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jul 31, 2026
Dedicated film lovers are taking pilgrimages to one of the 41 theatres around the world where they can watch director Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in its intended Imax 70-mm format. In Canada, only nine theatres have that capability.
But the National Capital Region will not be among those destinations, despite having an Imax projector capable of using 70-mm film at the Canadian Museum of History.
Earlier this summer, the museum in Gatineau shuttered its theatre CINÈ+ partly due to the federal government’s budget cuts. Officials said the decision was taken to close the theatre while the museum considers the future of CINÈ+ in a “strategic review.” While it remains unclear if and when the theatre will reopen, film buffs are hopeful that it will.
Film historians say the theatre, which opened in 1989, helped lay the groundwork for the proliferation of Imax, setting the stage for what Nolan accomplished with The Odyssey.
“There’s actually a kind of interesting historical line between the priorities of that theatre in the Ottawa area and where Imax is now,” said Allison Whitney, a film professor from Texas Tech University, who has studied the history of Imax and its Canadian roots.
The technology, which involves a screen several stories high, dates back to film experiments at Expo 67 in Montreal. Those experiments would lead to the first Imax film being shown at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan by Canadian filmmakers and engineers associated with the National Film Board.
When the Canadian Museum of History later opened its Imax theatre in 1989, Whitney said its arrival was “historically very significant” because it was the first permanent dual screen theatre that could show films on either a dome screen or a flat screen, retracting and folding depending on the needs of a film.
Today, the museum still houses “the only theatre that has the dual functionality in North America,” Stephanie Fortin, the museum’s director of commercial operations, told the Ottawa Citizen.
The museum was also unique in the kinds of stories it told, which focused on human histories, civilizations and cultures. And it differed from the “majority of theatres” in the early days of Imax that were housed in science museums, said Whitney, who is also a visiting Fulbright Canada scholar at Carleton University.
Apollo 13 was one of the first movies converted to 70mm because it made sense to show it in a science museum, Whitney added.
In contrast, one of the first films the Canadian Museum of History commissioned was a historical drama called “The First Emperor of China.”
Museum’s move away from film
In 2016, the museum’s theatre switched its flat screen to digital by acquiring a 4K laser projector.
At the time, the Ottawa Citizen reported that the switch would make the image “more bright and clear.” Michèle Canto, the museum’s director of marketing and business operation at the time, said that the move was also necessary because “fewer movies are being produced for the film format.”
But Hollywood’s most ambitious directors have since pushed to make large format 70-mm films, which they hail as providing an epic and immersive experience.
Last year, Ryan Coogler, shot one of the biggest films of 2025, Sinners, in 70mm. Denis Villeneuve also reportedly shot scenes of his third instalment of the Dune trilogy in 70mm.
Still, the switch to digital allowed for 4K digital projection, a new technology in 2016, and gave the museum more “flexibility,” Fortin said.
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Film for example, requires much more careful preservation as it degrades over time. It can also be physically heavy in Imax form, while also being expensive to acquire and maintain.
The museum still has the ability to project 70-mm films with an older projector for its dome screen.
Museum shutters theatre
On June 30, the Canadian Museum of History shut down the theatre as officials figure out what to do next with it.
In a statement, museum spokesperson Avra Gibbs Lamey said that the federal government’s spending review and “broader budget pressures were among the factors that informed the decision” to shutter the theatre this summer.
“The evaluation also considered rising operational costs, aging infrastructure, long-term financial sustainability, and the broader visitor experience,” Gibbs Lamey said.
The museum maintained that the theatre closing is part of “careful, strategic planning” to ensure the sustainability of the institution.
“The Museum has a fiscal responsibility to ensure the effective of use of its budgets,” Gibbs Lamey added. “The museum concluded that the current operating model for CINÈ+ was no longer sustainable.”
Could the future of the theatre be 70mm?
While CINÈ+ remains closed for now, Fortin said the museum is open to the idea of one day projecting 70-mm films, like The Odyssey.
But she cautioned that “licensing fees are always sort of something that we have to look into carefully, and that sometimes limit us.”
Fortin said that the current “phenomenon” around 70mm Imax has been anchored in one film, but she says “it’ll be interesting to see how that sustains over time.”
“We’re watching what’s going on in the industry to see how things are moving because it’s changing rapidly,” Fortin said.
“This year it’s quite interesting to see how everything’s evolving, so we’re definitely attuned to this and it’s part of our strategic overview and review of the space.”
The museum will also need a “fuller assessment” to ensure the technical standards and licensing requirements can be met before even preparing to screen a film like The Odyssey, she added.
For Fortin, the future of the museum’s Imax theatre remains a conversation, perhaps one that could include the resurgence of 70mm brought about by Nolan’s film.
“I know that even though we’ve closed the theatre right now, we’re still maintaining all the equipment and ensuring that it remains operational.
“We’re doing a strategic review to see, okay, what does the future look like?” Fortin said.
https://ottawacitizen.com/public-service/canadian-museum-of-history-imax-the-odyssey
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