Film has a certain look. It’s true just as much as it’s tiring to hear a film buff say it over and over as they lament the ascendency of digital videography. Digital is constantly trying to look like analog film, but film’s grain is tricky to mimic convincingly. Netflix thinks it found the right recipe, though.

They call it their AV1 Film Grain Synthesis tool, and they announced on July 2 that they’ve been testing it out since March 2025. Netflix just hasn’t said much about it until now because, well, they’re shy about it, I guess.

it’s digital trying to look like film

AV1 FGS “de-noises” the source video before encoding it, which reduces the size of the data stream being sent from Netflix servers to viewers, and “(leading) to significant bitrate reduction, allowing us to deliver high-quality video with less data while preserving the artistic integrity of film grain,” as Netflix puts it.

It looked decently convincing to me in the stills of They Cloned Tyrone that show the source video, AVI without FGS, and then AVI with FGS.

“Picture this,” writes Netflix in a blog entry discussing AV1 FGS. “You’re watching a classic film, and the subtle dance of film grain adds a layer of authenticity and nostalgia to every scene. This grain, formed from tiny particles during the film’s development, is more than just a visual effect.

“It plays a key role in storytelling by enhancing the film’s depth and contributing to its realism. However, film grain is as elusive as it is beautiful. Its random nature makes it notoriously difficult to compress. Traditional compression algorithms struggle to manage it, often forcing a choice between preserving the grain and reducing file size.”

Translation: It’s hard for digital videography, whether for a movie or television, to mimic the inherently analog properties of film grain. Netflix is taking a crack at it, though. Netflix has a fascinating breakdown of the technology that you can read if you want to know more of the nitty gritty.