An inventive system and method for continually advancing film through an air-bearing film flattening system having at least one scanning area through which the air-flattened film may be scanned. The film is provided to an air-bearing mechanism comprising two opposing air-bearing plates which create opposing air cushions for maintaining the planarity of the film. The scanning area may comprise at least one optical aperture in the air-bearing plate or plates through which the scanner views the film, or a "viewing" area occupied by bundled coherent optical fibers which sequentially pick up image information from aligned regions of the image. The system provides for time efficient, clean, and error-free reading of the scanned image.