Rolls of Kodak Gold film hang on a shelf at the Precision Camera & Video store on August 12, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Clair Sapilewski has dozens of rolls of camera film ready to use in her cupboard at all times.
A photography major at American University, the 21-year-old said she always keeps her film stocked to achieve that aesthetic that only film cameras can capture.
“It teaches you how to slow down, how to look at things more carefully and how to choose your shots more wisely,” she said.
It’s part of an ongoing trend as members of Generation Z have taken an interest in film cameras. Sapilewski said while her professors taught her the basics, she and her friends have used their film cameras to develop photos that their iPhones can’t quite replicate.
And in her college circle, the most popular brand for camera film is Eastman Kodak, a company she calls a “household name.”
“Pretty much everybody uses Kodak films — the average film user, when they reach for film, is going to reach for Kodak,” Sapilewski said.
But on the other side of the lens, Kodak may be singing a different tune.
The 133-year-old photography company indicated in its second-quarter earnings report on Monday that its finances “raise substantial doubt” in its ability to continue operations as a going concern.
The company reported a net loss of $26 million, down 200% from a net income of $26 million for the second quarter of 2024. Kodak also posted a 12% decrease in gross profit with millions in debt obligations.
“Kodak has debt coming due within 12 months and does not have committed financing or available liquidity to meet such debt obligations if they were to become due in accordance with their current terms,” the company wrote in a regulatory filing.
Shares of the company are down more than 15% year-to-date.
Kodak plans to terminate its retirement pension plan and a company spokesperson told CNBC that the company aims to use money that the company will receive from the settlement to pay off its debts.
“Kodak is confident it will be able to pay off a significant portion of its term loan well before it becomes due, and amend, extend or refinance our remaining debt and/or preferred stock obligations,” the spokesperson said.
This isn’t the first time the company has faced struggles.
Founded in Rochester, New York, in the late 1800s, Kodak rode the wave of photography with a goal of simplifying the process for consumers. But as the era of digital technology took over, the company faced increasing struggles with staying relevant as cameras moved beyond film and disposables.
In the 2000s, the company tried to keep up with the growing trend of digital cameras but struggled to keep up, according to Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes, who said Kodak was ignoring concerns at the time about the evolving macroenvironment.
“Digital technology wasn’t ready right away to cut sales of film — but common sense told us differently,” Reitzes wrote in a March note. “At the time, Kodak management told us that film would co-exist with digital cameras and more photos would be taken — and more would need to be printed by Kodak.”
Instead, Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. It reemerged a year later in 2013 with four main business components: print, advanced materials and chemicals, motion picture, and consumer, which includes cameras and accessories.
A ‘rebellion against digital perfection’
In recent years, however, the retro camera trend has been seeing a resurgence.
In 2020, then-General Manager Ed Hurley told NBC News that Kodak was making more than twice the number of film rolls in 2019 than it made in 2015.
And on last year’s third-quarter earnings call, Kodak CEO Jim Continenza said the company was experiencing such high demand for film that it needed to upgrade its Rochester factory.
“Our film sales have increased,” Continenza said at the time. “As we continue to see our commitment and our customer commitment to film, still and motion picture, we are going to continue to invest in that space and continue with that growth.”
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global cinema camera market size is fast-growing and estimated to reach $535 million by 2032. The Global Wellness Institute named “analog wellness” — including pre-digital technology — its top trend for 2025.
That growth has been driven in large part by Gen Z, which has turned to old-school aesthetics in what’s been a “divorce” from the hyperrealism of digital photography, according to Alex Cooke, the editor-in-chief of Fstoppers, a photography news site.
“I think there’s this rebellion against digital perfection where film feels real in this kind of hyper-curated Instagram and TikTok world, where images are filtered and Facetuned and algorithm-tested,” Cooke said.
For members of Gen Z, who grew up in the smartphone age, Cooke said this type of photography brings a “nostalgia without lived experience,” where younger people are romanticizing a slower culture and breaking the instant feedback loop.
The aesthetics of film are also at play, Cooke added, with the unique colors and grains capturing something a smartphone could not. Ironically, social media even feeds into amplifying the trend, he said.
Using film cameras and developing that film also plays into a Gen Z trend of digital minimalism, according to Digital Camera World U.S. Editor Hillary Grigonis.
As a professional photographer, Grigonis said she’s seen Gen Z lean into the feeling of “disconnecting” when using film, which provides a more tangible photography experience than smartphones.
“Part of the rise in film photography among Gen Z is likely from that desire to disconnect and the craving for that retro aesthetic,” she said, adding that she was surprised at Kodak’s financial struggles given the overall rise in demand.
For 25-year-old Madison Stefanis, Kodak was her entry point into the camera world. A Gen Z herself, Stefanis created 35mm Co, a film camera company specifically aimed at making the photography style easy and accessible for her generation.
Stefanis said she’s seen that younger people are leaning into the emotional connection created by the delayed gratification of waiting for photos to be developed, something that’s become “lost in the digital age.”
Because she’s seen Gen Z driving the resurgence of film, Stefanis said she was “shocked” at Kodak’s declaration of going concern.
“Gen Z are really craving something they can hold in their hands,” she said. “These days, at least for myself, most of my memories live either in my mind or in my phone, so I think having actual tangible, physical objects where we can store our keepsakes and those key moments feels really special to my generation.”
