This page lists chronologically the first achievements in cinema. The development of cinema is characterized by technological breakthroughs, from early experiments in the recording of day-to-day activity, experiments in color, different formats and sound. From the 1970s, the development of computer-generated imagery (CGI) became integral to the way that films are produced.

In parallel with the developments in technology, its content and the way it reflects society and its concerns and the way society responds to it have changed too. The list attempts to address some of these events.

Pre–1826 1826–1875 1876–1925 1926–1975 1976–2025 2026–present See also References

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Pre-1826

1824 Peter Mark Roget wrote the article Explanation of an optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel when seen through vertical apertures which described a stroboscopic illusion.

1826–1875

1832 Almost simultaneously, around December 1832, the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and the Austrian professor of practical geometry Simon Stampfer invented the Phenakistiscope, the first practical device to create a fluid illusion of motion. Plateau introduced the device in January 1833 in a scientific magazine.

1874

French astronomer P.J.C. Janssen came up with the idea for a "revolver to shoot the individual". This huge camera system used a Maltese cross-type mechanism, very similar to the system that would later be of great importance in the development of movie cameras. Janssen successfully captured two transits of Venus, the one of 1874 in Japan, and that of 1882 at Oran, in Algeria. Discs with test footage of a simulation from 1874 have been preserved and a modern animated version is sometimes regarded as the first movie.

1876–1925

1878 Using a battery of 12 cameras Eadweard Muybridge records several series of The Horse in Motion, capturing successive phases of movements that allowed his patron Leland Stanford to study the positions of the legs of his race horses during different gaits. The technique would soon be dubbed chronophotography.

1880 During his lectures on locomotion, Eadweard Muybridge projected looping animations of The Horse in Motion with his Zoopraxiscope. The stroboscopic apparatus used glass discs on which silhouette versions of the photographs had been traced by an artist (with anamorphic corrections for the distortion caused by fast rotation).

1882 Étienne-Jules Marey developed the Chronophotographe, which could take 12 pictures per second from a single viewpoint.

1888 In Leeds, England Louis Le Prince films Roundhay Garden Scene, believed to be the first motion picture recorded.

1889 or 1890 Monkeyshines was made by William Kennedy Dickson and William Heise as an experimental film to test the original cylinder Kinetograph format. The blurry result is believed to be the first film shot in the United States.

1891 Dickson Greeting, by William Kennedy Dickson, was the first semi-public demonstration of cinematographic pictures in the United States. The National Federation of Women's Clubs were shown a 3-second clip of Dickson passing a hat in front of himself, and reaching for it with his other hand on May 20, 1891, at Edison's laboratory.

1892 On October 28, 1892, Charles-Émile Reynaud gave the first public performance of a moving picture show at the Musée Grévin in Paris, the Théâtre Optique. The show, billed as Pantomimes Lumineuses, included three cartoons, Pauvre Pierrot, Un bon bock, and Le Clown et ses chiens, each consisting of 500 to 600 individually painted images and lasting about 15 minutes. The film was the first to use perforations.

1893 Blacksmith Scene, by William Kennedy Dickson. The first Kinetoscope film shown in public exhibition on May 9, 1893, and is the earliest known example of actors performing a role in a film. The world's first film production studio, the Black Maria, or the Kinetographic Theater, was completed on the grounds of Edison's laboratories at West Orange, New Jersey, for the purpose of making film strips for the Kinetoscope. Construction began in December 1892.Robinson (1997). p. 23.

1894 On April 14, 1894, a public Kinetoscope parlor was opened by the Holland Bros. in New York City at 1155 Broadway, on the corner of 27th Street—the first commercial motion picture house. The venue had ten machines, set up in parallel rows of five, each showing a different film. For 25 cents, a viewer could see all the films in either row; half a dollar gave access to the entire bill.The machines were modified so that they did not operate by nickel slot. According to Hendricks (1966), in each row "attendants switched the instruments on and off for customers who had paid their twenty-five cents" (p. 13). For more on the Hollands, see Peter Morris, Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895–1939 (Montreal and Kingston, Canada; London; and Buffalo, New York: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1978), pp. 6–7. Morris states that Edison wholesaled the Kinetoscope at $200 per machine; in fact, as described below, $250 seems to have been the most common figure at first. The Dolorita Passion Dance was banned in New Jersey after its use in peepshows. Russell Kick quotes the work Censorship as saying it "was probably the first [film] to be banned in the United States." La Sortie des Usines, the first film to be made in France. The Dickson Experimental Sound Film by William Kennedy Dickson. It is the first known film with live-recorded sound and appears to be the first motion picture made for the Kinetophone, the proto-sound-film system developed by Dickson and Thomas Edison.

1895 First hand-colored film, Annabelle Serpentine Dance by William Kennedy Dickson. Charles Francis Jenkins displays the Phantascope, the first patented film projector. Incident at Clovelly Cottage by Robert W. Paul and Birt Acres is the first film to be made in the United Kingdom. L'Arroseur Arrosé, the first comedy film. The Execution of Mary Stuart, the first use of special effects in film. History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophonograph by Antonia and William Kennedy Dickson, considered the first book of history on film, is published.

1896 The first building dedicated exclusively to showing motion pictures was the Vitascope Hall, established on Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 26 — it was converted from a vacant store. Later that year on October 19, the Edisonia Hall opened in Buffalo, New York in the Ellicott Square Building. The Edisonia was the first known dedicated, purpose-built motion picture theater in the world. Alice Guy-Blaché, the first female film director makes La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy) acknowledged as the first narrative fiction film. This movie also introduces screenplays for the first time. In The Kiss, May Irwin and John Rice re-enact the kiss from the New York stage hit The Widow Jones, the first film of a couple kissing. The House of the Devil, the first horror film. Le Coucher de la Mariée, a French erotic short film considered to be one of the first erotic films made. The film was first screened in Paris in November 1896, within a year of the first public screening of a projected motion picture.

1899 King John is the first film adaptation of the work of William Shakespeare. The film features Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the title role and features the death scene from King John.

1901 Histoire d'un crime, directed by Ferdinand Zecca was the first film to use flashbacks to create a non-linear narrative. The earliest known use of intertitles was in the British film Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost. A Nymph of the Waves, the first experimental film.

1902 Edward Raymond Turner's children and several other very short test films, the earliest known moving pictures photographed in color. A Trip to the Moon is the first sci-fi movie, as well as the first film to feature an extraterrestrial.

1903 The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter was the first western film.

1904 The Great Train Robbery, directed by Siegmund Lubin was the first film remake.

1906 Humorous Phases of Funny Faces directed by J. Stuart Blackton is the first animated film recorded on standard picture film. The Story of the Kelly Gang by Charles Tait is the first feature film to be released.

1907 January 19, Variety publishes reviews of two films, An Exciting Honeymoon and The Life of a Cowboy by Edwin S. Porter. These are believed to be the first film reviews published. L'Enfant prodigue is the first feature film produced in Europe.

1908 Fantasmagorie is considered the first animated cartoon.

1909 The first full-length feature film produced in the United States was an adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables. The Kinemacolor process is first shown to the public at Palace Theatre in London. This is the first time the public saw color films. Wilbur Wright und seine Flugmaschine was the first film shot from an aeroplane. The flight took place in April 1909. Wilbur Wright was training military personnel and took a newsreel cameraman on a flight in Rome to record this. Albert Samama Chikly took the first underwater shot.François Pouillon, Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française, Paris, Karthala, 2008 (), p. 863.

1910 The German film serial, Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes directed by Viggo Larsen was the first film crossover. For the first time, the rights to adapt a novel are bought from a publisher, (Little, Brown & Company who published Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Ramona.) The film is made by D. W. Griffith. D. W. Griffith makes In Old California, the first film to be made in Hollywood.

1912 With Our King and Queen Through India, a documentary recording Indian celebrations around the coronation of George V, is the first feature film to be released in color, using the Kinemacolor system. The dawn of Netta is the first movie distributed by a major studio.

1914

Lois Weber directs The Merchant of Venice, making her the first American female director of a feature-length film.

1915 The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith was the first big budget Hollywood epic.

1916 The Fall of a Nation, directed by Thomas Dixon Jr. was the first feature-length film sequel. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is the first feature-length film adaptation of a Jules Verne work. Since its release, at least 56 subsequent feature-length adaptations have been made as of 2022. A Daughter of the Gods is the first film with a budget greater than $1,000,000.

1917 The first animated feature film was El Apóstol by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. The Gulf Between directed by Wray Physioc is the first feature film to use Technicolor.

1918 Men Who Have Made Love to Me, directed by Arthur Berthelet was the first film to break the fourth wall.

1920 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the first movie to have a twist ending.

1921 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1921), directed by Emmett J. Flynn was the first film to feature time travel to the past.The American Film Catalog Feature Films: 1921-30 by The American Film I

1922 On October 18, the first-ever Hollywood premiere was held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, for the release of Robin Hood. The first colour feature film made in Hollywood, The Toll of the Sea, starring Anna May Wong. First feature film in 3D. The Power of Love by Nat Deverich, which premiered at the Ambassador Hotel Theater in Los Angeles on September 27. Foolish Wives becomes the first film to cost $1 million to produce. The studio took advantage of its exorbitant price and advertised it as "The First Real Million Dollar Picture".

1923 16 mm film is introduced by Eastman Kodak in the United States.

1925 The Big Parade, the first movie to swear. The Lost World, the first big-budget use of stop motion effects and rear screen projections.

1926–1975

1926 Don Juan becomes the first sound film, using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, though it contains no spoken dialogue.

1927