AGX color management

Suggestion
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I’d like to suggest AGX as the main color management for a future Shotcut. AGX is now the default on Blender, and was demonstrated to be superior to the industry standard, ACES. There’s a plugin for Resolve too. It’s a new/different idea on how to deal with color, and it’s open source software (OpenColorIO). The guy who created it was the same guy who created the Filmic color management for Blender, only to go back to the drawing board to create AGX.

A very telling video is here, seeing AGX creating very cinematic looks by default (it takes that video look away just by switching to its colorspace – it’s essentially a gentler tonemapper): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f586UdBd1uE

Compared to Aces: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=agx+vs+aces

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Any thoughts or ideas about this suggestion?

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No thought about it? I’d still love to get the filmic look on my videos by utilizing AGX instead of RGB.

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This is a great suggestion! As someone who works on films, I can see how beneficial AgX would be—having that gentle, cinematic highlight roll-off by default would be a game-changer for professional results.

However, we have to be realistic about Shotcut’s current architecture. Shotcut is built on the MLT Framework, which is fundamentally designed around an sRGB/Rec.709 color pipeline. Implementing OpenColorIO (OCIO) to support AgX isn’t just a simple ‘filter’ addition; it would require a massive overhaul of the core engine to handle linear, high-dynamic-range math.

A few major hurdles to keep in mind:

Developer Focus:

This is a huge task that would require someone to focus 100% on a core engine rewrite for quite some time.

Installer Size:

Adding the OCIO libraries and the necessary configuration files could significantly bloat the installer size.

Performance:

Older hardware might struggle with the extra mathematical transforms required for every frame during real-time playback.

It’s an excellent idea that I hope @brian might consider for the long-term future, but we probably shouldn’t expect it anytime soon.

What you can do in the meantime:

Since Blender already uses AgX as its default, a solid workaround is to use the ‘Open With’ feature. You can bring your footage into Blender, handle your cinematic color grading and AgX transforms there.
It’s an extra step, but it gets you that top-tier color science today.