Filming for the Lighthouse took place in Leif Erikson Park in Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia, Canada, and inside a hangar at Yarmouth International Airport in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The world premiere was at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section and was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 92nd Academy Awards. The Lighthouse is a psychological horror film directed and produced by Robert Eggers, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Max Eggers. An international co-production of the United States and Canada, the film was shot in black-and-white with a 1.19:1 aspect ratio. It stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two lighthouse keepers who start to lose their sanity when a storm strands them on the remote island where they are stationed. The final story bears little resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe's fragment "The Light-House", the film began as an attempt by his brother Max Eggers to do a contemporary take on the Poe story. When the project stalled, Eggers offered to work with his brother and the project evolved into a period thriller with the Poe elements largely removed. Dafoe and Pattinson were cast as the lead characters in February 2018. Principal photography began on April 9, 2018. The Lighthouse was shot on black and white 35mm film, with an orthochromatic aesthetic that evokes 19th-century photography, as well as a nearly square 1.19:1 aspect ratio that corresponds to narrow sets and seeks to withhold information from the audience. Jarin Blaschke, who had previously collaborated with Eggers on The Witch and served as the film's director of photography.