A roll-to-roll manufacturing machine suitable for processing and producing polymer films that contain nanostructures, including but not limited to multifunctional polymer films. The machine applies a liquid polymer on a substrate to form a liquid polymer film, at least partially embeds nanostructures into the liquid polymer film, melt casts a layer of a molten polymer on the liquid polymer film to produce a thin polymer film, organizes the nanostructures in a thickness direction of the thin polymer film comprising applying an electric field to the thin polymer film, aligns the nanostructures in the thin polymer film by simultaneously subjecting the thin polymer film to heat and a field that aligns the nanostructures, and solidifies the thin polymer film to freeze the nanostructures along nanocolumns in a thickness direction of a solidified polymer film resulting therefrom.