Who Founded IMAX?

IMAX possesses a technical, founding story, rooted in the experimental artistic environment of the late 1960s and a foundational obsession with shattering the restrictive limitations of traditional 35mm film projection. The foundational origins of the visual format trace back to Montreal, Canada, surrounding the Expo 67. Three effective Canadian filmmakers and entrepreneurs, Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, and Robert Kerr, were frustrated by the technical difficulties they experienced while attempting to project multi-screen installations at the Expo. They realized that syncing dozens of small projectors was unreliable and complicated. They possessed a foundational vision: instead of using multiple small projectors, they needed a single, projector that could handle large, high-resolution film. They founded the Multiscreen Corporation (which later became IMAX, standing for 'Image Maximum') and heavily recruited William Shaw, an effective engineer, to design the complex camera and projection system. Shaw's foundational key move was the 'Rolling Loop' projector. To project 70mm film (which was heavy and prone to tearing) at high speeds, he invented a complex mechanism that moved the film horizontally in a wave-like motion, stabilizing the image. They debuted the very first IMAX film (*Tiger Child*) at the Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. For decades IMAX was strictly relegated to niche, institutional settings (science museums and specialized nature documentaries). The lucrative corporate pivot occurred in the early 2000s, when IMAX developed proprietary technology to digitally remaster Hollywood blockbusters (starting with *Apollo 13*), transforming a niche museum novelty into a lucrative pillar of the global commercial blockbuster industry.

Graeme Ferguson was born in 1929 in Toronto. Education: University of Toronto.

William Shaw co-founded IMAX Corporation in 1967 in Montreal, Canada, serving as the chief engineer and technical mastermind behind the company's proprietary film transport systems. Recognizing that the existing 35mm and 65mm film formats were entirely inadequate for the screen sizes the team envisioned, Shaw embarked on an engineering challenge to develop a new camera and projection mechanism. His invention of the 'Rolling Loop' technology, which utilized a vacuum to pull the 70mm film into a precise, stationary position behind the lens, frame by frame, was a breakthrough that allowed for the use of 15 perforations per frame, running the film horizontally. This innovation created a level of resolution, brightness, and immersion that had never before been seen, and it remains the foundational technology of the IMAX format. Shaw's engineering skill and problem-solving established the technical DNA of the company, ensuring that the IMAX brand would forever be synonymous with the highest possible standard of visual fidelity and technical excellence. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).

Roman Kroitor was a National Film Board of Canada filmmaker whose 1960 documentary Universe influenced Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. After co-creating the multi-screen Labyrinth exhibit at Expo 67, he co-founded IMAX with Graeme Ferguson, Robert Kerr, and William Shaw, directed the first IMAX film, Tiger Child (1970), and later helped develop IMAX 3D. He died in 2012.

Roman Kroitor was born in 1926 in Yorkton. Education: University of Manitoba.

Kroitor was born on December 12, 1926 and died on September 17, 2012. He also created the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic 3D animation system, and his work earned two BAFTA Awards, three Cannes Film Festival awards and two Oscar nominations.

Robert Kerr was the business partner among IMAX's founders. A former mayor of Galt, Ontario and a friend of Graeme Ferguson, he handled the company's early financing and commercial operations as the founders turned their Expo 67 experience into a single-projector large-format system.

Robert Kerr was born in 1929.

Robert John Kerr was born on August 28, 1929 and died on April 29, 2010. The owner of a printing business, he was mayor of Galt, Ontario, from 1964 to 1967 and the second mayor of Cambridge, Ontario, in 1975 and 1976.