Category Archives: Film

Today in 1908, the first animated cartoon, Fantasmagorie, was released. The film (watch it on YouTube) was created by Émile Cohl by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, which gave the picture a … Continue reading →

“Every spring scores of salesmen roar out of 31 U. S. cities to sell some 17,000 theatre owners a full year’s supply of films (100 to 300 per theatre), sight unseen. They do not sell the films by name, since … Continue reading →

Today in 1896, the Vitascope was introduced to the public for the first time at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York City.

Today in 1923, Lee DeForest premiered 18 short films made in the Phonofilm system, which recorded synchronized sound directly onto film, at the Rivoli Theater in New York City.

Today in 1894, the first commercial exhibition of motion pictures in history was given in New York City, using ten Kinetoscopes. 

Today in 1895, the first public screening of films at which admission was charged was held by the Lumiere brothers at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris. It featured ten short films, including their first film, Sortie des … Continue reading →

Today in 1906, the world’s first full-length feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is shown at the Melbourne Town Hall in Australia. The film traces the life of the legendary bushranger Ned Kelly (1855–1880). In 2007, the film … Continue reading →

Fifteen years ago today, Toy Story opened in U.S. theaters, the first feature-film to be made entirely with computer-generated imagery (CGI). The current issue of ACM Queue magazine features Ed Catmul, President of Pixar Animation Studios, talking with Stanford computer … Continue reading →

Today in 1888, Louis Le Prince shot Roundhay Garden Scene, the earliest surviving motion picture.