Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio.

What does the term anamorphic mean?

: producing, relating to, or marked by intentional distortion (as by unequal magnification along perpendicular axes) of an image an anamorphic lens.

What does it mean to shoot anamorphic?

Shooting with an anamorphic lens stretches the image vertically to cover the entire film frame, resulting in a higher quality but distorted image. When projecting the film, a reverse, complementary lens (of the same anamorphic power) shrinks the image vertically to the original proportions.