The film was screened at several film festivals around the world, most notably the Venice Film Festival in Italy, New York Film Festival in New York, United States, the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, Camerimage Film Festival in Poland, Fajr International Film Festival in Iran, International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands and the Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo de la Ciudad de México in México City, Mexico. The audio presented for this release was remastered in January 2022 by the film’s original rerecording mixers–Lynch, Dean Hurley, and Ron Eng working from the original 5.1 mix stems. Careful scene-by-scene adjustments involving noise reduction, dialogue levels, and overall dynamics decisions were made under Lynch’s supervision. This new mix preserves the overall color and channel assignment of the original mix, which by design maintained a “front heavy” delivery of the mix’s energy, with intentionally minimal surround activity. The audio presented for this release was remastered in January 2022 by the film’s original rerecording mixers, Lynch, Ron Eng, and Dean Hurley. Working from the original 5.1 mix stems, careful scene-by-scene adjustments involving noise reduction, dialogue levels, and overall dynamics decisions were made under Lynch’s supervision. This new mix preserves the overall color and channel assignment of the original mix, which by design maintained a “front heavy” delivery of the mix’s energy, with intentionally minimal surround activity.

I would … shoot that scene, not knowing if it would ever hook on to any other scenes,” Lynch said in that same interview, “and not knowing if it would go, you know, wherever. I didn’t think about it.” Dern told reporters at the film’s premiere that she had no idea what the movie was about, but hoped that seeing it would help. Her co-star Justin Theroux said that trying to figure out what was going on in Inland Empire had become an on-set “pastime” for him and Dern. “I couldn’t possibly tell you what the film’s about, and at this point, I don’t know that [Lynch] could,” he said. Inland Empire (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2 January 2007 . Retrieved 23 November 2012. Sight & Sound's films of the decade". Sight & Sound. BFI. 6 June 2012. Archived from the original on 22 March 2019 . Retrieved 10 September 2022. Chocano, Carina (15 December 2006). "Inland Empire". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 18 December 2006 . Retrieved 6 August 2012. What initially excited you about the digital technology you used on “Inland Empire” when you were shooting?Earlier this week Variety sent David Lynch fans into a frenzy by reporting that the director had a secret movie about to drop at Cannes, overshadowing the fact that there was already a must-see David Lynch release currently playing in theaters. ( Lynch has since dispelled the Cannes rumors.) “ Inland Empire,” Lynch’s audacious 2006 foray into digital filmmaking, has returned to the big screen in the form of a stunning 4K remaster that serves as the perfect way to discover (or rediscover) a masterpiece that was largely ignored during its initial run. Though the source materials limit how well this will look on Blu-ray, no matter what sort of upscaling process it has gone through, this new presentation still provides a notable improvement over the previous DVD edition.

T]he structure of Inland Empire differs from prior Lynch films, Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive. It is neither a Möbius strip that endlessly circles around itself, nor is it divisible into sections of fantasy and reality. Its structure is more akin to a web where individual moments hyperlink to each other and other Lynch films—hence the musical number that closes the film which contains obvious allusions to everything from Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks. Attwood, Chris; Roth, Robert (September 2005). "A Dog's Trip to the Chocolate Shop – David Lynch". Healthy Wealthy N' Wise. Archived from the original on 1 December 2005. Things continue to unravel and fracture for Nikki, with the film infused with the dream logic Lynch is known for. But here it’s even more discombobulated than usual. The filmmaker throws all of his obsessions into a blender, resulting in scenes like a sitcom featuring immobile rabbits and bizarre dance routines.David Lynch Announces Distribution Partnerships and Theatrical Release Dates for Inland Empire". PR Newswire. 15 November 2006. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 28 July 2015.

Premio Future Film Festival Digital Award – 65. Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica"[Future Film Festival Digital Award – 65. Venice International Film Festival]. Future Film Festival (in Italian). 5 September 2008. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012 . Retrieved 6 March 2013. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/oscar-campaigning-gets-quirky-inland-127246/ I've never worked on a project in this way before. I don't know exactly how this thing will finally unfold... This film is very different because I don't have a script. I write the thing scene by scene and much of it is shot and I don't have much of a clue where it will end. It's a risk, but I have this feeling that because all things are unified, this idea over here in that room will somehow relate to that idea over there in the pink room." [26] Shortly afterwards, Grace begins to mentally deteriorate, taking on the personality of Sue Blue, the sex worker she plays in On High. Soon Grace can no longer successfully determine reality from scripted, which in turn leads the audience to debate the very narrative itself. Last night I watched the 4K restoration of Inland Empire at the ICA in London. I went into it with high expectations and excitement, considering it would be my 4th time watching the film, and the first time I watched it (alone and in the dead of night) I had a trance like religious experience.

In 2021, the HDCAM-SR source was recaptured and upscaled to UHD/4K 16x9 via numerous algorithms in Topaz Labs’ Gigapixel AI software. Those tests were compared against the original HD video master as well as a 4K scan of the first reel of the 35 mm digital negative. Perform a post-mortem on this three-hour beast of a film and you will find only half a heart beating inside its chest, but you will also discover innards that coil in more grandiose directions. Mulholland Drive, possibly the greatest work of American film art since Nashville, is an impossible act for Lynch to have to follow, but the bug-eyed director—pupils dilated and imagination tripping in almost inconceivable directions—has made the Atlas Shrugged of narrative avant-garde films, compulsively watchable and insanely self-devouring. David Lynch continues work on DV project Inland Empire". MovieWeb. 12 May 2005. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021 . Retrieved 12 January 2023.

When asked about Inland Empire, Lynch refrained from explaining the film, responding that it is "about a woman in trouble, and it's a mystery, and that's all I want to say about it." [15] When presenting screenings of the digital work, Lynch sometimes opened with a quotation from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: Lynch spoke to IndieWire about Dern’s performance, how digital technology allowed him to get closer to his original intentions, and more — though not about the Cannes rumors — a few days before the “Inland Empire” remaster was set to expand to more screens. “Inland Empire” Janus FilmsThe Criterion Collection brings David Lynch’s first digitally shot movie Inland Empire to Blu-ray, presenting it in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on the first dual-layer disc of this two-disc set. It is presented with a 1080p/24hz high-definition encode. Once the upscale was complete, the 4K image was brought into DaVinci Resolve for a new color pass to manage color balance and saturation as well as add a slight layer of grain. This 4K remaster was used as the source for the HD presentation on this Blu-ray.