longest experimental film

The Untold Truth Of The Longest Movie Ever, Logistics

There has been a lot of discourse about Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" — in particular, how long it is. It's so long, in fact, that there has been some talk about bringing back intermissions for theatrical showings of the film, as well as articles about when the best time is to sneak off for a bathroom break . Three hours and 26 minutes is certainly a long movie, no doubt about it. But it doesn't make it the longest movie of all time by even the longest of long shots.

In fact, you could watch "Killers of the Flower Moon" 240 times and still not have it equal the runtime of "Logistics" — the current record holder for the longest movie ever made. Part-art project and part-documentary, "Logistics" follows the 857-hour journey that a single pedometer took from where it was manufactured in China to the store where it was sold in Sweden and purchased by the filmmakers. Who would make a movie that long, and more importantly, has anyone actually watched it? We're tackling those questions and much more about this unusual film and its eye-watering length.

It's the brainchild of two Swedish artists

The longest movie of all time also has one of the smallest crews of all time. Only two people conceived of, filmed, and edited "Logistics" — both artists, both backstage crew members of the theater world, and both alumni of the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson are the mad geniuses behind the movie, who came up with the idea in 2008 and had it finished by the end of 2012.

As the name implies, "Logistics" is about consumerism. According to the movie's official website , "The work is about Time and Consumption. It brings to the fore what is often forgotten in our digital, ostensibly fast-paced world: the slow, physical freight transportation that underpins our economic reality." It is said that they chose an "anonymous" item — a pedometer, appropriately enough — and decided to research the path that item took from where it was first made, all the way to the shop in Sweden where it was ultimately purchased. Once they determined that, they recreated the entire journey and filmed it, the bulk of which takes place on a large freight ship. The end result is "Logistics." 

It's much longer than the Guinness World Record holder for longest movie

There's no doubt that some people reading this article clicked on it because they doubted its headline. And that's understandable, as Google searches for the longest movie ever made give conflicting and flat-out incorrect information on the subject. What really muddies up the waters is that the Guinness Book of World Records has its own certified "Longest Film Made" — an experimental 1987 movie called "The Cure for Insomnia." At 85 hours, the film is one long poetry reading by Chicago poet L.D. Groban. "The Cure for Insomnia" is certainly on any "longest movies ever made" list — but it has since been beaten by a handful of longer films, with Guinness not bothering to update the record for one reason or another despite the organization remaining very much active and continuing to certify new records all the time. Not to mention, nobody seems to be able to easily access "The Cure for Insomnia" anymore, especially given that Groban died in 2011.

In 2011, all previous contenders for the longest movie ever made were put to shame with the release of "Modern Times Forever." The 240-hour film — which looks at how a specific building in Finland has succumbed to millennia of decay — is significantly longer than any movie made up to that point. It's nearly three times as long as "The Cure for Insomnia," the movie that Guinness and numerous other sources continue to call the longest movie of all time. But "Modern Times Forever" only got to enjoy its record for a year, as "Logistics" was released in 2012 and established itself as the new No. 1 by a mile-wide margin. 

It's a style of film known as durational cinema

On a surface level, it's easy enough to classify "Logistics." On its website, it's referred to as an art project — and in fact, it is sometimes called "Logistics Art Project" in articles that discuss it. Otherwise, being a nonfiction film documenting real events happening in front of its camera makes "Logistics" a documentary. But it turns out that there is a more specific genre that exists to describe "Logistics" and films like it. And yes, there are actually other films like it.

"Logistics" is part of a niche category of film known as durational cinema, also sometimes referred to as "slow cinema." Artist Andy Warhol is considered a pioneer of durational cinema, having created several films in the 1960s that are little more than real-time looks at someone sleeping, or looking at a building in real time for eight hours. And that's typically what defines durational cinema — a film that takes place in real time over an extended period, usually minimalist in nature with very little going on beyond incidental background activity. It's a genre that has gained in popularity among underground film enthusiasts in the last few decades. Scholar Lutz Koepnick wrote in his book "On Slowness: Toward and Aesthetic of the Contemporary" that slow cinema is a recent movement designed to "make us pause and experience a passing present in all its heterogeneity and difference."

It plays out entirely in reverse real time

Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson decided the only way to truly convey what they were trying to get across with "Logistics" was to film and present the entire journey in real time. Simply explaining that the pedometer's path from where it was created to where it was purchased for consumer use wasn't good enough — the route had to be shown in its entirety. Even if that route amounted to about 37 days.

However, the duo also said they were fascinated by the idea of looking backward on the journey, starting with the store they purchased the pedometer at and imagining its reverse trip all the way back to the original plant in China where it was first built. So that's when it was decided that "Logistics," too, should play out in reverse, with the 857 hours beginning at the store and then working backward through its journey on various forms of transportation. We travel by truck, then freight train, then truck again, ending at its birthplace at a factory in Bao'an in the city of Shenzhen, China, rather than starting there.

It's easy to view that decision as a gimmicky one, but it actually ends up making the message behind "Logistics" that much more powerful as it forces the viewer to start at the parts of a product's journey they are most familiar with and slowly introducing the lesser-known aspects of global trade as the movie goes on. We rarely think about where the things we purchase are actually made, so building up to that revelation is a masterstroke on the part of Magnusson and Andersson.

It was inspired by a story about an electric toothbrush

How does one even come up with such an idea as "Logistics"? It turns out that the impetus for what would become the longest movie ever made started with an electric toothbrush. Or, to be more precise, a story about an electric toothbrush. As Daniel Andersson explained in an interview with After Hrs , he and Erika Magnusson found an article in the German paper Der Spiegel in 2008 concerning an electric toothbrush. He said that they were intrigued by how the parts for that toothbrush came from 10 different countries and that this spurred them to start thinking about the complex machinations of the global economy and how manufactured goods travel around the planet.

The fact that such a seemingly simple item could have such a complicated logistical web with so many moving parts is hard to fathom. While it's likely that the pedometer that is the centerpiece of "Logistics" also has multiple parts that had to come from multiple places, Andersson and Magnusson ultimately decided to keep things (relatively) simple by having the journey showcased in the movie begin where the item was assembled. But the fact that even the finished pedometer needed to travel for over a month just to get to the store that was to carry it is something that most of us take for granted when we are out shopping and are picking up and buying things without giving much thought to how far they had to travel to get there.

It has screened at museums and film festivals

It's one thing to make an 857-hour movie. It's another to actually find a place to  show  an 857-hour movie. But yes, "Logistics" in its full, original, uncut glory has in fact screened in several places. It made its world debut in two places simultaneously — the Uppsala City Library and the Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, both in Sweden. It ran between December 2012 and January 2013, being shown at both of those locations in its entirety.

After that, "Logistics" has been screened at several film festivals and art shows, though typically in some sort of truncated fashion. In addition to its native Sweden, "Logistics" has also been made available for live viewing to audiences in Germany, China, the Netherlands, and the United States. The most recent known showing was in 2018 in Germany, and there aren't currently any confirmed plans for future screenings — the project's website hasn't been updated since 2021. However, that isn't to say that there hasn't been any other way to watch the movie or any current way to do so.

It was once available to rent online

The entire 857-hour version of "Logistics" streamed one time from the official site, but if you didn't happen to catch it, you're out of luck there. However, there was also a period where you could rent "Logistics" from the website Vimeo, for the rather economical price of $15 — which gives you a lot of bang for your buck in terms of the length of the content that $15 gave you. Upon purchase, you had three months to watch it, which is pretty generous, all things considered.

Unfortunately, "Logistics" has since been removed from Vimeo. According to a YouTube commenter who claims to have spoken to the filmmakers, the movie's removal came as a result of Vimeo updating the data cap on content that can be on the service. It's hard to blame a streaming company for not being willing to keep an 857-hour movie on their service, as that's a lot of bandwidth for something that isn't likely to bring in all that much cash. Still, it's a shame that — like so many other movies and shows you can't watch online these days — there isn't any way to watch the full version of "Logistics" on streaming. For a time, it was streamed on Twitch, but the last stream was in early 2023 with no currently announced plans for more viewings nor any saved clips to watch. Here's hoping we haven't seen the last of streamable options for this film, for pay or otherwise. 

A 72-minute edit was made and is available on YouTube

Thankfully, "Logistics" isn't completely lost to time. For a while, there were a series of two-minute clips on the movie's website — one for each day of the journey — that were chosen by Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson and could be watched off the site. Likely because of the cost of keeping video hosted on a website, these clips have since been removed from the site.

But all is not lost, as those clips were compiled together into a single 72-minute edit of the movie, with added music, and uploaded to YouTube in 2019. As of this writing, that video remains on YouTube for anyone to watch. There are even replies on the video that claim to be from either Magnusson or Andersson (or both) which, if true, would indicate that they are aware of the video's existence and have no desire to have it removed. It's obviously a far cry from the full 857-hour version, but having even 72 minutes of footage from "Logistics" available to watch for free is better than nothing. And if we're being honest, a lot more people would be willing to watch a 72-minute movie — and with background music — than a nearly silent 857-hour movie. That fact is likely not lost on Magnusson and Andersson.

A film critic claims to have watched the entire 857-hour version

So has anyone actually watched all of "Logistics"? Plenty of snarky internet commentators have claimed to have done so — more on them later — but has anyone with any sort of credibility done it? A film critic and horror movie podcaster named Ashley Darrow says he did, and he wrote an entire piece for Canadian publication  The Maple that documented his journey in watching all 857 hours of "Logistics." He also tweeted as he went, but those tweets have since been deleted.

" Logistics became more of a job than my job. Each morning, I would roll out of bed, grab my tablet and clock in for my shift watching Logistics ," Darrow wrote, noting the daunting time commitment required to take the viewing of the movie on and to take it seriously. Throughout the piece, he not only comments on "Logistics" itself but also the endurance required to watch it, claiming that it gave him a migraine at one point. It's an extremely interesting read, as he reviews both the movie itself and also the experience of watching it, while also digging into a little bit of the history of slow cinema. It's obviously impossible to know for absolute certain if he did, in fact, watch the entire movie, but he's the only professional to even make the claim, which is noteworthy in and of itself.

Reviews are mixed but also difficult to verify

Other than Ashley Darrow's essay, there is nothing out there even approaching an actual, legitimate review of "Logistics." Which is fair, since its creators position it as more of an art piece than a movie — and art, especially art that takes over 800 hours to process, is rarely, if ever, "reviewed" in the traditional sense. You aren't going to find Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic scores for "Logistics." The closest thing to any sort of aggregate scores for the movie come from sites like IMDb and Letterboxd, which allow users to review and score films.

For what it's worth, "Logistics" has an IMDb user score of 6.6 out of 10 and a Letterboxd score of 3.3 out of 5. But there is no way to verify that someone has actually watched a film in order to submit reviews to those sites, so take those scores with a grain of salt. Not surprisingly, many of the reviews on IMDb in particular are of the jokey variety, with headlines like "too short," "Action packed," and "Starts off slow." Some of it is entertaining to read, but it's still frustrating to attempt to get a sense for what people who have actually seen "Logistics" think of it — especially given that a limited number of people have had the opportunity to watch the full version — only to mostly find people using it as an excuse to show off their comedy-writing skills.

The creators claim it's actually a poetic experience

It's easy to assume that the actual watching of "Logistics" is an entirely sterile, utilitarian exercise. Given the intentions of the filmmakers in making the movie, it's also easy to assume that was their intention — to offer a no-frills presentation of the long and tedious journey that consumer items have to take from farm to table, as it were. Ashley Darrow identified in the film an examination of how our understanding of time and space is altered under capitalism.

Daniel Andersson offers up a different and somewhat surprising take on the "Logistics" viewing experience to After Hrs . He said that the film is a poetic experience and that the journey seems infinite. The images captured in the film — sunrise, sunset, the ocean waves, and the night sky — he said are beautiful images. And while much of his description doesn't seem like it would fit a 37-day-long movie that's mostly just a camera sitting on a boat full of freight boxes, it is indeed possible to find poetry and beauty almost anywhere. Even in a movie like "Logistics."

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This ‘80s movie is the longest ever made (it’s 85 hours).

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2024's Biggest Movie Jumps Over Jurassic World To Become 8th Highest Grossing Film Of All Time

The matrix trailer hypes september re-release & captures movie’s enduring power 25 years later, lord of the rings' legolas return chances get exciting update from orlando bloom: "there's not a downside to it".

• The Cure for Insomnia, released in 1987, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest movie ever made, running for a mind-boggling 85 hours.
• Unlike traditional movies, this experimental film was designed to cure insomnia and reprogram an insomniac’s biological clock.
• The film features actor L.D. Groban reading a 4,080-page poem interrupted by clips from heavy metal videos and pornography, although the reason for these inclusions is unknown.

Although a common complaint of modern moviegoers and critics alike is the length of movies, that didn't stop one director from producing an 85-hour film. A compact runtime clocking in around 90 minutes used to be the norm, but now directors think nothing of movies approaching 150 minutes or longer if it makes sense for the story they're telling. However, nothing in theaters today comes close to the longest movie ever made, which debuted in 1987.

Unsurprisingly, the film is more of an experiment than an actual movie with a plot, characters and thoughtful direction. However, it is not a documentary and is intended to be viewed in its entirety, qualifying it as the longest running film ever made per Guinness World Records . To watch it start to finish required more than three days in the theater, and it was indeed showed in its entirety upon its debut in 1987.

1987's The Cure for Insomnia Holds The Record For The Longest Movie Ever Made

Debuting on January 31st, 1987, The Cure for Insomnia is an experimental film directed by John Henry Timmis IV. It was originally shown at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and did run continuously from January 31st into February 3rd, as it clocked in at a mind-boggling 85 hours (three days, 13 hours). Per What to Watch , the average feature film length in 2021 was 131 minutes, making The Cure for Insomnia roughly 39 times longer than a modern excursion to the movie theater.

Related: 16 Unbelievably Long Hollywood Movies

There is some dispute online as to what the movie's actual length is, with some estimates actually pushing it as high as 87 hours. However, there is no way to verify its length as the movie has been lost to time. The film was never released on home video upon its initial release, and no copies of the film have ever been recovered, leading most film experts to consider the film lost.

Why The Cure For Insomnia Is 85 Hours Long

The Cure for Insomnia is not a "movie" in the traditional sense, in that its intended purpose is not for entertainment. The purpose for the movie is indicated by the title: it was designed to literally be a cure for insomnia, with its content intended to reprogram an insomniac's biological clock. Obviously this is very hard to confirm considering that the film has been lost, but given its reported content, that reasoning certainly makes sense.

The film consists mainly of actor L.D. Groban reading his 4,080-page poem titled A Cure For Insomnia over the course of the runtime. It is periodically interrupted by spliced-in clips from heavy metal videos and pornographic materials, although the explanation for these inclusions also seems to have been lost to time. There are other experimental films that have been made since A Cure for Insomnia 's release that might challenge for the title of "Longest Movie Ever Made", but as of now, the folks at Guinness still recognize the avant-garde film's supremacy.

Source: Guinness World Records

Source: What to Watch

The Longest Movie Ever Made Would Take You More Than a Month to Watch

Is there an ideal movie running time ? While the typical film lasts between 90 minutes and 2 hours, plenty of top-tier directors have successfully justified turning their features into 3-hour-plus cinematic affairs (to varying results). But it would be safe to say that the longest film you have ever sat thought has got nothing on  Logistics —a record-breaking project released in Sweden in 2012. Clocking in at a total runtime of 35 days and 17 hours, Logistics is by far the longest movie ever made.

The Longest Movie Ever Made

Logistics isn’t your standard Hollywood epic. The experimental film, which was conceived and directed by Swedish filmmakers Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson, lacks any conventional structure. According to the film’s website, the concept started with the question: Where do all the gadgets come from? Magnusson and Andersson attempted to answer that question by following the life cycle of a pedometer.

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The story begins at a store in Stockholm, where the item is sold, then moves backwards to chronicle its journey to consumers. Logistics takes viewers on a truck , a freight train, a massive container ship, and finally to a factory in China’s Bao’an district. The trip unfolds in real time, so audiences get a truly—and perhaps painfully—accurate sense of the time and distance required to deliver gadgets to the people who use them on the other side of the world. You can watch a 72-minute edit of the film above.

Many people would have trouble sitting through some of the longest conventional films in history. Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996) lasts 242 minutes, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s  Cleopatra (1963) is a whopping 248 minutes long. But sitting down to watch all 857 hours of Logistics straight through is nearly physically impossible (though intrepid journalist and film critic Ashley Darrow did just that in 2022).

Fortunately, dedicating more than a month of your life to watching Logistics straight through is not the only way to enjoy this work of art. On the project’s website, Logistics has been broken down into short, two-minute clips—one for each day of the journey. You can watch the abridged version of the epic experiment here , and brag about it later.

A version of this story ran in 2020; it has been updated for 2023.

• Cast & crew

A 151-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It is considered to be the longest film ever released. A 151-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It is considered to be the longest film ever released. A 151-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It is considered to be the longest film ever released.

• Gérard Courant
• Marie-Louise Alemann
• Tina Aumont

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• (archive footage)
• (as Serge Bard dit Abdullah Siradj)

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• Trivia This is a work in progress which started on 7 February 1978, at 11am. It is a silent 8mm film roll (duration: 3'20'') where a person is filmed in the situation he/she has chosen. No editing is done, no second take is allowed. As of June 2007, 2157 "Cinematons" have been shot, mostly artists and friends of author Gérard Courant . Total length is now nearing 150 hours screening.

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Directed by Erika Magnusson , Daniel Andersson

Video installation tracking the global flow of products

Logistics or Logistics Art Project is an experimental art film. At 51,420 minutes (857 hours or 35 days and 17 hours), it is the longest movie ever made. A 37 day-long road movie in the true sense of the meaning. The work is about Time and Consumption. It brings to the fore what is often forgotten in our digital, ostensibly fast-paced world: the slow, physical freight transportation that underpins our economic reality.

Directors Directors

Erika Magnusson Daniel Andersson

No spoken language

Releases by Date

01 dec 2011.

• Theatrical limited

01 Jan 2012

13 dec 2014, 21 jun 2015, 14 mar 2019, releases by country.

• Theatrical limited Uppsala City Library
• Digital On YouTube

51,420 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Suwi 7

Its so much better on a second watch guys trust me

Review by Portrait of a Hayley on Fire ½ 6

Not gonna lie, it was kind of slow

Review by Ezra_Drake

In awe at the size of this lad. Absolute unit.

Review by reibureibu ★★★★ 50

photobomb at the 24 day 14 hour 16 minute and 54 second mark

Review by Brighton Grace 1

The final boss of Letterboxd.

Review by Henry

These lads was like

- Yo les make longest dip ever fam

- So 12 hours yeet?

- More like 857 hours

Review by Morgan ½ 1

can this boat go any faster or nah

Review by tom 2

it’s kinda slow for the first week, but trust me it gets good

Review by ShanePd00 ★★★★★

The scene at day 27 around the 18 hour mark is the funniest scene in film! A brilliant way to wind down after the drama of that one scene on day 26 around 20 hours into the day.

Review by reibureibu ★★★★ 3

The sheer scale of this project at eight-hundred fifty-seven hours is likely a bit excessive, but in a way that fleshes out the incredibly absurd concept of the global economy we have: we follow this thirty-six day trip from Sweden to China over land and sea, that last part being particularly imposing considering all the effort, fuel, and manpower that must go into running a cargo ship, how many resources must be expended to transport these goods halfway across the world, and more than anything else the opportunity cost of time that's spent. All to transport pedometers that probably sell for less than a dollar each.

How astonishing this is considering it's still worth it, that they're still turning a…

Review by ApplePieCritic ½ 10

Who the hell thought this would be a good idea? It’s 35 days long. I’d rather shove honey up my asshole and sit on a beehive than watch this once. Fucking garbage

Review by John Mulvee

Mom said I could watch a quick movie before going to bed

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How Does Oppenheimer's 3-Hour Runtime Compare to the Longest Films Ever Made?

Christopher Nolan's new film is 3-hours long, but it's far short of the record for the longest movie ever... by weeks . 

Oppenheimer is a movie about the creation of a big, big bomb . So, fittingly, it has a big, big runtime. The film, now streaming exclusively on Peacock , is 3 hours long, making it the longest film that director Christopher Nolan has ever made. Starring Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the main scientist behind the creation of the bomb that ended War War II and ushered in a scary new era for mankind, Oppenheimer is a star-studded war drama that packs plenty into those three hours. 

Now, three hours is long for a movie, but how does Oppenheimer stack up against some of the other long movies? Turns out, it’s actually closer to a brisk little watch when compared to some truly lengthy films. Here are some of the longest movies ever made, broken down by category, as a straight list of the longest films would consist almost entirely of movies you’ve never heard of.

How Long is Oppenheimer ?

Oppenheimer runs almost exactly three hours long. The film's exact runtime is 180 minutes 9 seconds.

What’s the Longest Movie of 2023?

Oppenheimer may be lengthy with its 3-hour runtime, but there’s another major 2023 release that’s even longer. Killers of the Flower Moon , the latest film from the great Martin Scorsese, will premiere this December. The movie, an adaptation of David Grann’s book of the same name, tells the story of a series of murders of Osage Indians in 1920s Oklahoma and the early FBI’s efforts to investigate them. Killers of the Flower Moon is 3 hours and 26 minutes long. 

What’s the Longest Film to Win Best Picture?

Should Oppenheimer end up getting a nomination for the top prize at the upcoming Academy Awards, it won’t be the longest movie ever to win that Oscar. The 1939 film Gone With the Wind , which won Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards, boasts a runtime of 3 hours and 42 minutes.  

What Is the Longest Animated Movie?

Technically, the longest animated movie is Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht , which clocks in at 4 hours and 48 minutes in length. However, the 2005 direct-to-DVD release is a film adaptation of a video game that’s largely comprised of cutscenes from the game, so it doesn’t really count. The 2019 extended cut of the 2016 anime In This Corner of the World , about a young bride living in WWII Japan, has a truer claim to the record and a runtime of 2 hours and 48 minutes .

What’s the Longest Traditional Film to Win an Oscar?

In 1968, the Soviet film adaptation of War and Peace became what was, at the time, the longest movie ever to win an Oscar when it took home the Best Foreign Language Film award. War and Peace has a runtime of 7 hours and 11 minutes . It would hold the record for the longest movie to win an Oscar for nearly 50 years. 

What Is the Longest Film of Any Sort to Win an Oscar?

It kind of feels like cheating to say O.J. Simpson: Made in America , a jaw-dropping documentary about the rise and fall of the football player at the center of the most famous murder trial of the ‘90s, is a long movie. The seven-part film, which is 7 hours and 47 minutes long, won the Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards. Shortly after, the Academy changed the rules so that no other multi-part documentary is eligible for the category. So, if a movie or documentary is going to beat Made in America ’s record, it’s going to need to be close to 8 hours long in one sitting, no breaks allowed. 

What Is the Longest Movie Ever Made?

Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo, a black-and-white Banghalsdeshi film whose title translates to We Will Make a Film in English but has also been called The Innocence , holds the record for the longest traditional film. (As opposed to an experimental film, which we’ll get to in a second.) The 2019 movie, which follows various characters in the wake of the Bangladesh Liberation War and explores the country’s soul, is 21 hours and 5 minutes long. 

What is the Longest Experimental Film?

An experimental film, that is one that never played in mainstream cinemas and may have, at best, appeared in some form in a museum, are more akin to artwork than anything you’d consider a traditional movie. That’s certainly the case for the 2012 Swedish film Logistics , which is a real-time tracking of a simple gadget, a pedometer, from where it ended up on a store shelf back through its shipping, construction, and production. Logistics had its five-week-long premiere at a library in the Swedish city of Uppsala, because the movie is 857 hours long . That’s 35 full days, plus a bonus 17 hours.

Really makes the thought of holding your pee when you sit through Oppenhemier ’s mere 3-hour runtime seem like no big deal, eh?

How To Stream  Oppenheimer ?

Oppenheimer  is now streaming  exclusively on Peacock  alongside a slew of behind-the-scenes featurettes.

The NBCUniversal platform currently offers  two monthly subscription plans : Premium ($5.99 a month with ads) and Premium Plus ($11.99 a month with no ads and download access for certain titles). If you're a student, you can enjoy the Premium plan  for just $1.99  for an entire year!

Looking for some theatrical action in the meantime?  The Holdovers ,  My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 ,  The Exorcist: Believer ,  Fast X ,  Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken ,  Five Nights at Freddy's , and  Strays  are all streaming on Peacock!

Originally published Jul 21, 2023.

• Oppenheimer
• Behind The Scenes

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What is the longest movie ever made? Avatar 2, Marvel, Harry Potter & more

What’s the longest movie of all time? Avatar 2, James Cameron’s epic sequel, has a huge runtime – but what’s the longest movie ever made, and what’s the longest movie in Marvel, Harry Potter, Disney, and other franchises? 

The Godfather Part II, The Wolf of Wall Street, Schindler’s List, Titanic, The Irishman, and Avengers: Endgame; what do they all have in common? They’re all at least three hours long, earning their deliciously gargantuan runtimes with stories of infamy, tragedy, and infinity. 

Alas, the look of pure ecstasy across my partner’s eyes when I tell her a movie is 90 minutes or less tells me something: long movies are out of fashion. More accurately, they’re even more common, though often without the substance to justify their length – nor are intermissions commonplace, which helped liven the numbness of a long sit. 

James Cameron is the exception: Avatar: The Way of Water is an extraordinary, soul-swallowing achievement worthy of its runtime – but it may have you thinking: if Avatar 2 is considered long, what is the longest movie ever made? 

• Longest cinematic movie
• Longest experimental movie
• Longest James Cameron movie
• Longest Marvel movie
• Longest Harry Potter movie
• Longest Disney movie
• Longest Star Wars movie
• Longest Lord of the Rings movie
• Longest Hollywood movie
• Longest animated movie

The longest movies ever made 

Fittingly, the answer to this question can’t be answered quickly. There are a number of different factors to consider. Is it a film intended for theatrical entertainment, or is it experimental in nature? Was it shown on TV in multiple parts, yet still considered a movie, like Twin Peaks: The Return?

While excluding the latter subset of “long movies,” this article will break the history of lengthy cinema into separate categories, as well as the longest movie in a number of franchises, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe , Disney , Star Wars , and Lord of the Rings . 

What is the longest movie ever made? 

While the Guinness World Records say the longest movie ever made is 1987’s The Cure of Insomnia, it’s actually Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo, also known as The Innocence. 

Directed and written by Ashram Shishir, it has a whopping runtime of 21 hours and five minutes (1265 minutes), and is the longest non-experimental movie of all time. 

Below you’ll find a list of the longest movies ever made, including Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo: 

If you were expecting to see the likes of Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, and Cleopatra on there – don’t worry, we’ll get to those. 

What is the longest experimental movie ever made? 

The longest experimental movie is Logistics, which has a runtime of 35 days and 17 hours (51,420 minutes). 

Directed by Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson, the film follows the production cycle of a pedometer in reverse chronological order. It was screened between December 1, 2012, and January 6, 2013, before premiering at the 2014 Shenzhen Fringe Film Festival. 

This isn’t a movie designed for entertainment or mainstream audiences, hence why it’s considered an experimental film. Below is a short list of the longest experimental movies ever made: 

• Logistics: 51,420 minutes (35 days 17 hours) 
• Modern Times Forever: 14,400 minutes (10 days) 
• Beijing 2003: 9,000 minutes (6 days 6 hours) 
• Cinématon: 9,000 minutes (6 days 6 hours) 
• Untitled #125 (Hickory): 7,200 minutes (120 hours 5 days) 

What is James Cameron’s longest movie ever made? 

Avatar remains the longest movie James Cameron has ever made, with a runtime of 3 hours and 14 minutes (194 minutes). It’s closely followed by Avatar 2, which has a runtime of 3 hours and 12 minutes (192 minutes). 

Below are all of James Cameron’s movies, only including their original theatrical release, ranked in order of runtime: 

• Titanic: 194 minutes (3 hours 14 minutes)
• Avatar The Way of Water: 192 minutes (3 hours 12 minutes)
• Avatar: 162 minutes (2 hours 42 minutes)
• True Lies: 141 minutes (2 hours 21 minutes)
• The Abyss: 139 minutes (2 hours 19 minutes)
• Terminator 2 Judgment Day: 137 minutes (2 hours 17 minutes)
• Aliens: 137 minutes (2 hours 17 minutes)
• The Terminator: 107 minutes (1 hour 47 minutes) 
• Piranha II The Spawning: 94 minutes (1 hour 4 minutes)

What is the longest Marvel movie ever made? 

The longest Marvel movie is Avengers: Endgame, with a runtime of three hours and two minutes (182 minutes). 

Below you’ll find a list of the top five longest Marvel movies ever made: 

• Avengers Endgame: 182 minutes (3 hours 2 minutes) 
• Black Panther Wakanda Forever: 161 minutes (2 hours 41 minutes) 
• Eternals: 157 minutes (2 hours 37 minutes)
• Avengers Infinity War: 149 minutes (2 hours 29 minutes)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2 hours 29 minutes)
• Spider-Man No Way Home: 148 minutes (2 hours 28 minutes)

What is the longest Harry Potter movie ever made? 

The Chamber of Secrets is the longest Harry Potter movie ever made, with a runtime of two hours and 41 minutes. 

Every Harry Potter movie has been more than two hours, all the way from The Philosopher’s Stone to The Deathly Hallows Part II. 

Below is a list of every Harry Potter movie, ranked in order of runtime: 

• The Chamber of Secrets:  161 minutes (2 hours 41 minutes)
• The Goblet of Fire: 157 minutes (2 hours 37 minutes)
• The Half-Blood Prince: 153 minutes (2 hours 33 minutes)
• The Philosopher’s Stone: 152 minutes (2 hours 32 minutes)
• The Deathly Hallows Part 1: 147 minutes (2 hours 27 minutes)
• The Prisoner of Azkaban: 142 minutes (2 hours and 22 minutes)
• The Order of the Phoenix: 138 minutes (2 hours and 18 minutes)
• The Deathly Hallows Part 2: 130 minutes (2 hours 10 minutes)

What is the longest Disney movie ever made? 

Fantasia is the longest Disney movie ever made, with a runtime of 126 minutes, as per the Guinness World Records .

Yes, Disney owns Star Wars and Marvel, and Pirates of the Caribbean is under the House of Mouse banner – but that’s not why you’re asking for the longest Disney movie, so let’s not waste time with that pedantry. However, this does take Pixar movies into account. 

Below you’ll find a list of the top five longest Disney movies ever made: 

• The Little Mermaid (2023): 135 minutes (2 hours 15 minutes)
• Cruella (2021): 134 minutes (2 hours 14 minutes)
• Beauty and the Beast (2017): 129 minutes (2 hours 9 minutes)
• Aladdin (2019): 128 minutes (2 hours 8 minutes)
• Fantasia: 126 minutes (2 hours 6 minutes) 
• The Incredibles: 126 minutes (2 hours 6 minutes) 
• The Lion King (2019): 118 minutes (1 hour 58 minutes)
• Cars: 117 minutes (1 hour 57 minutes) 
• The Incredibles: 115 minutes (1 hour 55 minutes) 
• Mulan (2020): 115 minutes (1 hour 55 minutes)
• Ralph Breaks the Internet: 112 minutes (1 hour 52 minutes) 
• Dumbo (2019): 112 minutes (1 hour 52 minutes)

What is the longest Star Wars movie ever made? 

The Rise of Skywalker is the longest Star Wars movie ever made, with a runtime of 155 minutes. 

Every Star Wars movie, including Rogue One and Solo, has been at least two hours long. Below you’ll find a list of every Star Wars movie, ranked in order of runtime: 

• The Rise of Skywalker: 155 minutes (2 hours 35 minutes)
• The Last Jedi: 152 minutes (2 hours 32 minutes)
• Attack of the Clones: 142 minutes (2 hours 22 minutes)
• Revenge of the Sith: 140 minutes (2 hours 20 minutes)
• The Force Awakens: 138 minutes (2 hours 18 minutes)
• The Phantom Menace: 136 minutes (2 hours 16 minutes)
• Solo A Star Wars Story: 135 minutes (2 hours 15 minutes)
• Rogue One A Star Wars Story: 133 minutes (2 hours 13 minutes)
• Return of the Jedi: 131 minutes (2 hours 11 minutes)
• The Empire Strikes Back: 124 minutes (2 hours 4 minutes)
• A New Hope: 121 minutes (2 hours 1 minute)

What is the longest Lord of the Rings movie ever made? 

The Return of the King Extended Edition is the longest Lord of the Rings movie ever made, with a runtime of four hours and 23 minutes (263 minutes). 

Including The Hobbit trilogy and the animated film, every Lord of the Rings movie has been at least over two hours long, if not more than three hours. 

Below is every Lord of the Rings movie, ranked in order of runtime and including extended editions: 

• The Return of the King Extended Edition: 263 minutes (4 hours 23 minutes)
• The Two Towers Extended Edition: 223 minutes (3 hours 43 minutes)
• The Fellowship of the Ring: 208 minutes (3 hours 28 minutes) 
• The Return of the King Theatrical Edition: 201 minutes (3 hours 21 minutes)
• The Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition: 186 minutes (3 hours 6 minutes)
• An Unexpected Journey Theatrical Edition: 182 minutes (3 hours 2 minutes) 
• The Two Towers Theatrical Edition: 179 minutes (2 hours 59 minutes)
• The Fellowship of the Ring Theatrical Edition: 178 minutes (2 hours 58 minutes) 
• An Unexpected Journey Theatrical Edition: 169 minutes (2 hours 49 minutes)
• The Battle of the Five Armies Extended Edition: 164 minutes (2 hours 44 minutes)
• The Desolation of Smaug Theatrical Edition: 161 minutes (2 hours 41 minutes) 
• The Battle of the Five Armies Theatrical Edition: 144 minutes (2 hours 24 minutes)
• The Lord of the Rings: 132 minutes (2 hours 12 minutes)

What is the longest Hollywood movie ever made? 

Cleopatra remains the longest Hollywood movie ever made, with a runtime of four hours and eight minutes (248 minutes). This is closely followed by Gone with the Wind, which comes in just 10 minutes behind.

Below you’ll find the top five longest Hollywood movies ever made, excluding director’s cuts, ranked in order of runtime: 

• Cleopatra: 248 minutes (4 hours 8 minutes) 
• Gone with the Wind: 238 minutes (3 hours 58 minutes)
• Once Upon a Time in America: 229 minutes (3 hours 49 minutes)
• The Ten Commandments: 220 minutes (3 hours 40 minutes) 
• Lawrence of Arabia: 216 minutes (3 hours 36 minutes)

What is the longest animated movie ever made? 

In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World is the longest animated movie of all time, with a runtime of 168 minutes. 

Below you’ll find the top five longest animated movies ever made, including anime, ranked In order of runtime: 

• In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World: 168 minutes (2 hours 47 minutes) 
• Final Yamato: 163 minutes (2 hours 43 minutes)
• The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: 162 minutes (2 hours 42 minutes)
• The Tragedy of Man: 160 minutes (2 hours 40 minutes)
• Sangokushi The Distance Land: 157 minutes (2 hours 37 minutes)

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time just misses the cut with a runtime of two hours and 35 minutes (155 minutes). 

Those are the longest movies ever made – but what’s the highest-grossing movie of all time? We’ve got a list of the top 50, including Avatar and Top Gun: Maverick, here . 

What is the longest movie ever made? Even the answer to that question is not short.

Filmmaking has been around for over a century. During those years, hundreds and thousands of movies have been released, both short and lengthy. 

From the 2013 Oscar-nominated animated short " Fresh Guacamole " to the over three-hour epic romance " Titanic, " films can run for any given amount of time. 

Some of the shortest films, such as "Fresh Guacamole" run for less than two minutes. On the other side of the coin, there are movies that span over 24 hours, according to IMDb.

But what is the longest film ever made? 

What is the longest movie ever made?

There can be different answers to this question depending on what source you consult. 

Guinness World Records says the longest film ever made is " The Cure for Insomnia " released in 1987. The 85-hour experimental film was directed by John Henry Timmis IV. It was played in its entirety Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, 1987 at the The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, according to Guinness World Records. 

The film does not have a distinct plot and features "L.D. Groban reciting his own poem of 4,080 pages, interspliced with X-rated film footage and rock music videos," according to IMDb. 

However, IMDb cites " Logistics ," directed by Daniel Andersson and Erika Magnusson as the longest film by running time . The Swedish film was released in 2012 and spans 857 hours, or 35 days and 17 hours. 

Just curious? We're here to help with life's everyday questions

Is 'Titanic' the longest movie?

Though the iconic movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet  boasts a runtime of three hours and 14 minutes , according to IMDb, it is nowhere near the longest film. 

Many other cinematically released films beat the James Cameron classic, such as 1963 historical drama " Cleopatra " starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, which has a runtime of four hours and three minutes, according to Turner Classic Movies. 

'Titanic' turns 20: See the stars then and now

What is the longest Disney animated movie?

" Fantasia ", released in 1940, is the longest Disney animated film , according to Guinness World Records.

With a runtime of 124 minutes, or two hours and four minutes, it is the longest in Disney's animated catalogue, and the only one with a running time of over two hours, says Guinness World Records. 

How to watch Fantasia: Reviewed

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The Longest Movie Ever Made: Which Film Has the Longest Runtime?

Recently, more and more filmmakers have been pushing the boundaries for how extensive and long runtimes can be, with some of the biggest movies of the year having huge runtimes. John Wick: Chapter 4 had a runtime of 170 minutes, Christopher Nolan ’s Oppenheimer ran 181 minutes, and Martin Scorsese pushed it even further with Killers of the Flower Moon running in at a whopping 206-minute runtime.

But have you ever thought about what the actual longest-running movie is? How many hours? Days? WEEKS? That’s right, experimental films are made to challenge filmmaking conventions, and today, we’ll be discussing one such experimental film that holds the crown for being the longest movie ever made.

How Long Is the Longest Movie Ever Made?

Several movies have come and tried to take the mantle of being the longest movie ever made. The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World was released in 1970 and had a runtime of 48 hours. The Cure of Insomnia, released in 1987, had a runtime of 87 long hours. But the movie that undoubtedly takes the cake is Logistics , which was released in 2012. Logistics has a total runtime of 857 hours (51,420 minutes, to be exact). This means it’ll take you 35 days and 17 hours of continuous watching to get to the credits!

What Is Logistics About?

Directed by Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson , Logistics is more of a Swedish art project that delves into the concept of time and the intricate logistics of the global economy we take for granted. The movie focuses on the manufacturing process of a pedometer. Yes, it might seem like a mundane and tedious concept to follow for such an extensive duration, but that’s precisely the point. The filmmakers wanted to shed light on the often-overlooked origins of what they call “anonymous clutter” — those mundane items in our households we don’t think twice about.

The pedometer, often present yet rarely acknowledged or used, becomes a metaphor for the countless everyday items we take for granted. The film meticulously follows the entire manufacturing journey of the pedometer in reverse chronological order , starting from a store in Stockholm and tracing its way back to the factory in China where it all began.

The Creative Process Behind Logistics

Creating a movie that lasts for 857 hours is no small feat, and the logistics behind it are as intricate as the film itself. The crew filmed the movie in real-time, taking viewers on a truck journey, then onto a freight train, and then another truck ride, following the entire path back to the factory in Bao’an, located in Shenzhen, China. This unbroken, continuous exploration allows audiences to witness extensive travel, intensive labor, sunrises, sunsets, and all the mundane conversations that happen throughout the process.

Logistics made its world debut in two Swedish locations — the Uppsala City Library and the Kulturhuset Stadsteatern. The film was screened between December 2012 and January 2013 at both venues. Following its debut, Logistics has been featured at various film festivals and art shows in Germany and China. The film’s full version was once available for online rental, but not anymore.

For a period, Logistics even found its way onto Twitch. But, the last stream occurred in early 2023, and there are no current plans for additional viewings. Although the full version may be gone now, film enthusiasts can still catch a 72-minute cut of Logistics on YouTube.

Has Anyone Even Watched The Whole Thing?

The sheer length of Logistics poses a challenge to even the most dedicated film enthusiasts, and that is why you won’t find any Rotten Tomatoes scores for the movie. While the movie does have a modest 6.6 on IMDb, it’s mostly from joke reviews. One reviewer called the film “ too short ,” while another wrote, “ Had to watch it twice to make sure I wasn’t missing any details. Also, my toddler is allowed to watch one movie per month, and this is typically our go-to. ”

Jokes aside, there is at least one film critic who claims to have watched the whole thing in its entirety. Ashley Darrow penned an extensive piece for The Maple , providing a detailed film review. Darrow describes Logistics as extremely crushing, highlighting the mental and physical toll of watching a movie that spans over 35 days. At one point, he writes, “ There came a point about three weeks into my viewing where the maddening, non-Euclidean shape of Logistics fully formed in my mind. I had an unnerving migraine. I could barely get myself together, let alone watch a boat not move for nine hours. ” And that feeling was exactly what Logistics was intended to evoke. To immerse viewers in the grueling reality of the logistical processes working diligently behind the scenes to produce the everyday items we often take for granted.

Watch Logistics on YouTube

Safwan Azeem is a musician and songwriter who loves to travel. He has a degree in software engineering, but chooses to write instead. He's contributed for blogs like Collider, Koimoi, American Songwriter, Sports Illustrated, Old House Journal, Let's Eat Cake, Diamond Lobby, and Garden Gate. If you can't reach him on a Saturday evening, it's probably because he's out playing an acoustic gig. Check out more of his work on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn @safwanazeem.

Clocking in at one hour and 12 minutes, the 'teaser trailer' has been released for Ambiancé , a movie that will run a total of 720 hours (30 days) upon its completion by Swedish artist Anders Weberg .

While that running time may seem daunting and insane (and it is), Weberg plans on releasing the full film in the year 2020 on all continents simultaneously, after which... it will be destroyed.

It will be his last film, and when it is released, it will be the longest movie ever made, and join ultra-long works like The Clock , 24 Hour Psycho , and Pharrell's recent 24-hour long music video .

Is this really a trailer for the longest movie in the world?

While many of you have likely dismissed this idea entirely, the "trailer" is worth a watch, even if you put it on in the background. You can call it artsy fartsy garbage if you'd like (and lots of people will), but there isn't necessarily some big deeper meaning behind what we're seeing, even if it means something to the artist (though it does as you can read below). A lot of the imagery is really beautiful, and the mood is somewhere between a dream and what it might feel like if you were inside a melting oil painting.

So with that out of the way, here is more on the film ( from his blog ), followed by the 72-minute trailer (it's also NSFW in parts):

At this moment 280 hours is finished of the full 720 hours. Please help me spread the link and I would love to hear your thoughts as well.

6 months ago today my son André took an overdose and died 21 years old. Much of my works over the years has centered around him. This is for him.

Here's more on the filmmaker and his plan for the full movie :

On December 31, 2020 the Swedish artist Anders Weberg end his 20 plus years relation with the moving image as a means of creative expression. After more than 300 films he puts an end with the premiere of what will be the longest film ever made. Ambiancé is 720 hours long (30 days) and will be shown in its full length on a single occasion syncronised in all the continents of the world and then destroyed.

In the piece, Ambiancé space and time is intertwined into a surreal dream-like journey beyond places and is an abstract nonlinear narrative summary of the artist’s time spent with the moving image.

A sort of memoir movie. (Film memoir ). This in the visual expression that is constantly characterized the work throughout the artists career. As a small tease until the premiere in 2020 shorter teaser/trailers will be presented at different occasions.

2014 – Short teaser which is 72 minutes long and that has the intent to convey the mood and tempo from the full piece. 2016 – The first short trailer with duration 7 hours 20 minutes. 2018 – Longer trailer with duration 72 hours. 2020 - Release.

The final film will obviously be something that no one can sit through in one sitting, and it's not really meant to be.

It's meant to be the longest movie of all time.

I think the best way to watch work like this is not to be concerned with whether you "get it" or whether you're missing something. The work is what it is, and if it moves you in some way, great, but if it doesn't, that does not mean you or the filmmaker are any less worthy of calling yourselves artists. While he could be doing it only for the sake of doing it, the fact that the final piece is a tribute to his son adds another layer completely.

For more context, I think it also helps to see some of his work in shorter form (parts of these pieces ended up in the trailer above):

More on the man behind the longest movie ever (the longest movie in the world)

It's also worth noting some of Weberg's interesting ideas about creating art (from his bio):

He coined the term Peer-to-peer art or (p2p art) in 2006. Art made for – and only available on – the peer to peer networks. The original artwork is first shared by the artist until one other user has downloaded it. After that the artwork will be available for as long as other users share it. The original file and all the material used to create it are deleted by the artist. ”There’s no original”. 8ix films with a duration between 45 minutes and 12 hours was uploaded on the file sharing networks in one copy and their original was deleted. P2P Art – The aesthetics of ephemerality.

What is TRULY the longest movie of all time?

Well, there are the ones we've already mentioned plus a few other notable entries. Modern Times Forever (2011) runs 240 minutes.

But the question starts to get into things like what is the longest experimental movie, or what is the longest theatrical movie in theaters ever...

Here are a few notable titles with their run times.

Logistics , an experimental installation is, in fact, the longest film ever made. It has a runtime of 857 hours, it tops the projected run time of Ambiancé (720 hours).

It's more of an installation than a film. Let's take a look at another one of the longest films ever. Made in 1968 The Longest Movie Meaningless Movie in the World, clocked in at 48 hours in length.

There was nothing shot for this one, instead, it was cobbled together using outtakes, ads, random strips of film...

Surely it's a lot of fun to watch.

For a long time, this one was the longest movie of all time. That has since changed, and the rankings look to be shaken up once more in 2020.

Additional Links:

• Ambiancé -- The Longest Film
• Anders Weberg -- Vimeo
• Anders Weberg -- Blog

[via The Verge ]

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Behind the scenes of Lionsgate’s “Greedy People” with editor Jamie Kirkpatrick, ACE

“greedy people” is a darkly comedic crime thriller set in the fictional town of providence, nc, where a murder leads to a series of increasingly bad decisions that upend the once peaceful island town..

This post was written by Michelle Gallina and originally appeared on the Adobe blog on September 5th, 2024.

After accidentally killing a local resident, rookie cop Will (Himesh Patel) and his rogue partner Terry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) discover a million dollars at the scene. By taking the money and covering up the crime, the two cops set in motion events that reveal the greed and hidden agendas of people within the community.

We spoke with Jamie Kirkpatrick, ACE, about editing the film using Adobe Creative Cloud tools. Specifically, Productions in Adobe Premiere Pro was an essential tool for organizing the large amount of dailies for this project.

“Greedy People” is available to stream on Apple TV , Prime Video and in select theaters now. Read on below for more insights on its editing workflow.

How and where did you first learn to edit?

I went to film school at Boston University, but it wasn’t until the summer before my senior year, while in Hollywood, that I really caught the editing bug. Through a few random connections, I met renowned film editors Billy Weber and Donn Cambern. They invited me to intern on a film they were working on called “Little Giants.” One day, Steven Spielberg, who was producing the film, came into the cutting room to help out with a tricky section. They let me sit in and watch, and it was mind blowing seeing what they could do with editing. Right then and there, I knew editing was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

How do you begin a project/set up your workspace?

I always do research for a film I'm about to start. Sometimes, a director will send me reference films, but I mostly do that on my own — not to copy, but to draw inspiration from films with a similar tone or genre. Those films become part of the ongoing conversation with the director. This is my second consecutive film working with director Potsy Poncirol, the previous film being “Old Henry.” Prior to “Greedy People,” we were sharing films with each other for inspiration.

Tell us about a favorite scene or moment from this project and why it stands out to you.

There were so many fun scenes to work on in “Greedy People,” but one of my favorite scenes has to be when Will and Terry interview Keith (the masseur) at his house. The scene is about subterfuge: the cops are trying to figure out what Keith knows while Keith is trying his best not to incriminate himself. So, the challenge was to find those moments that straddled the line between subtle and funny. And meanwhile, Keith's elderly mom keeps popping up from the background and complicating his alibi. I think everyone recognizes that Simon Rex (who plays Keith) is an incredible comedic actor, but what I discovered cutting that scene is what a great straight man Himesh Patel (who plays Will) is. The micro-reactions he gives while listening to Keith tell his story still make me laugh whenever I see that scene.

Image Source: Lionsgate.

What were some specific post-production challenges you faced that were unique to your project? How did you go about solving them?

We were one of the earliest features to use Premiere Pro’s Productions tool when we cut “Old Henry” in 2020. I had a pretty seamless experience with that workflow, however, that was a much smaller film. “Greedy People” was much larger, in terms of the amount of dailies, and throughout the process I learned the importance of not making each project within the production too big. Ben Insler, who had been an assistant editor on David Fincher's “Mank” (possibly the first film to use Productions) as well as Fincher’s “ The Killer ”, was instrumental in explaining how to break the film down into smaller chunks. So, instead of one "dailies" project, we reorganized and created separate projects for each day of dailies. This helped improve the speed and performance of our systems and made a big difference during post.

What Adobe tools did you use on this project and why did you originally choose them? Were there any other third-party tools that helped enhance your workflow?

I became a huge fan of the Essential Sound panel on this film, specifically the "stretch" function, called Remix, which had just been introduced when we were editing. My director Potsy likes to use a lot of temp music to get the scenes to play right tonally, and the ability to take a pre-composed piece of music and extend it a few seconds without having to cut it so it ends where you want it is a game-changer.

Image Source: Jamie Kirkpatrick, ACE.

If you could share one tip about Premiere Pro, what would it be?

It's not really a tip but I want to shout out the Lumetri Color panel which I just love. I came up at a time when color correction was exclusively someone else's job so I never learned the intricacies of correcting within my software. But the Lumetri tools are so intuitive and fast that I don't even hesitate to correct a shot that's a little off color-wise.

Who is your creative inspiration and why?

There are so many filmmakers that inspire me but none more than the late Polish filmmaker Krystof Kielslowski. His “Three Colours” trilogy is widely (and rightly) considered a masterpiece. When I saw them in sequence at a theater, it completely changed my concept of cinematic storytelling. It's impossible to briefly describe why his films resonate so deeply for me but what I find so inspiring is his ability to weave his story's central theme into virtually every shot and to elicit deeply profound insights from seemingly ordinary images. His work taught me that every image in the film should mean something, so that idea is always in the back of my mind when I'm assembling a scene.

What’s the toughest thing you’ve had to face in your career and how did you overcome it? What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers or content creators?

Throughout my career as an editor, I've been fortunate to work with positive, supportive directors who considered me a true collaborator. (Potsy being a prime example!) But a couple of times I've worked with narcissistic, manipulative or even verbally abusive people. While there's no doubt that our industry has gotten better in this regard, those folks are still out there, and they can make working on a job pretty miserable. What I've learned over the years and what I would remind anyone who finds themselves in a bad work situation is: Life's too short to be unhappy at work. You can quit. And the whole "you'll never work in this town again" thing is overblown and just used to keep people from standing up for themselves. Your mental health and well-being is more important than any film or tv show.

Share a photo of where you work. What’s your favorite thing about your workspace and why?

While I live in an apartment in New York, we have a house in the Catskill Mountains, about two hours north. Since my wife can work remotely, I was able to edit “Greedy People" at the house. Being able to look out at the lake or take a walk in the woods when I need a break makes the whole work experience so much more enjoyable.

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15 Longest Movies Of All Time, Ranked

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Rings of Power Season 2 Gives Isildur a Problem That Aragorn Had Centuries Later

10 disney movies scenes that pushed their ratings to their limit, the next spider-man film needs to maintain one of the best aspects of no way home.

Movies remain one of the greatest equalizers, but there's a growing level of excess that continues to creep into cinema. A tight 90-minute film that doesn't belabor itself has become increasingly rare, and in an age where franchise fare and genre epics reign supreme, it's more and more common to have movies that exceed three hours.

RELATED: Top 10 Best Movies With Extremely Long Runtimes

2022 alone had a nearly three-hour Batman movie, Damien Chazelle's Babylon , and James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water. There are already rumors that the third film in Cameron's sci-fi series will have a nine-hour cut. Audiences have clearly grown more accustomed to lengthy cinematic experiences. Still, there are some especially extreme movies (excluding documentaries and experimental cinema) that truly push the limits of a conventional runtime.

This article includes trailers for movies of various age ratings, some of which depict violence, nudity, and strong language.

Updated May 3, 2023 by Daniel Kurland: A longer movie doesn’t always translate to a better movie. Some regard a lengthy runtime as a mark of prestige while others will do whatever they can to shorten the runtime, even if that means splitting the film into a two-part experience. There seems to be fewer reservations that are associated with long movies as it becomes more of the standard. That being said, there are some movies that truly push the limits of how long a story should be and become cumbersome watches that drag by.

15 Happy Hour

317 minutes; 5 hours, 17 minutes.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi is a standout Japanese filmmaker whose recent films like Burning and Drive My Car received serious critical acclaim on an international level . Hamaguchi specializes in lengthy deconstructions of the human condition, a lot of which is communicated through extensive everyday conversations.

Happy Hour is one of Japan's longest movies and it breaks down the frayed friendship between four friends in their late-thirties after one admits that they're headed into a divorce. So much of Happy Hour entails discovering these women's lives as they support each other, and it's a remarkable look into female friendship.

14 From What Is Before

338 minutes; 5 hours, 38 minutes.

From What Is Before is one of the more recent movies by Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, and it functions as a strong encapsulation of the director's socially conscious filmography. From What Is Before applies a critical eye to The Philippines back in the early '70s.

The lengthy drama focuses on the utter chaos that breaks out in the country after a brutal death leads to the invocation of Martial Law. From What Is Before effectively presents violent horrors in an unflinching manner while it asks the question of when and where these tragedies began.

339 Minutes; 5 Hours, 39 Minutes

There are some particularly long biographies out there that aim to chronicle every aspect of a person's life. Carlos unpacks two decades of the life of Venezuelan terrorist, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal. Carlos sells its story so well by having the luxury to dig deep into pivotal periods of Sanchez's life.

RELATED: 10 Longest Animated Movies (That Aren't Anime)

Edgar Ramirez also gives a tour de force performance as the film's lead. Carlos was released as a five-and-a-half-hour solo feature, but it's also been separately released as a three-part miniseries and an abridged two-and-a-half-hour edit that's aired on US television.

12 The Best Of Youth

366 minutes; 6 hours, 6 minutes.

Clocking in at just over six hours, 2003's The Best of Youth is a historical drama out of Italy that spans nearly forty years of the displaced Carati family. The Best of Youth benefits from its extensive runtime as the lives of two brothers, Nicola and Matteo, gradually diverge.

The net that The Best of Youth casts is so wide that decades of societal and political strife are depicted as this family struggles for meaning and connection. Death, loss, and love are experienced with stark and painful clarity as The Best of Youth represents an entire generation through its introspective story.

11 The Wheel

413 minutes; 6 hours, 53 minutes.

Abel Gance was a revolutionary French filmmaker during the 1920s who seriously changed the medium through his groundbreaking use of editing and lighting. Gance is responsible for some lengthy films, with both J'accuse and Napoleon being particularly extended affairs.

The Wheel , also known as La Roue , comes in at nearly seven hours in its properly restored version from 2019. The Wheel was such a big deal because of its strange filmmaking techniques, but the silent movie still tells an engaging story about two star-crossed lovers who struggle to make things work in their uniquely challenging worlds.

10 Sátántangó

439 minutes; 7 hours, 19 minutes.

Some of the most remarkable stories highlight the indomitable will of a single soul and the difference that they can make. Sátántangó is a Hungarian film that's more than seven hours long, and it's based on a novel of the same name that's steeped in real-life tragedies.

RELATED: 10 Longest Disney Movies, Ranked

A humble farm that's on the precipice of closure loses any chance for a hopeful future when a former co-worker, presumed dead, makes a very bold return. Sátántangó is a depressing meditation on loss that wallows in these conditions and ends on a crushing note that's only amplified through the stark black-and-white cinematography.

9 Melancholia

450 minutes; 7 hours, 30 minutes.

2008's Melancholia from the Philippines, not to be confused with Lars von Trier's movie of the same name, is a powerful meditation on change that's divided into three sections and an epilogue that ties them all together. Melancholia is seven-and-a-half hours long, so each of its three sections could qualify as their own film under different circumstances.

Each section follows an afflicted soul who attempts to conquer a bad habit and attain peace of mind through different forms of unconventional therapy. It's an incredible look into routine as well as both the pros and cons of reinvention.

8 The Works & Days (Of Tayoko Shiojiri In The Shiotani Basin)

480 minutes; 8 hours.

A fairly recent movie that came out of Japan in 2020, The Works and Days is eight hours of focus on the minutiae that Tayoko, an elderly farmer from the Shiotani region, experiences. The Works And Days is divided into five chapters, and it's just as interested in Tayoko's inactivity as it is when she has a busier slate.

In doing so, The Works and Days gives an honest presentation of not only this woman's life, but the region itself as fourteen months transpire. Fascinating highs and lows are witnessed in this span of time.

7 A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery

485 minutes; 8 hours, 5 minutes.

Laz Diaz is an acclaimed Filipino filmmaker, and 2016's A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery is a staggering movie that's unsurprisingly one of his most polarizing projects. Coming in at just over eight hours, Diaz's film attempts to demystify Andrés Bonifacio, a revolutionary figure from 19th century Philippines.

There's a dreamlike fantasy component to A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery that eschews a typical narrative in favor of a more fairy tale and expressionistic deconstruction of this icon. A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery still fared well at the Berlin International Film Festival, despite its laborious length.

6 Heremias: (Book One: Legend Of The Lizard Princess)

519 minutes; 8 hours, 39 minutes.

Heremias: (Book One: Legend Of The Lizard Princess) is the most unruly crime road drama this side of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Heremias is a destitute farmer who stays from better judgment and finds himself involved with a group of criminals. He begins to regret his actions when an innocent girl, Helena, becomes a victim of his destructive actions.

Heremias comes out of this painful experience with newfound empathy, ready to atone for his sins. Despite its nine-hour length, Heremias ends on a cliffhanger of sorts. While there were initially plans for a sequel, Heremias: Book Two - The Legend of the Invisible Island , they remain incomplete.

5 Death In The Land Of Encantos

538 minutes; 8 hours, 58 minutes.

Death in the Land of Encantos shouldn't be confused with Disney's Encanto , which be watched more than five times in the time it takes to finish one viewing of Death in the Land of Encantos . The nearly nine-hour film delicately allows Filipino poet, Benjamin, to return to his hometown of Padang and put to rest his complicated relationship with this country, its people, and its past.

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Death in the Land of Encantos almost feels like a funeral dirge. Benjamin slowly marches closer to his death, but not before he makes peace with these revelatory stepping stones from his life.

4 Evolution Of A Filipino Family

593 minutes; 9 hours, 53 minutes.

The Philippines is responsible for several of the longest films of all time, and there's a compelling relationship for long-form narratives where the full weight of an experience can be processed. Another entry by Laz Diaz and more palatable than A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery , Evolution of a Filipino Family stays true to its name.

The nearly ten-hour epic painstakingly details the death and possible rebirth of a simple farming community. Diaz's laborious effort focuses on the specific, but these struggles become a metaphor for over 15 years of authoritarian strife in the Philippines during the 1970s and '80s.

775 Minutes; 12 Hours, 55 Minutes

Out 1 is a masterpiece in interconnected narratives, and the film's nearly 13-hour runtime follows several unscrupulous individuals who find themselves at a crossroads following France's civil unrest during the 1960s. A con artist and other heightened personalities are on display in eight different chapters, all of which are the length of a feature film themselves.

Out 1 brilliantly uses the power of time to turn the concept into a character in and of itself. Since much of Out 1 exists independently of the other narratives, a condensed four-hour version, Out 1: Spectre , is also available.

803 Minutes, 13 Hours, 23 Minutes

La Flor blurs the line between narrative and experimental cinema. It presents six chapters, which are seemingly only linked through the use of the same four actresses and recurring themes of rebellion and legacy.

Some of these stories play straightforwardly, but several mess around with chronology and engage in meta experiments where it feels like the film's performers are turning against the director and audience. La Flor is no small feat at more than 13 hours. However, the movie's chapters are very playful and cover everything from supernatural mummy attacks to eternal youth potions.

1 The Innocence/We Will Make A Cinema

1265 minutes; 21 hours, 5 minutes.

The Innocence , also known as We Will Make a Cinema , is the ultimate binge-watch and one viewing takes nearly an entire day. Currently holding the title for the longest non-experimental film ever made, The Innocence uses the power of filmmaking to prop up a desperate nation's hopes, dreams, and identity following the destabilizing aftermath of the Bangladesh Liberation War.

People from all walks of life struggle and thrive as they make sense of an uncertain tomorrow, albeit one that's infinitely more optimistic than their decided pasts. Hopefully, Kevin Feige doesn't decide to take inspiration from filmmaker Ashraf Shishir when it comes to the runtime for Avengers: Secret Wars .

NEXT: 10 Short Films That Would Be Better Full-Length Movies

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The All-Time Longest Films: A Photo Gallery of The Top 50

By Robert Lang

Robert Lang

Photo Editor

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Films come in various lengths, and some filmmakers have created exceptionally long movies that push the boundaries of time. While this might seem daunting to some, it offers the opportunity to become fully engrossed in the storytelling and be transported to epic battles, as seen in such pics as War and Peace or Gettysburg , or to faraway lands, such as ancient Egypt in Cleopatra .

Related: 30 Feature Films With Shortest Production Schedules, From ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ And ‘The Blair Witch Project’ to ‘Whiplash’

Martin Scorsese’s latest western epic, Killers of the Flower Moon , starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, has entered the list of the top 20 longest films in box office history with a runtime of 3 hours and 26 minutes. Scorsese’s previous film, 2019’s The Irishman , surpasses this with a runtime of 3 hours and 29 minutes.

Some experimental films have pushed the boundaries of time to extremes. Directors Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson achieved this with their 2012 release, Logistics , which boasts an astonishing runtime of 35 days and 17 hours, surpassing any other film.

Related: 50 Avant Garde And Experimental Films Gallery: From ‘Meshes Of The Afternoon’, ‘The Holy Mountain’, ‘Scorpio Rising’ To ‘The Lighthouse’ & More

Scroll down for the films that were released at the box office.

1. War and Peace (1965) – 6 hours, 30 minutes

Directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, this Soviet adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novel was released in theaters in four parts

2. The Best of Youth (2003) – 6 hours, 6 minutes)

Directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, the Italian epic starring Jasmine Trinca, Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessio Boni follows the lives of two brothers from the 1960s to the 2000s

3. The House of Hate (1918) – 5 hours, 8 minutes

Directed by George B. Seitz, it stars Charles Logue, Bertram Millhauser & Arthur B. Reeve

4. The Big Red One: The Reconstruction (2005) – 5 hours, 16 minutes

Directed by Samuel Fuller and starring Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, Kelly Ward, the “reconstruction” the title refers to is the reworking, re-editing and restructuring of Sam Fuller’s The Big Red One bringing it closer to the film Fuller had originally envisioned It includes almost 48 additional minutes of footage that was not used in the film’s original 1980 release

5. The Weathered Underground (2010) – 5 hours, 10 minutes

Directed by David N. Donihue and starring Michael Ciriaco, Brea Grant & Hollis McLachlan, the interactive DVD plays like a video version of “Choose Your Own Adventure Books.” The story follows 21-year-old Eric, a struggling musician dealing with a devastating breakup from his greatest love, the somewhat insane yet adorable Liz. Viewers guide Eric through one wild night filled with criminals, drugs and damsels while deciding his fate — whether he’ll win back his love or succumb to moral decay, with over 30 different endings and 1,000 choices

6. Napoleon (1927) – Exceeding 5 hours in various versions

Directed by Abel Gance, this silent film about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte had various versions, with some exceeding 5 hours in runtime

7. Gettysburg (1993) – 4 hours, 31 minutes

Directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, this Civil War epic starring James Lancaster, Royce Applegate, Tim Ruddy, Richard Jordan, Ivan Kane, Tom Berenger, Kieran Mulroney, Cooper Huckabee, Stephen Lang, Martin Sheen and Bo Brinkman

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – 4 hours, 23 minutes

Peter Jackson’s extended edition has a runtime of 263 minutes, starring Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Andy Serkis as the voice of Gollum

9. The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – 4 hours, 20 minutes

An all-star, large-scale epic movie that chronicles the life and ministry of Jesus Christ starring Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire and Charlton Heston

10. L’amour fou (1969) 4 hours, 12 minutes

Directed by Jacques Rivette, starring Bulle Ogier, Jean-Pierre Kalfon & Josée Destoop

11. Cleopatra (1963) – 4 hours, 11 minutes

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Richard Burton as Antony and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

12. Norte, The End Of History (2014) – 4 hours, 10 minutes

Directed by Lav Diaz, starring Sid Lucero Angeli Bayani and Archie Alemania 

13. Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922) – 4 hours, 2 minutes

Directed by Fritz Lang, starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge as arch-criminal Dr. Mabuse, who sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin

14. World Famous Lover (2020), 4 hours

Directed by Kranthi Madhav, starring Vijay Deverakonda Raashi Khanna and Aishwarya Rajesh

15. The Iceman Cometh (1973) – 3 hours, 59 minutes

Directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Fredric March and Lee Marvin

16. Gone with the Wind (1939) – Roughly 3 hours, 58 minutes

Victor Fleming’s classic starring Vivien Leigh, Hattie McDaniel and Victor Fleming

17. Dances with Wolves (1990) – 3 hours, 56 minutes

Directed and starring Kevin Costner, this Western epic originally hit theaters at 2 hours, 1 minute

18. The Iceman Cometh (1973) – 3 hours, 55 minutes

Directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Romy Schneider and Helmut Berger

19. An Elephant Sitting Still (2019) – 3 hours, 55 minutes

Directed by Bo Hu, starring Yu Zhang, Yuchang Peng and Uvin Wang

21. The Beautiful Troublemaker (La Belle Noiseuse), 2017 – 233 minutes 3 hours, 53 minutes

Directed by Jacques Rivette, starring Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin and Emmanuelle Béart

21. Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision (2013) – 3 hours, 50 minutes

Directed by Edgar Reitz, starring Jan Dieter Schneider, Antonia Bill and Maximilian Scheidt

22. Once Upon a Time in America (1984) – 3 hours, 49 minutes

Sergio Leone’s crime epic starring James Woods, Robert De Niro and James Hayden

23. Gods and Generals (2003) – 3 hours, 49 minutes

Directed by Ron Maxwell, starring Stephen Lang and Robert Duvall

24. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – 3 hours, 48 minutes

Starring Elijah Wood, Peter Jackson’s extended edition has a runtime of 228 minutes

25. The Woman Who Left (2016) – 3 hours, 47 minutes

Directed by Lav Diaz, starring Charo Santos-Concio, John Lloyd Cruz and Michael De Mesa

26. LOC: Kargil (2003) – 3 houirs, 45 minutes

Directed by J.P. Dutta, starring Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn and Saif Ali Khan

27. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) – 3 hours, 45 minutes

Directed by Peter Jackson, starring Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom and Ian McKellen

28. Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) – 3 hours, 45 minutes

Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, starring Rajesh Vivek, Amin Gazi, Amin Hajee and Aamir Khan

29. The Royal Mounted Rides Again (1945) – 3 hours, 41 minutes

Directed by Lewis D. Collins & Ray Taylor, starring Bill Kennedy, Tom Fadden, George Dolenz and Paul E Burns

30. The Ten Commandments (1956) – 3 hours, 40 minutes

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, this biblical epic John Derek, Debra Paget, Yvonne De Carlo and Charlton Heston

31. Christ Stopped at Eboli (extended, 1979) – 3 hours, 40 minutes

2019 re-release of Francesco Rosi’s film starring Paolo Bonacelli and Gian Maria Volonte

32. The Mother and the Whore (La maman et la putain 1979) – 3 hours, 39 minutes

Directed by Jean Eustache, starring Bernadette Lafont and Jean-Pierre Léaud

33. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) – 3 hours, 36 minutes

Directed by David Lean and starring Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn

34. Ben-Hur (1959) – 3 hours, 32 minutes

Directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston

35. Exodus (1961) – 3 hours, 30 minutes

Directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jill Haworth and Sal Mineo

36. The Irishman (2019) – 3 hours, 28 minutes

Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro

37. JFK (extended, 1991) – 3 hours, 28 minutes

Starring Kevin Costner, Oliver Stone’s extended edition has a runtime of 209 minutes

38. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (Ningen no jôken, 1959) – 3 hours, 27 minutes)

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi, starring Seiji Miyaguchi, Shinji Nambara and Tatsuya Nakadai

39. Das Boot (1981) – 3 hours, 28 minutes

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, this German war film director’s cut starred Klaus Wennemann, Jurgen Prochnow & Herbert Gronemeyer

40. Killers of The Flower Moon (2023) – 3 hours, 26 minutes

Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro & Leonardo DiCaprio 

41. Andrei Rublev (1966) – 3 hours, 26 minutes

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, starring Anatoli Solonitsyn

42. Scarface (1983) – 3 hours, 25 minutes

Starring Al Pacino, Brian De Palma’s 35th anniversary reissue has a runtime of 205 minutes  

43. The Seven Samurai (1956) – 3 hours, 23 minutes

Directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune

44. Apocalypse Now (1979) – 3 hours, 23 minutes

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall

45. Titanic (1997) – 3 hours. 23 minutes

Directed by James Cameron, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet

46. The Unbroken (2009) – 3 hours, 22 minutes

Directed by Setsurô Wakamatsu, starring Ken Watanabe, Erika Toda & Shun Sugata

47. Aaru (2005) – 3 hours, 22 minutes

Directed by Hari, starring Suriya, Trisha Krishnan and Vadivelu

48. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) 3 hours, 21 minutes

Directed by Chantal Akerman and starring Delphine Seyrig

49. Private Confessions (1996) – 3 hours. 20 minutes

Directed by Liv Ullmann, starring Pernilla August and Thomas Hanzon

50. The Godfather Part II (1974) – 3 hours, 20 minutes

Francis Ford Coppola’s sequel starring Al Pacino

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The 10 Longest Movies of All Time, Ranked

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Oppenheimer may be long, but at least people can reasonably watch it in one sitting. After all, some filmmakers couldn't care less about box-office numbers, critic reviews, or even the audience's ability to watch the entire work. Experimental movies challenge boundaries and conventions —a plot, character development, a runtime between 80 and 150 minutes, etc.—to the point where they hardly feel like part of the same medium as their theatrical siblings.

Sometimes, this comes in the form of a multi-part series streamed on Netflix or aired on television over several days. But the following films—these mastodons, these titans—cannot be contained by even a serial format, and only the most dedicated viewer would be willing to see them through to the end. So here are the ten longest films ever made, ranked from shortest (the word has never been used more loosely) to longest .

10 '****' (1967)

**** (otherwise known as Four Stars ) immediately declares that even the 10th-longest movie ever created is impossible to watch in one day. The 25-hour runtime makes a little more sense after learning it was written and directed by famed pop artist Andy Warhol at the height of the counter-culture movement.

Warhol actually made a ton of movies, ranging from a two-hour black-and-white superhero movie called Batman Dracula to a bunch of experimental short films to Chelsea Girls , a three-hour commercial success that received mixed reviews. Four Stars sets itself apart from all of them with more than just its length; it was also made so that two 33-minute reels would play over each other at once. It's said that this extremely avant-garde oddity was only exhibited in full once at the Film Makers' Cinematheque for a 1967 screening in a New York City basement that no longer exists. A short-story collection on film, Four Stars is unlikely to be shown in full again .

Not available to stream or buy.

9 'The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple' (1928-1931)

Chinese cinema pioneer Zhang Shichuan didn't show Huo shao hong lian si (translated as The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple ) all at once. Instead, this 27-hour silent epic was released in 18 feature-length sections from 1928 through 1931, quite a unique point in film history. Every part of the movie was a hit in China and helped make the Mingxing Film Company into a powerhouse. What's more, it's also known as the first feature-length wuxia film , so its action scenes must have made up for its length.

This is far from Zhang Shichuan's only cinematic milestone. He also directed China's first feature film, The Difficult Couple , which came out in 1913 and prompted the very medium's popularity. Based on a newspaper serial called Strange Tales of the Adventurer in the Wild Country , its extensive adaptation is about the rescue of a commander trapped inside a temple. Sadly, the film for this mammoth has been lost to time.

8 'The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World' (1968)

The late-sixties strike again, as 1968's The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World was two literal days long and probably moved at a slower pace than a T-rex on a leash. This bizarre film with the most self-aware title possible was composed exclusively of outtakes, commercials, newsreels, and a variety of other premade footage that was apparently edited together in random order with no specific message in mind.

Directed by Vincent Patouillard in the UK experimental underground scene, this relentless collage of clips has vanished—leaving only a cool poster and the above dinosaur image as fossils of the psychedelic age. It may have been the longest movie ever released at the time, but was it the most meaningless? The answer remains a mystery.

7 'The Cure for Insomnia' (1987)

Another experimental patience-tester, The Cure for Insomnia displayed the recital of a 4,080-page poem mixed with family-unfriendly material and heavy-metal music clips... for 87 hours . Chicago's L.D. Groban is the poet-screenwriter, and John Henry Timmis IV is the director. It's unclear whether this movie was shown in public again after its late-January to early-February 1987 screening.

The Cure for Insomnia was given the Guinness World Records ' stamp of approval as the longest movie of all time, but it has yet to prove that it's actually a cure for insomnia. All the more difficult to do now, as it has followed the trend of being a ridiculously long film that's no longer available. Perhaps one day, this lost movie shall return , but until then, the average insomniac will have to settle for the other literal giants of cinema.

6 'Matrjoschka' (2006)

Writer-director Karin Hoerler is the force behind this 95-hour German experiment . Released in 2006, Matrjoschka stems from an image: a boy riding his bike down the street next to some bushes and a house. This image then changes so slowly that the differences aren't immediately noticeable to the human eye, which may be compared to watching hair grow or paint dry. This doesn't exactly scream blockbuster to most audiences, but it definitely demonstrates human beings' limited degree of sensory perception.

Therefore, it seems paradoxical to call Matrjoschka a motion picture, but that may well be the point . The movie's title comes from what is known as a matryoshka, a semi-cylindrical wooden doll that opens up to reveal a smaller replica, which in turn opens to reveal an even smaller replica, and another—and so on. Essentially, it seems there is always something hidden within. The film's approach to movement at least helps explain its absurd length: perhaps a comment on how much time it takes to eliminate one's sense of time.

5 'Untitled #125 (Hickory)' (2011)

Enter the triple digits with a clip from The Wizard of Oz that stretches on for what feels like infinity. Director John Azzarella decided to take six and a half minutes of film from this classic 1939 fantasy and extend them to the length of five real-time days . Released in 2011, Untitled #125 (Hickory) took two whole years to produce.

Unlike Matrjoschka , released half a decade earlier, Untitled #125 (Hickory) focuses on a series of images with ostensible meaning: it begins at the point where the audience witnesses the destructive tornado in Kansas as it approaches the house in black and white, continues through Dorothy's nightmarish journey to Oz, and ends when Dorothy meets the Good Witch of the North in a fantastic world of color. In a word: transformation.

4 'Beijing 2003' (2004)

Director Ai Weiwei decided to fasten a camera onto a car and drive through every single street within what's known as the fourth ring of Beijing. Filming for Beijing 2003 started specifically on Oct. 18 and ended about sixteen days later with more than enough footage to become the longest movie in the world at its 2004 release . Other documentaries by Ai Weiwei include Coronation (about the Chinese government's lockdown of Wuhan at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak) and Cockroach (about the 2019 Hong Kong protests).

Funny how something 150 hours long can take such a short time to complete. But, then again, Beijing 2003 is an avant-garde documentary with a relatively simple premise : it's an attempt to unobtrusively capture the geography, culture, and feel of the director's hometown in a constantly evolving, modern world.

3 'Cinématon' (2009)

Gérard Courant's 156-hour Cinématon took decades to finish . A cinématon is a silent vignette, and this experimental behemoth comprises thousands of them—each about three minutes and twenty-five seconds long. Courant gathered fellow artists, friends, and others to do whatever they felt like in this relatively short timeframe. What to do when faced with nothing but a camera? A subject may peer into the lens, look away, smoke, drink, make faces, or all of the above. There is much room for both sincerity and humor.

These people are varied and fascinating: acclaimed director Jean Luc-Godard , actor and filmmaker Julie Delpy , chess grandmaster Joël Lautier—the list goes on (and on). Finally screened the whole way through in November 2009, this documentary offers a glimpse into each individual that might say more about who they are than the average interview format permits.

2 'Modern Times Forever (Stora Enso Building, Helsinki)' (2011)

A product of Danish artist-collective Superflex , Modern Times Forever (Stora Enso Building, Helsinki) slowly captures the future decay of the Stora Enso building in Helsinki, Finland. At exactly 10 days long, this colossus dwarfs the previous works mentioned thus far . It may comfort some to realize that it was never really expected to be watched the whole way through.

In contemporary-art fashion, Modern Times Forever was shown in front of the actual Stora Enso headquarters in 2011 on a large screen—contrasting how it looked then to how it would over time. People were not supposed to stare at it so much as occasionally notice the image change throughout the week. This was technically beneficial to the viewer in the sense that if some people weren't in the neighborhood (on vacation or sick, maybe), then they would at least be able to catch a glimpse of the movie later on.

1 'Logistics' (2012)

Ever wonder how a pedometer is made? No? Well, ever wonder what it would be like to watch a reverse-chronological documentary that takes forever to finish? Daniel Andersson and Erika Magnusson 's experimental Swedish film Logistics answered both questions when it came out in 2012. Logistics is the longest movie of all time , taking a whopping 35 days to end .

There is a method to the madness here. The modern household is full of complex devices most people take for granted; this mighty film sets out to show just how much energy, pollution, time, and manpower is required to create and transport these gadgets that enable people to live an increasingly automated, sedentary lifestyle. There is no dialogue to state these things explicitly, and so it's left to the viewer to infer this film's various meanings as the slow process of transport unfolds in real-time. A 72-minute version of Logistics was released as well, only taking a few minutes from every day of travel for a (much) more accessible viewing.

Watch on YouTube

NEXT: 'The 10 Highest-Grossing Domestic Movies Over Three Hours Long, Adjusted for Inflation'

The Cure for Insomnia (lost 87-hour-long experimental film; 1987)

This article has been tagged as NSFW due to its pornographic subject matter.

Picture of L.D. Groban.

Status: Lost

The Cure For Insomnia is an 87-hour-long film directed by the late John Henry Timmis IV. At the time of the film's release in 1987, it was recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest film ever created. [1]

The film consists of actor L.D. Groban reading a 4080-page poem (Titled "A Cure for Insomnia") spliced with heavy metal music and pornography. [2] [3] The film was made to cure insomniacs by reprogramming their biological clocks. The film was shown at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago Illinois, and it ran from January 31st to February 3rd. The film was never released in home video format and all copies of the film are believed to be lost.

The current IMDb page for the film has 2 user reviews, one from May 1st, 2002 by user langstar1 (user has no posts past 2003) actually reviewing the movie and one from April 4th, 2019 by user nbechtol (Nancy Bechtol) mourning the passing of L.D. Groban. However, the page has a link that leads to the four-letter film review site with the latest review being written on January 28th, 2012 by user BaftaBaby (user has no posts past 2014). There are 11 Google audience reviews where five people have written posts claiming to have seen the movie with the most recent being on March 31st, 2019, however, the authenticity of these claims has yet to be confirmed.

There is an ongoing thread dedicated to finding the film on the camen design forum created by user Martijn starting on July 31st, 2011 with the most recent post being on April 6th, 2019.

On September 20th, 2023, a user on the forum dedicated to finding the film posted a link to a January 25th/February 1st, 1992 episode of This Week in Joe's Basement , which showed a brief clip of Groban reading a passage from the poem. This wasn’t footage from the actual film, however, and constitutes of a few seconds of footage from an angle that doesn't focus directly on the clip itself, and the characters begin to fast forward the clip not even a minute into watching it. The clip begins at roughly 11 minutes.

• 2 References
• 3 External Links
• ↑ "The Longest Movies Ever Made". Orange Coast Magazine. May 1989. p. 176
• ↑ Felton, Bruce (2003). What Were They Thinking?: Really Bad Ideas Throughout History. The Lyons Press. p. 96.
• ↑ Belardes, Nick (2014). A People's History of the Peculiar: A Freak Show of Facts, Random Obsessions and Astounding Truths. Viva Editions. p. 154.

External Links

• IMDb page for the film. Retrieved 07 Apr '19
• A forum post about the ongoing search for the film. Retrieved 07 Apr '19
• Wikipedia page for the film. Retrieved 07 Apr '19
• [1] Retrieved 06 Oct '23
• Completely lost media

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10 Longest Movies of all time

What’s the longest movie you’ve sat through at a theater? We all know some films that seem to drag on for years, if you’re not enjoying it, while others are over before we know it despite their lengthy runtime. 

While there’s no set rule for a film’s duration, a movie’s runtime can make headlines before its release. A long movie isn’t necessarily a reflection on an out-of-control director or lack of editing (although we’ve all seen some films that seem that way). This list shows a definite place for epic films that use every frame to tell their specific story. They may not be popular with movie theater schedulers, but ultra-long movies have an important place in cinematic history. 

This list pulls together the longest movies ever released to cinemas, but more committed viewers may want to branch out even further. An excellent way to test your movie endurance is to see the literal lengths some experimental filmmakers have gone to. Overall, the clear winner for the longest movie is the 2021 experimental Swedish film Logistics. You’ll need to book over a month off, though: It runs for an eye-watering 35 days and 17 hours.

The following films are ones you can just about pack into one day. If you’re looking to spend some quality time with movies or you’ve run out of series to box-set, here are the longest films ever released. 

Settle in for some long runtimes.

The 10 longest cinematic movies ever released

The English language barely features in this diverse list of long films. The most frequent languages are French and Tagalog, with the Republic of the Philippines emerging as the top contributor to long-form cinema. That’s down to filmmaker Lav Diaz, a specialist in extended movies that combine documentary and fiction. 

Many of the movies on this list are documentaries, with several achieving considerable critical regard for their total dedication to their subjects. 

Heremias: (Book One: Legend of the Lizard Princess) , 2006 — 8 hr, 39 min

The first of a Lav Diaz hat trick, this black and white crime drama tells the story of the titular Filipino farmer, a traveling salesman who loses everything as he falls victim to police corruption. 

There are long scenes done without cutting, showing the dedication of all involved. It’s a fairly therapeutic viewing experience for an epic exploration of suffering. Book Two arrived a decade later with a disappointing runtime of under two hours. 

Death in the Land of Encantos , 2007 — 8 hr, 58 min

Another Lav Diaz film, but this time it’s a docu-drama. The land of the title refers to the Philippine cities surrounding the volcano Mayon that were devastated by typhoon Reming shortly after an eruption in 2006. This is the first of what is known as Diaz’s “trauma trilogy”.

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks , 2003 — 9 hr, 11 min

Wang Bing’s Chinese documentary is broken into three parts, Rust , Remnants , and Rails , each recording the decline of the industrial Tiexi district in Shenyang. As a record of the fall of the socialist economy and the rise of free-market diversification, it is regarded as one of the most significant films of the early 20th century. 

Shoah , 1985 — 9 hr, 26 min

Shoah , from the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, is a French documentary that mixes interviews with visits to historic sites across Poland. Director Claude Lanzmann included survivors and perpetrators in an epic work hailed as a masterpiece on release. 

The film, in its entirety, actually aired on PBS in 1987.

Evolution of a Filipino Family , 2004 — 9 hr, 53 min

Just ducking under the half-day duration, Lav Diaz’s third film on this list has a brilliantly literal title. Sitting through a watch of this film, one must suspend their concepts of what a film is supposed to look like. It vacillates between sharp and dull shots, as a means to open one’s mind and affect his mood. It takes an experimental approach to the fortunes of a Filipino farming family between 1971 and 1987, creating a compelling metaphor for the rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

How Yukong Moved the Mountains , 1976 — 12 hr 43 min

This French-language documentary comprises 12 films, taking their lead from the fable of the title and the concept of willpower. It was split into five intriguingly-titled feature-length chapters for its English-language release. 

The series can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.

Out 1 (Noli me tangere) , 1971 — 12 hr 55 min

Jacques Rivette and Suzanne Schiffman’s French epic took its cue from Balzac’s interconnected multi-volume novels La Comédie Humaine . Its parallel narrative structure proved to be immensely influential in European cinema, including the work of legendary Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski.

You will notice the director did not cut when mistakes happened, or edit them out later, which adds to the feel of the picture.

La Flor , 2018 — 13 hr 23 min

This Argentine movie’s 808 minutes are broken into six chapters, connected by writer and director Mariano Llinás’ explanation of the structure. Each chapter has a distinct style (and features the same four actresses), ranging from supernatural B-movie to experimental metanarrative, via genres as diverse as romance, fantasy, period, and spy thriller.

Resan (The Journey) , 1987 — 14 hr 33 min

Peter Watkins’ documentary took two years to film. Its 873 minutes are built around people’s opinions on war, military budgets, nuclear weapons, and poverty. 

Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo (The Innocence) , 2019 — 21 hr

This 2019 black and white Bengali-language feature uses its duration to explore life after the Bangladesh Liberation War. Capturing this epic tale was a lengthy task too. Although there were only 176 days of shooting, they took place over nine years. The result is a film that will take you on an incredible journey in just under a day.

List of Top 10 longest films ever made in history

Explore the top 10 longest-running movies in cinema history worldwide, captivating audiences with their epic storylines and record-breaking run-times

List of longest-running movies ever

A brief look into each movie

Modern Times Forever

Beijing 2003.

Untitled #125

Matrjoschka, the cure for insomnia, the longest, most meaningless movie in the world, 24 hour psycho.

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• Types of Video

What are experimental films?

Experimental films are also known as avant-garde, which literally means the ‘vanguard’ or ‘advanced guard’—so people ahead of their time! Unlike mainstream cinema, which usually sticks to established structures and techniques, experimental films prioritise expression and innovation. They can vary a lot in style and approach, but they tend to have a few things in common:

• Non-traditional narrative : Experimental films often spurn linear storytelling in favour of more fragmented or abstract narratives.
• Innovative techniques : Filmmakers use unconventional methods in cinematography, editing, and sound design.
• Focus on form and content : The emphasis is often on a visual and auditory experience rather than on plot or character development.
• Personal expression : Many experimental films reflect the unique vision and style of the filmmaker.

Experimental vs. mainstream cinema

One of the biggest differences between experimental and mainstream cinema is the narrative structure. Mainstream films often follow a three-act structure with a beginning, middle, and end. Experimental films usually use non-linear or fragmented narratives, focusing more on mood and atmosphere than on plot.

In production, mainstream movies are normally going for a polished and commercially viable finished product. They might use expensive special effects, well-known actors, and so on. Experimental films are more likely to use things like found footage, hand-painted frames, and weird camera angles.

Audience expectations are generally different for experimental films when compared to mainstream cinema. Avant-garde films are for niche audiences who are used to the unconventional storytelling methods, and they often have a limited release at film festivals, galleries, or independent cinemas. They’re more about artistic expression than being a commercial hit. Mainstream films, though, are designed to attract big audiences and make money at the box office. This means they have to appeal to a wide range of viewers, so they often stick with clear storytelling, relatable characters, and satisfying endings.

A quick history of experimental cinema

The beginning.

In the 1920s, cinema was starting to get into its stride. The resistance it had seen from the upper classes (as a low-brow form of entertainment) was fizzling out, so artists and filmmakers began to explore film as a means of artistic expression.

European avant-garde movements like Dadaism and Surrealism had a big influence on this, and films like Un Chien Andalou (1929) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí (yes the artist!) broke new ground with dreamlike sequences and shocking imagery. Un Chien Andalou is a short film with disjointed imagery, and it opens with a scene where an eye is cut open with a razor. These shocking visuals were meant to evoke emotions and thoughts, rather than get across any kind of narrative.

What are Dadaism and surrealism?

Dadaism embraces chaos and absurdity, with a focus on the unconscious mind and dream logic. It came out of reactions to the First World War and had an anti-bourgeois sentiment. Quite often filmmakers would use collages with found objects and strange materials to make their work.

Surrealism was influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories and uses techniques like automatism and juxtaposition to create outlandish and illogical scenes that are supposed to unlock deeper parts of our imagination and experience.

Mid-20th century

Experimental cinema had a bit of a boom in the mid-20th century, particularly in the United States and Europe. Maya Deren ’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) uses surreal, symbolic imagery and advanced editing techniques to explore themes of identity and perception. Kenneth Anger 's Scorpio Rising (1963) combined pop culture and occult symbolism, using a soundtrack that integrated rock and roll music with provocative visuals—pretty ground-breaking for the time! Anger is quite often credited with laying the groundwork for modern music videos .

S tan Brakhage ’s work, particularly Dog Star Man (1964), pushed the limits of visual abstraction, using techniques like painting directly onto film and using extreme close-ups of natural objects. His films didn’t have traditional narratives, focusing instead on the sensory and emotional impact of the sound and visuals.

F ilm co-operatives and independent cinemas sprung up, which provided platforms for these experimental works to be shown and discussed, helping the genre to grow.

Late 20th century

Digital technology opened up new possibilities for experimental filmmakers in terms of lower production costs, so there was flexibility to experiment, and new voices of the genre started to pop up from around the world.

Directors such as David Lynch , with films like Eraserhead (1977), kept pushing the boundaries of narrative and visual style. He was in his early 30s when the film was released to mixed reviews describing it as "a dream of dark and troubling things".

Contemporary experimental films

In terms of up-to-date experimental films, you might wonder how they can make them stand out or be shocking, when so much has already been done! Well, the likes of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Lars von Trier are continuing to push those boundaries. Von Trier favours trilogies, either by style or by theme, and is such a fan of avant-garde that he even founded Dogme 95 (along with Thomas Vinterberg) in 1995, his own filmmaking movement that set out ‘purifying’ principles like:

Films must be shot on location, without bringing in props or sets.

Diegetic sound only; music must be part of the scene.

Handheld cameras should be used for all filming.

Colour film must be used without special lighting.

The film must take place in the here and now; no historical or futuristic settings.

Genre movies are not allowed.

The film must be in the Academy 35mm format.

The director must not be credited.

With the evolution of technology, filmmaking has been democratised (to an extent), and this has meant more experimental films from diverse cultural backgrounds. Online platforms and film festivals that centre around avant-garde cinema have also been crucial in bringing experimental works to wider audiences.

Standout experimental films

1. un chien andalou (1929), directed by luis buñuel.

We’ve mentioned this French silent film already, but it’s renowned for its shocking and surreal imagery, including the scene of a razor slicing through an eyeball. These images were inspired by the dreams of the two writers Buñuel and Dali , who we can only assume had been eating a lot of cheese before bedtime. The audience response to the film was surprisingly positive, which upset Dali a bit as he’d wanted to shock and upset them! Un Chien Andalou has since influenced countless filmmakers and artists with its bold and interesting...(!) approach.

2. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), directed by Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied

Deren's short silent film was co-directed by her husband and has since been recognised for its historic and cultural significance by the Library of Congress . This is another film heavily influenced by surrealism and explores a woman’s psyche through symbolic imagery like a silhouette of a woman with a flower on a drive and a phone off the hook. The sequences repeat and the narrative becomes circular, making it hard to understand what is reality and what is a dream.

3. Dog Star Man (1961-1964), directed by Stan Brakhage

Dog Star Man is actually a series of four short films (plus a prelude, so five films in total) that were originally released in instalments but later were regularly shown as one long film, as intended. It’s a sort of abstract visual poem that uses hand-painted frames.

"Brakhage creates a myth of his own personal history from his birth, past relationship to his mother and father, and present relationship to his wife and son. His myth is seen in a cosmic context, earth sun and moon playing a part." — LUX

4. Scorpio Rising (1963), directed by Kenneth Anger

Scorpio Rising combines documentary footage with stylised sequences, exploring themes of rebellion, sexuality, and the occult. It was shot over three months in New York and split into four sections featuring imagery like Christian iconography and even Nazi imagery. Its use of music in particular made it a hit, and it’s since been considered to be the foundation for today’s music videos, particularly during the MTV era.

5. Eraserhead (1977), directed by David Lynch

Written by, directed by, and starring David Lynch, Eraserhead is a nightmarish journey into the subconscious, told in a non-linear way. It’s a low-budget, black-and-white film that didn’t really get much fanfare on release but later would become a cult classic.

6. Tropical Malady (2004), directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Tropical Malady is a romantic psychological drama that blends realism with folklore, and explores love and identity in a non-linear narrative. It’s been described as a diptych as it’s essentially a work of two parts. The first half follows the relationship between a soldier (Keng) and a country boy, and the second shows Keng trying to track down a shaman who can turn into a wild beast.

7. La Jetée (1962), directed by Chris Marker

La Jetée is a short French science fiction film in black and white, set in the aftermath of a Third World War. It tells the story of a man who is sent back in time to find a solution for humanity’s survival after the Second World War. The film is made up almost entirely of still photographs, which emphasises the film’s core themes of memory and time.

8. Wavelength (1967), directed by Michael Snow

Wavelength consists of a continuous 45-minute slow zoom across a New York City apartment until it gets to a photograph of the sea stuck to a wall. It’s very minimalistic and has an emphasis on form, all of which make the duration a bit of a challenge to engage with but fit the film’s themes of the passage of time quite well! Events do happen during the slow zoom, just so you know.

9. Blue (1993) by Derek Jarman

Blue is a British avant-garde film that consists of a single static shot of a blue screen with a voice-over, sound effects, and music. In the VO, Jarman talks about his experiences with AIDS, his failing eyesight, and the impact of the disease on his life and work. The blue screen is a metaphor for the emotional and physical pain he’s going through at the time. Blue was the last feature film he released before his death, just four months later.

10. The Holy Mountain (1973) by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Another surreal film, The Holy Mountain involves Alejandro Jodorowsky exploring spirituality, mysticism, and transformation. A Christ-like figure joins a group of characters representing plants in the solar system, and they set off on a quest to reach the Holy Mountain for enlightenment.

Conclusion: Experimental or avant-garde cinema

It’s not always easy to enjoy or understand experimental films, and having added context about the influences or reasons behind the filmmakers’ choices can be really helpful for that. There’s no doubt, though, that over the last 100 and some years, experimental films have continually pushed the boundaries of what cinema can be, getting us to think beyond regular storytelling.

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About this page

This page was written by  Marie Gardiner . Marie is a writer, author, and photographer. It was edited by  Andrew Blackman . Andrew is a freelance writer and editor, and is a copy editor for Envato Tuts+.

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• Open access
• Published: 06 September 2024

Vortex confinement through an unquantized magnetic flux

• Geunyong Kim 1   na1 ,
• Jinyoung Yun 1   na1 ,
• Jinho Yang 1 ,
• Ilkyu Yang 1 ,
• Dirk Wulferding 2 ,
• Roman Movshovich   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3667-634X 3 ,
• Gil Young Cho 1 ,
• Ki-Seok Kim 1 ,
• Garam Hahn 4 &
• Jeehoon Kim   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4613-0017 1  

NPG Asia Materials volume  16 , Article number:  44 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Superconducting properties and materials

Geometrically confined superconductors often experience a breakdown in the quantization of magnetic flux owing to the incomplete screening of the supercurrent against field penetration. In this study, we report that magnetic field confinement occurs regardless of the dimensionality of the system, even extending to 1D linear potential systems. By using a vector-field magnetic force microscope, we successfully create a vortex‒antivortex pair connected by a 1D unquantized magnetic flux in ultrathin superconducting films. Through an investigation of the manipulation and thermal behavior of the vortex pair, we uncover a long-range interaction mediated by the unquantized magnetic flux. These findings suggest a universal phenomenon of unquantized magnetic flux formation, independent of the geometry of the system. Our results present an experimental route for investigating the impact of confinement on superconducting properties and order parameters in unconventional superconductors characterized by extremely low dimensionality.

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Introduction.

Superconductors are known to exclude magnetic fields from their interior, except for type II superconductors, which allow the entry of magnetic fields in the form of vortices. These vortices, referred to as fluxoids, consist of both magnetic fluxes induced by external magnetic fields and circulating supercurrents. Owing to the single-valued nature of the superconducting order parameter, the fluxoid must follow quantization. The quantized value of the fluxoid (Φ F ) is determined by the sum of the magnetic flux (Φ B ) and the supercurrent flux (Φ J ), expressed as Φ F  = Φ B  + Φ J  = Φ 0 , where Φ 0  =  h/ 2 e , with h and e being Plank’s constant and the electron charge, respectively. When the contribution of the supercurrent is negligible (Φ J  = 0), the quantization of the fluxoid is reduced to the quantization of the magnetic field flux (Φ F  = Φ B  = Φ 0 ). Conversely, in the presence of significant supercurrents, the quantized entity becomes the fluxoid rather than the magnetic field flux. When the magnetic flux is not quantized, the spatially varying phase factor of the superconducting order parameter gives rise to various intriguing phenomena, including the Little‒Park experiment in thin samples 1 , the transport current 2 , 3 , 4 , the Josephson effect 5 , 6 , 7 , and p -wave and d -wave pairing symmetry in unconventional superconductors 8 , 9 , 10 .

Recently, there has been significant interest in studying the vortex confinement effect in low-dimensional superconductors to investigate the inhomogeneous nature of superconducting order parameters 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 . In confined two-dimensional (2D) disks, for instance, magnetic fluxes can form, but their flux values are smaller than Φ 0 because of incomplete screening of the supercurrent against field penetration. Consequently, the quantization of magnetic flux is not satisfactory in 2D confinement systems 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 . Although unquantized magnetic fluxes give rise to a plethora of interesting superconducting phenomena, their investigation is challenging owing to geometric limitations, making it difficult to create, visualize, and manipulate them. Specifically, the exploration of 1D confined fluxoids in conjunction with a purported 1D linear potential is particularly intriguing.

In this work, we present the observation of 1D fluxoid confinement via an unquantized magnetic flux in ultrathin superconducting Nb films via vector-field cryogenic magnetic force microscopy (MFM). By utilizing the local stray magnetic field of an MFM tip, we generate a half-vortex ring, resulting in a vortex‒antivortex dipole pair connected by a 1D confined fluxoid. Our study of the manipulation and thermal behavior of these confined vortex pairs through an unquantized magnetic flux in ultrathin films suggests that there are no dimensional restrictions on the formation of 1D superconducting fluxoids.

Generation of a half superconducting vortex ring via an unquantized magnetic flux

In a thick slab of a superconductor under the influence of magnetic fields, the current and field distributions are depicted in Fig. 1a . The green arrows represent the Meissner current ( J M ) opposing the external field ( B ext ), whereas the red arrows illustrate the shielding current ( J s ) induced by the presence of superconducting vortices carrying a magnetic flux quantum (Φ 0 ). On the other hand, in thinner geometries where the thickness is less than the magnetic penetration depth ( t  <  λ ), vortices are absent. However, in such systems, the magnetic flux remains confined within the film but is unquantized, characterized by a flux value of Φ B that is less than the magnetic flux quantum Φ 0 , as depicted in Fig. 1b . In a thick slab, it is possible to create a half vortex ring by employing a local magnetic dipole field, as shown in Fig. 1c . Notably, this half vortex ring corresponds to a superconducting vortex‒antivortex pair (SVAP) connected through a quantized magnetic flux (Φ 0 ), with the associated shielding current ( J s ). The line tension of the half vortex ring can be conceptualized as a one-dimensional spring exhibiting a linear potential. However, the situation changes in thin slabs. Consequently, the question arises as to whether SVAPs can still form with an unquantized magnetic flux (Φ B ) and exhibit long-range interactions, as depicted in Fig. 1d . Here, we demonstrate the formation of SVAPs with unquantized magnetic flux in ultrathin films, suggesting that superconducting vortices with arbitrary flux values can form regardless of the system’s dimensions.

a , b Fluxoid quantization of thick and thin slabs. The thick slab accommodates the magnetic flux quantum (Φ 0 ). The thin slab experiences field penetration, but no vortex exists. c , d Creation of a half vortex ring by a local dipole field of an MFM tip in thick slabs and thin slabs. Unquantized magnetic flux can be trapped in the thin slab geometry.

Creation of SVAPs via the local stray magnetic field of an MFM tip

To investigate the properties of SVAPs, we employed a custom-built magnetic force microscope equipped with a 2–2–9-T vector magnet, as previously described 20 . All the experiments used a commercial MFM tip (PPP-MFMR from NANOSENSORS). The magnetic contrast in MFM images is expressed by the frequency shift ∆ f of the MFM cantilever, which is directly linked to the force gradient ∂F/∂z with the relation ∂F/∂z  = −2 k ∆ f/f 0 , where k and f 0 are the cantilever’s spring constant and the bare resonance frequency of the MFM cantilever, respectively. The Nb film under study was deposited on a Si substrate via electron beam deposition and possesses the following characteristics: a thickness ( t ) of 300 nm, a superconducting transition temperature ( T c ) of 8.8 K, a coherence length ( ξ ) of approximately 15.9 nm and a magnetic penetration depth ( λ ) of approximately 110 nm at 4.2 K. The values of ξ and λ were determined from the upper critical field ( H c 2 ) (see Supplementary Note 1 for detailed methodology) and single-parameter simultaneous fits of the MFM signal 21 , respectively. Thinner Nb films with thicknesses ranging from 30 to 100 nm were deposited on α -Al2O3 substrates via a DC magnetron sputtering system. These thinner films exhibited superconducting transition temperatures ( T c ) ranging from 8.1 to 8.7 K. The magnetic penetration depths ( λ ) of these thinner films were estimated via the Meissner curve comparative method with MFM 22 and varied from approximately 145 nm to 90 nm (see Supplementary Note 1 for further details).

The presence of a local magnetic field induced by an MFM probe tip in close proximity to a superconducting film can cause a half-fluxoid ring to form, as illustrated schematically in Fig. 2a . This half-fluxoid ring corresponds to a superconducting vortex‒antivortex pair (SVAP) connected by a magnetic flux. Notably, in the absence of pinning, the SVAPs can annihilate because of the attractive line tension between the two ends. However, in real samples, the presence of a pinning landscape prevents their annihilation. The procedure for generating an SVAP via an MFM tip is as follows: (1) Above the critical temperature ( T c ), the in-plane magnetized tip is positioned above the Nb film, generating a dipole magnetic field. (2) The sample is then cooled below T c to enter the superconducting state (see Supplementary Movie 1 ). Upon cooling, some of the U-shaped magnetic flux lines (red lines) originating from the tip become trapped within the superconducting medium, leading to the formation of SVAPs. The remaining flux lines (green lines) that penetrate through the back of the sample give rise to tip-induced isolated vortices (TIVs) with a cylindrical shape. In addition to these tip-induced vortices, there is an uncompensated weak out-of-plane magnetic field (blue lines) arising from the stray field of our MFM system, which leads to the presence of isolated antivortices. Note that the principal origin of the system’s stray field stems from the magnetization of the MFM tip. Before we commence the MFM experiments at low temperatures, the tip is magnetized using a superconducting magnet, subjecting it to a magnetic field of approximately 1 Tesla to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. As a consequence of magnetizing the MFM tip, a stray magnetic field permeates the entire MFM system, typically manifesting as a few Gauss. This stray field influences the number of superconducting vortices under investigation.

a Schematics illustrating the creation of superconducting vortex‒antivortex pairs (SVAPs) via an in-plane magnetized MFM tip. SVAPs (red dots) and trapped interstitial vortices (TIVs, green dots) are generated by the tip, whereas regular vortices (blue dots) are formed by the stray field of the system. b Illustration of the SVAP configuration created by the MFM tip. Antivortices (white dots) are induced by both the external stray field and the tip field, whereas SVAPs (red dots) and TIVs (dark green dots) represent confined vortices. The yellow arrow indicates the position of the MFM tip during the SVAP creation process. c , d MFM images obtained from two separate experiments with the same conditions and a shifted scan frame. The yellow arrow indicates the position of the MFM tip, which remains at a fixed tip‒sample distance of 600 nm during SVAP formation. The bright dots in the MFM image correspond to antivortices, whereas the dark dots represent vortices.

An in-plane magnetized tip, polarized in the + H x direction by the superconducting vector magnet, was utilized to create SVAPs and TIVs, as depicted schematically in Fig. 2b . Owing to the limited scan size of our microscope scanner, we combined two scans to cover the region of interest, as shown in Fig. 2b . The corresponding experimental data for the blue box and the red box in Fig. 2b are presented in Fig. 2 c, d , respectively. Both images were obtained at 4.2 K via an in-plane magnetized tip 20 . Initially, our focus is on the vortices (dark dots) since distinguishing between the antivortices (bright dots) induced by the tip field (red and green lines) and the stray field (blue lines) is challenging at this stage owing to their identical magnetic polarities. However, subsequently, the antivortices of SVAPs were identified and distinguished on the basis of their thermal behavior. As the SVAP vortex and antivortex are confined, the interaction force between them is expected to differ from that between the TIVs.

The first experimental evidence of a qualitative distinction between SVAPs and TIVs is the observation of a significant spatial gap (indicated by the black dotted box) between the SVAPs (enclosed by the red circle) and the TIVs (enclosed by the green box), as illustrated in Fig. 2d . In the normal state, prior to the medium transitioning into the superconducting phase, the spatial density of magnetic flux lines decreases with increasing distance from the MFM tip location. Note that the inhomogeneous spatial density of superconducting vortices is attributed to the superposition of the inhomogeneous magnetic field from the MFM tip and the system’s homogeneous stray field due to the differential interaction between the SVAP and the stray-field-induced vortices. Upon the sample’s superconducting transition, the ends of the SVAPs start moving toward their corresponding counterparts until they encounter strong pinning centers that counterbalance the attractive force from the other end of the SVAP. In contrast, the TIVs remain in their initial positions. Consequently, a spatial gap emerges, indicating the mobility of SVAPs and the existence of long-range mutual attraction between the constituent ends.

Presence of long-range interactions in the SVAP

To examine the nature of the interaction between the ends of the SVAPs, we applied heat pulses to the sample, allowing the SVAPs to overcome local pinning potentials 23 . As the thermal energy increased, one end of the SVAP approached the other end and settled at a stronger pinning potential, reducing the distance between them. This process was observed through sequential images in Fig. 3 a– d (corresponding to the scan region in Fig. 2c ). The gradual shrinking and eventual annihilation of the SVAPs indicated the presence of an attractive interaction between the ends. Remarkably, this interaction occurred over a scale of several micrometers, which was significantly greater than the magnetic penetration depth ( λ  ≈ 110 nm) of the Nb film. The conventional isolated vortex‒vortex interaction range of λ alone cannot account for such long-range interactions 24 . Therefore, the confinement of the SVAPs must be responsible for this observed long-range interaction.

The thermal evolution of the vortices in Fig. 1c and d are shown in a – d and e – h , respectively. After a thermal pulse with an amplitude of Tset, as denoted in the image, is applied, MFM images are obtained at 4.2 K. The inset curve in d provides a detailed time scale of the applied thermal pulse. The annihilation of each vortex‒antivortex pair is traced by the box‒circle link with a dotted colored line. i Schematic view of the creation of isolated vortices via out-of-plane magnetization. j‒l Thermal evolution of isolated vortices created according to the method described in i . The images demonstrate the isotropic behavior of the vortices during the thermal process. All MFM images were taken at 4.2 K with a tip-to-sample distance of 600 nm.

Additional evidence for the confinement of the SVAPs was obtained through a comparative experiment between the TIVs and the SVAPs in Fig. 3 e– h (corresponding to the scanned region in Fig. 2d ). Unlike the SVAPs, the TIVs (green box) remained static even after multiple consecutive heat pulses close to the critical temperature ( T c ), indicating the absence of long-range interactions in the TIVs. The distinct thermal behavior of the SVAPs and TIVs further supports the presence of long-range attractive interaction, specifically between the ends of an SVAP.

To gain further insights into the interaction potential of an SVAP, we investigated the thermal behavior of isolated vortices created via an out-of-plane magnetized tip generated by a vector magnet, as shown in Fig. 3 i– l . Initially densely packed, these isolated vortices gradually spread in a spatially isotropic manner with increasing heat pulses, as depicted in Fig. 3 j– l . This behavior strongly contrasts with the confined vortices of the SVAPs, highlighting the distinct nature of the interaction between the ends of the SVAPs (see Supplementary Movie 2 for further details).

Direct evidence of long-range interaction in the manipulation of a single SVAP

To directly investigate the presence of a long-range potential, we present the manipulation of a single SVAP by an MFM tip and show its pair annihilation via thermal annealing (heat pulses). The starting point is prepared by leaving behind only one end of an SVAP after moving the rest of the SVAPs by the tip stray field out of the scan frame, as shown in Fig. 4a . It is then continuously manipulated up to 17  µ m, as shown in Fig. 4 b, c . The manipulation process was carried out by scanning a single vortex with a tip‒sample distance of 150 nm to enhance the interaction between the vortex and tip 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 . To manipulate a single vortex effectively, manipulation was performed at 7 K to decrease the local pinning force, and then, the manipulation results were verified by imaging the single vortex at 4 K. After single vortex manipulation, we applied the same thermal annealing treatment with heat pulses as those described previously. The same gradual shrinking of the SVAP and its eventual annihilation are observed, as shown in Fig. 4 d– f , clearly demonstrating that the SVAP remains intact throughout the entire MFM manipulation and thermal treatment, all the way until its annihilation. The fact that the counterpart (marked as the white circle) moves toward the manipulated vortex (marked as the black circle) along the manipulated direction, as shown in Fig. 4 d, e , is evidence of a mutually attractive force.

a– c Manipulation process of one end of an SVAP by an MFM tip. After moving the scan frame step by step via piezo walkers, a final vortex‒antivortex distance of 17  µ m is achieved. d – f Thermally assisted depinning of both the vortex and the antivortex and pair annihilation as a result of successive heat pulses. Note that a confining interaction still exists between the antivortex and its previously manipulated counterpart because of the movement of the antivortex, as indicated by the white arrow, which is clearly visible in d and e . All MFM images were taken at 4.2 K with a tip‒sample distance of 600 nm.

The large distance over which the interaction persists, reaching up to 17 microns in our experiments, is particularly notable considering that it is more than fifty times greater than the thickness of the Nb sample. This remarkable resiliency underscores the unique and intriguing nature of the SVAP and its confinement potential, which enables long-range interactions that cannot be explained by conventional vortex‒antivortex interactions within superconducting systems. These findings contribute to our understanding of the fundamental properties of SVAPs and shed light on the underlying physics of confined superconducting vortex structures. The ability to manipulate and control individual SVAPs opens new possibilities for exploring their behavior and harnessing their unique properties in future applications, such as in the design of novel superconducting quantum technologies.

Confinement of the SVAP through an unquantized magnetic flux in thin films

To investigate the confinement effect of the SVAP connected by an unquantized flux, we examined Nb films with thicknesses smaller than the magnetic penetration depth ( λ ). Specifically, we prepared films with thicknesses of 100, 50, and 30 nm, with corresponding λ values of 90, 130, and 145 nm, respectively. Among these samples, our focus was on the 30-nm film, which had a t  −  λ ratio of 0.26. This ratio suggests that the 30 nm film does not exhibit a flux quantum along the in-plane direction. Using the same experimental conditions used before, we created SVAPs in these thin films and performed temperature dependence experiments. Surprisingly, we observed pair annihilation not only in the 100 nm and 50 nm films but also in the 30 nm film, as shown in Fig. 5 . The presence of long-range interactions even in the 30 nm film, where t   ≪   λ , is intriguing. This finding indicates that the unquantized magnetic flux 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 associated with the SVAP can mediate long-range forces between superconducting vortices. To substantiate our findings of nonquantized vortices and to closely examine the current distribution within the 30 nm Nb film, we carried out comprehensive time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau simulations. These simulations revealed a clear pattern: with decreasing film thickness, there was a proportional reduction in magnetic flux, accompanied by a commensurate increase in current flux. We also examined the contrast differences in the MFM images by analyzing the line profiles of each vortex in the Nb films with thicknesses of 300 nm ( d  >  λ ) and 30 nm ( d  <  λ ). Unlike the 300 nm film, the 30 nm film shows an intensity difference between isolated and paired vortices, suggesting the formation of unquantized vortices. We refer to the supplementary material for an in-depth analysis. These trends demonstrate the direct relationship between the film thickness and the manifestation of the noninteger quantized flux. This result has significant implications for various applications, including superconducting nanowires, low-dimensional Josephson junctions, and monolayer superconductors.

Thermally assisted depinning and pair annihilation of SVAPs in Nb films of a – d 100 nm, e – h 50 nm, and i – l 30 nm. Note that the superconducting transition temperatures (Tc) and magnetic penetration depths ( λ ) are different in various Nb films, ranging from ≈ 8.7 K to 8.3 K and from ≈ 90 nm to 145 nm, respectively. The annihilation of each vortex‒antivortex pair is traced by the box‒circle link with a dotted colored line.

Moreover, the 1D nature of the SVAP provides a robust platform for exploring the possibilities of braiding operations via unquantized magnetic flux in topological superconducting heterostructure devices. These devices are at the forefront of current research in condensed matter physics and topological quantum computing. The ability to confine and manipulate the unquantized flux within SVAPs opens new avenues for studying topological properties and realizing exotic quantum phenomena. Our findings highlight the unique confinement effect of SVAPs connected by unquantized magnetic flux in thin films.

Our study demonstrated the creation and manipulation of a vortex‒antivortex pair connected by an unquantized magnetic flux in ultrathin superconducting Nb films via vector-field MFM. The observed long-range interaction through the unquantized flux provides evidence for the universal formation of such flux regardless of the system size. This finding contributes to our understanding of superconducting magnetic properties at the nanoscale, where the nonquantization of magnetic flux plays a role in the superconducting properties.

Our results offer an experimental platform for directly investigating a linear potential and its phase transition in a simple 1D fluxoid model system. This has implications for studying the fundamental properties of superconductivity and exploring novel quantum phenomena in low-dimensional systems. Additionally, the long-range interaction mediated by the unquantized magnetic flux opens up possibilities for realizing non-Abelian statistics through the manipulation and annihilation of SVAPs. This has potential implications for the development of topological quantum devices and the field of topological quantum computing.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT and Future Planning (NRF-2019R1A2C2090356, NRF- 2021R1A6A1A10042944, NRF-2022M319A1073808, and NRF-2022H1D3A3A01077468). Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy. D.W. acknowledges support from the Institute for Basic Science in Korea (Grant No. IBS-R009-Y3). R.M. was funded by the US DOE BES program. The authors thank F. Ronning, A. Balatsky, and M.J. Graf for useful discussions and thank the Institute for Basic Science. We appreciate the APCTP for its hospitality during the completion of this work.

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These authors contributed equally: Geunyong Kim, Jinyoung Yun.

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Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea

Geunyong Kim, Jinyoung Yun, Jinho Yang, Ilkyu Yang, Gil Young Cho, Ki-Seok Kim & Jeehoon Kim

Center for Correlated Electron Systems, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University (SNU), Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea

Dirk Wulferding

MPA-CMMS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

Roman Movshovich

Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea

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J.K.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Validation, Visualization, Writing; G.K.: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Validation, Visualization, Writing; J.Y.: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Validation, Visualization, Writing; J.Y.: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Validation, Visualization, Writing; I.Y.: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Visualization; D.W.: Data curation, Validation, Visualization, Writing; R.M.: Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing; G.C.: Investigation, Data curation, Validation; K.K.: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Validation, Visualization, Writing; G.H.: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Validation.

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Kim, G., Yun, J., Yang, J. et al. Vortex confinement through an unquantized magnetic flux. NPG Asia Mater 16 , 44 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41427-024-00564-6

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