Arri Film Lab 1.5 Aims To Emulate Even More Analog Cinema Formats

Arri, the German camera and imaging company long associated with high-end cinema production, first released Film Lab in late 2025 as an OpenFX plugin designed to simulate the look of analog film stocks and processes within digital color grading pipelines. OpenFX is a widely supported plugin standard, meaning Film Lab works across a range of professional applications including DaVinci Resolve, making it accessible to a broad segment of the industry.

Version 1.5 continues that effort by expanding the number of analog cinema formats the plugin can emulate. Arri has not historically been a software-first company - its reputation is built on cameras like the ALEXA line and its associated color science - so Film Lab represents a notable extension into post-production tooling. The plugin draws on Arri's deep knowledge of how film responds to light, which distinguishes it from third-party film emulation tools that may rely more on surface-level grain and color grading approximations.

Film emulation has been a persistent area of interest in digital cinematography. Even as digital cameras have surpassed film in many practical respects, the organic texture, color rendering, and tonal characteristics of celluloid remain desirable to many directors and cinematographers. Plugins and LUTs aimed at recreating those qualities have existed for years, but a tool developed by a major cinema hardware manufacturer carries a different kind of credibility and access to reference material.

With 1.5, colorists working on projects that call for a period aesthetic, a specific stock's color palette, or simply a less clinical digital look have a wider set of starting points to work from. The update positions Film Lab as an evolving product rather than a one-time release, suggesting Arri intends to keep adding formats and refining its emulation approach over time.