Beginning as Irene Film Labs in the 1950s, The Film Lab has since become part of the SASANI Group. It relocated to its current position in Highlands North, Johannesburg, in 1995. This relocation also involved an extensive upgrade of both processing and printing equipment, while retaining a highly-skilled staff with many collective years of experience. Since 1998, we have enjoyed Kodak Imagecare status, being only the second film laboratory in the world to achieve this internationally recognized accreditation.

Over the years, the Lab has been involved in a considerable number of locally and internationally produced feature films, documentaries and commercials, from early hits such as Jamie Uys’s "Funny People" and "The Gods Must Be Crazy" to international blockbusters such as “The Ghost and the Darkness”, starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas and cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond; "Sarafina"; "Lambarene"; the remake of “Flight of The Phoenix” and then of course “Yesterday” which was nominated for an Oscar in “Best Foreign Language Film "category" “Hotel Rwanda” which won Oscar nominations in the categories for “Actor In A Leading Role”, “Actress In A Supporting Role” and “Original Screenplay” and just recently "Tsotsi", which won an Oscar for “Best Foreign Language Film”. We were also honoured to have processed the Warner Bros' feature “Blood Diamond”, starring Leonardo Di Caprio and directed by Ed Zwick, which has been released in South Africa, as well as Phillip Noyce’s latest movie “Catch a Fire”.

A mere twenty-minute drive from O.R Thambo International Airport, the Lab has also been the first choice of filmmakers from countries as diverse as Poland, Norway, Germany, Egypt, the UK and the USA. Our unique position as the only full-service film laboratory in Southern Africa also means that we provide services to a vast range of wildlife documentary makers, including Londolozi Productions, the BBC Natural History Unit and Untamed Images.

We also aim to offer a wider range of support to the industry in general, through ongoing involvement with a number of local film schools and training projects for previously disadvantaged filmmakers. Our skills are often called upon by local cinema chains, which we regularly assist with sound and picture quality control.

On the bulk work front, the Lab has been responsible for numerous commercial release prints, trailers and full-length features, including Peakviewing Transatlantic's "Merlin" (released in UK cinemas), “What Woman Want”, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt and "Traffic", starring Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones and Benicio Del Toro, who won an Oscar for the "Best Supporting Actor".

We are proud that the laboratory runs under the auspicious of imagecare^TM status from Kodak. The imagecare^TM programme was developed to promote higher standards in the processing and printing of motion pictures, to assure filmmakers of the highest quality standards and consistency.

The standards that we have set ourselves are exacting and precise, with a low tolerance for variation. Kodak audits the Lab on a yearly basis to make sure that all procedures are being followed and that all reports are correctly documented. We are also on Kodak’s worldwide survey.

Control strips are sent to us on a monthly basis, which we process and send back to Kodak for evaluation. We are consistently well within the parameters set for motion picture laboratories.