<p>Cinematographic film materials with a base material on cellulose acetate and its derivates are known for becoming brittle and fragile due to various inhomogeneous material ageing processes during long-term storage. Physical phenomena have a significant influence on the ageing behaviour of cinematographic film materials stored over long time on a film roll, with a certain tension and pressure. Storage conditions, such as temperature and humidity and heavy variations thereof, as well as the different pressure distributions inside a film pack, strongly influence evaporation of plasticizers and other volatile substances. Nanoindentation was performed with naturally aged samples on different parts of the film roll to study these effects in depth. This knowledge provides new insight into the aging mechanisms of cellulose acetate substrates, providing details of the differences in loss and distribution of plasticizers and thus different material properties.</p><p></p>