Film brand ORWO has launched a new website and teased the release of a new black-and-white film.
The German still and cinema film brand launched the new ORWO.wtf site this week, announcing: “A brand new black and white film, professionally finished for photographer.”
The teaser has a “coming soon” button which currently links to a blank page. There are no other details about the new film. Kosmo Foto has emailed ORWO to see if there is any further information.
The new website’s “About” section features a potted history of the film producer – once the site of the first Agfa plant and as ORWO the major black-and-white producer for Communist Europe – aswell as the revived ORWO’s new motto: “Make film, not videos”.
ORWO’s parent company Filmotec recently merged with InovisCoat, a German film manufacturer that was formed after the break-up of Agfa in the 2000s. The new website is the latest teaser about the new company’s intention to produce new films, including colour.
In March, ORWO announced via an Instagram post that it intended to “bring back high-quality analogue films” both for still and cinema use.
In August, a representative from ORWO told the Photrio photo forum that a new ECN-2 colour negative film would be launched in the middle of 2022. “We have been deep in R&D throughout the last 2 years and are planning to launch pre-selling as soon as possible, with the first films being ready for shipping in the second quarter of 2022,” the post read.
In October, ORWO also said it was launching a new film via Kickstarter, but did not state whether this was a black-and-white or colour film.
Ahead of their new film launches, ORWO is thought to be behind the new LOMOgraphy Kino range of black-and-white films, with the 100-ISO Potsdam and the 400-ISO Berlin believed to be ORWO’s UN54 and N&5 emulsions respectively.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
