BOISE, Idaho — The Oscars may be over, but the celebration of film is continuing in Boise.
The historic Egyptian Theatre can already screen movies on classic 35-millimeter film. Now, staff are working to bring something even bigger to the Boise big screen — high-quality 70-millimeter film.
WATCH | Projectionist Phil Housh explains what it takes to screen 70mm films
Inside the Egyptian's projection booth, the projectors are already built to do it; what's standing between Boise and 70-millimeter screenings is not a major fundraising campaign or a full rebuild — but one missing audio component and the expertise to install it.
"The only thing that's missing is one single piece of audio equipment, audio reading equipment, and the knowledge of how to install it in our building, yes," said Elliott Prestwich, manager of the Egyptian Theatre.
Prestwich said modern 70-millimeter prints use time code for sound, meaning the theater needs a DTS reader to decode that signal and play it back in the auditorium.
Projectionist Phil Housh said the projectors are capable, but that one component remains the obstacle.
"These machines are capable of running 70, also, but we're missing a piece to run the 70," Housh said. "That's basically all we need here. Just that one box."
Finding that box is only part of the challenge. Even when a print arrives, running film is still hands-on work — the kind fewer and fewer people know how to do.
"A good projectionist always inspects this film. Always, always, always," Housh said.
Housh says each reel can run about 2,000 feet, and before it ever reaches the screen, he runs the film through his hands, checking the edges for tears, bad splices, or damage that could affect the presentation.
"I'm holding on to this film, feeling the edges as it's going through — and I'm inspecting it," Housh said.
"If I feel any tears, rips, bumps, or anything like that, or slices, I stop and I inspect and make sure that it's properly spliced," Housh said.
That level of care matters even more with 70-millimeter, where prints are rare, and distributors want to know a theater can handle them correctly.
"There's less and less people, um, globally, nationally and locally that have the knowledge to run reel to reel film," Prestwich said.
"A projectionist is literally a dying art," Housh said.
The Egyptian had been moving toward 70-millimeter already. Prestwich said the theater had sourced the missing reader, while longtime film technician John Eckoff helped lead the restoration work that brought the projectors back. Then, last fall, the project stalled.
"John Eckoff, who was spearheading the project, who had actually installed our projectors, um, and he's the one that had sourced that audio reader, um, and in October of 2025, he kind of unexpectedly passed away," Prestwich said.
Prestwich said with Eckoff gone — and another person connected to the equipment also passing away — the search for that reader went cold.
"We're kind of back to square one about sourcing that audio reader," Prestwich said.
Now, that push is starting again. After Idaho News 6 reached out to Prestwich for this story, it reignited old conversations, and the theater is now getting trainings back on the calendar.
"But then your interest in the 70 millimeter, I called Phil and Phil said let's do this again," Prestwich said.
For the Egyptian, the goal is about more than just adding another way to screen a movie. It is about preserving a theater craft that, in most places, has already disappeared.
"When I run film, I'm running technology that was developed way back in 1895," Housh said.
"Film for film's sake," Prestwich said.
Next year, the Egyptian turns 100, and Prestwich said a documentary is in the works.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
