Before Muybridge's 1878 work, photo sequences were not recorded in real-time because light-sensitive emulsions needed a long exposure time. The sequences were basically made as time-lapse recordings. It is possible that people at the time actually viewed such photographs come to life with a phénakisticope or zoetrope (this certainly happened with Muybridge's work).
1826 – View from the Window at Le Gras, Nicéphore Niépce takes the oldest known extant photograph.
1833 – Since 1833 onwards, 'animated films' or rather animated effects began to be made with the use of phénakisticopes, zoetropes and praxinoscopes.
1865 – Revolving, self-portrait by French photographer Nadar. Around 1865 he produced this series of self-portraits consisting of 12 frames showing different angles of him sitting still in a chair. Except for a smile in 1 frame, not even a fold in his jacket or a single hair seems to change between the different angles. This could be regarded as a predecessor to the chronophotography which Marey and Muybridge started to experiment with more than 10 years later. As the sequence revolves around space rather than time it is even more related to the bullet-time effect popularized by The Matrix about 135 years later. There's no clue if more than one camera was used in the shoot, but it's certainly well-executed.
1870s
1874 – Passage de Vénus, first precedent of a film. On December 9, 1874, french astronomer Pierre Janssen and Brazilian engineer Francisco Antônio de Almeida using Janssen's 'photographic revolver' photograph the transit of the planet Venus across the Sun. They were purportedly taken in Japan. It is the oldest film on IMDb.
1878 –
The Horse in Motion, British photographer Eadweard Muybridge take a series of "automatic electro-photographs" depicting the movement of a horse. Muybridge shot the photographs in June 1878. An additional card reprinted the single image of the horse "Occident" trotting at high speed, which had previously been published by Muybridge in 1877. The most famous of these electro-photographs is "Sallie Gardner" taken on June 19, 1878. Railroad tycoon Leland Stanford hired Muybridge to settle the questions of whether a galloping horse ever had all four of its feet off the ground. Muybridge's photos showed the horse with all four feet off the ground. Muybridge went on a lecture tour showing his photographs on a moving-image device he called the zoopraxiscope.
Le singe musicien, first animated movie using the praxinoscope.
1880s
1885 – French inventors Auguste Lumiere and Louis Lumiere film "Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory", which is considered the first motion picture.
1885 – American inventors George Eastman and Hannibal Goodwin each invent a sensitized celluloid base roll photographic film to replace the glass plates then in use; L'homme Machine, directed by French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey. The oldest black and white animated known film.
1886 – Alice Guy Blache creates "La Fee aux Chou", also knowns as "the Fairy of the Cabbages", in France. Although many other films are seen as first moments of 'movie magic,' this film stands out as the first.
1886 – Louis Le Prince is granted an American dual-patent on a 16-lens device that combines a motion picture camera with a projector.
1887 – Man Walking Around a Corner, directed by French inventor Louis Le Prince. The oldest known film. Although according to David Wilkinson's 2015 documentary The First Film it's not film, but a series of photographs, 16 in all, each taken from one of the lens from Le Prince's camera. Pictures from the film were sent in a letter dated 18 August 1887 to his wife. Le Prince went on to develop the one lens camera and on the 14th October 1888 he finally made the world's first moving image, Roundhay Garden Scene.
1888 – Roundhay Garden Scene, the earliest surviving film by French inventor Louis Le Prince, is shot in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, through a groundbreaking 20 frames per second. Others short films made at the same time were Accordion Player and Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge.
1889 – Eastman Kodak is the first company to begin commercial production of film on a flexible transparent base, celluloid.
1890s
1891 – Dickson Greeting; Men Boxing; Newark Athlete
1892 – Le Clown et ses chiens; Pauvre Pierrot; Un bon bock, first projected animated films released by Émile Reynaud.
1893 – Blacksmiths, the first film shown publicly on the Kinetoscope, a system given to Edison; Thomas Edison creates "America's First Film Studio", Black Maria.
1894 –
Carmencita, according to film historian Charles Musser, directed and produced by William K.L. Dickson, the Scottish inventor credited with the invention of the motion picture camera under the employ of Thomas Edison was the first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and may have been the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States.
The Dickson Experimental Sound Film made by William Dickson in late 1894 or early 1895 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 – In Paris, France on December 28, 1895, the Lumière brothers screen ten films at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris making the first commercial public screening ever made, marked traditionally as the birth date of the film; Gaumont Film Company, the oldest ever film studio, is founded by inventor Léon Gaumont.
1896 – L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, one of the six more short films released by the Lumière brothers; Pathé-Frères is founded. Le Manoir du diable (The Haunted Castle) is a French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès which depicts a pantomimed sketch in the style of a theatrical comic fantasy.
1897 – Vitagraph is founded in New York City.
1898 –The Astronomer's Dream; The Cavalier's Dream; Photographing a Ghost; Santa Claus;
1898 – Shinin No Sosei and Bake Jizo by Ejiro Hatta, some of the first films in Japan, which were ghost stories. Salvador Toscano creates the film, "Don Juan Tenorio", which is considered one of the first films in Mexico and perhaps the first fictional film in Mexico, as South America as a continent focuses on documentary in early film history.
1898 – Hiralal Sen is inspired and films the "Flower of Persia" play.
1899 – The Dreyfus Affair and Cendrillon (first screen adaptation of the traditional fairy tale Cinderella) released by Georges Méliès; earliest known use of a colour motion picture film footage by Edward Raymond Turner.
1900s
1900 – Sherlock Holmes Baffled, Joan of Arc
1901 – Blue Beard, Star Theatre, Stop Thief!, Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost
1902 – A Trip to the Moon, The Coronation of Edward VII
1903 – The Great Train Robbery, The Infernal Cauldron, Life of an American Fireman, Electrocuting an Elephant, The Kingdom of the Fairies
1904 – The Impossible Voyage; Titanus is founded
1905 – Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom
1906 – The Story of the Kelly Gang, The Merry Frolics of Satan, The '?' Motorist, Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces; Nordisk Film is founded
1907 – That Fatal Sneeze, Ben-Hur, The Eclipse, or the Courtship of the Sun and Moon, L'Enfant prodigue
1908 – Fantasmagorie, The Taming of the Shrew, The Thieving Hand, The Assassination of the Duke of Guise, The Adventures of Dollie; Pathé News invents the newsreel.
1909 – The Country Doctor, A Corner in Wheat, Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy, Les Misérables; 35 mm film becomes a filmmaking standard across the world; first public screening of Kinemacolor.
1910s
1910 – Frankenstein, In Old California, In the Border States, Jean the Match-Maker, White Fawn's Devotion
1911 – L'Inferno, Baron Munchausen's Dream, Defence of Sevastopol, The Lonedale Operator
1912 – The Cameraman's Revenge, Falling Leaves, Independenţa României, The Musketeers of Pig Alley, Richard III; Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures, Hollywood's two oldest major film studios, are founded; the British Board of Film Classification is established.
1913 – The Bangville Police, Fantômas, Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life, Raja Harishchandra, The Student Of Prague; invention of the film trailer
1914 – The Perils of Pauline, Tillie's Punctured Romance, Judith of Bethulia, Gertie the Dinosaur
1915 – The Birth of a Nation, The Tramp, Les Vampires, The Cheat
1916 – Intolerance, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Judex; invention of Technicolor.
1917 – Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, A Man There Was, The Immigrant
1918 – The Outlaw and His Wife, Stella Maris, Mickey, Shifting Sands, Shoulder Arms
1919 – Blind Husbands, Broken Blossoms, True Heart Susie, Dalagang Bukid, Male and Female, Wagon Tracks; United Artists is founded.
1920s
1920 – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Way Down East, The Penalty, The Mark of Zorro, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Golem: How He Came into the World, Within Our Gates
1921 – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Kid, The Phantom Carriage, Fool's Paradise, The Sheik, The Mechanical Man , Destiny, The Three Musketeers
1922 – Nosferatu, Foolish Wives, The Little Rascals, Blood and Sand, Nanook of the North, Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler; Motion Picture Association of America is established.
1923 – Safety Last!, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Ten Commandments; Warner Bros. Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures are founded; 16 mm film introduced.
1924 – The Thief of Bagdad, Greed, The Hands Of Orlac, Sherlock Jr., The Last Laugh, He Who Gets Slapped, Die Nibelungen; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures are founded
1925 – The Gold Rush, The Battleship Potemkin, The Big Parade, The Phantom of the Opera, Ben-Hur, The Lost World, The Pleasure Garden
1926 – The General, Don Juan, The Black Pirate, Faust
1927 – The Jazz Singer, Metropolis, Wings, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Napoléon, The King of Kings
1928 – The Man Who Laughs, Mickey Mouse, Lights of New York, The Circus, The Singing Fool, In Old Arizona; RKO Pictures is founded
1929 – Blackmail, Un Chien Andalou, Pandora's Box, Man with a Movie Camera, The Broadway Melody, Disraeli, The Virginian; 1st Academy Awards
1930s
1930 – Looney Tunes, King of Jazz, All Quiet on the Western Front, Earth, Journey's End, The Blue Angel, The Bat Whispers, Murder!, Animal Crackers, Hell's Angels, The Big House, The Big Trail
1931 – Frankenstein, Dracula, The Champ, The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, Cimarron, M, City Lights, The Front Page, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1932 – Shanghai Express, Scarface, Tarzan the Ape Man, The Mummy, Freaks, The Music Box, Trouble in Paradise, The Sign of the Cross, Grand Hotel; 8mm film introduced.
1933 – King Kong, Gold Diggers of 1933, The Invisible Man, 42nd Street, Duck Soup, Sons of the Desert, She Done Him Wrong
1934 – L'Atalante, It Happened One Night, The Thin Man, Cleopatra, The Goddess, Imitation of Life, Manhattan Melodrama, The Black Cat, Bright Eyes
1935 – A Night at the Opera, Bride of Frankenstein, The 39 Steps, Top Hat, Mutiny on the Bounty; 20th Century Fox and The Rank Organisation are founded
1936 – Modern Times, Swing Time, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Flash Gordon, My Man Godfrey, The Great Ziegfeld, Come and Get It, Romeo and Juliet, Camille
1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Life of Émile Zola, La Grande Illusion, Pépé le Moko, The Prisoner of Zenda, Lost Horizon
1938 – Bringing Up Baby, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Alexander Nevsky, Jezebel, A Christmas Carol, Boys Town, Angels with Dirty Faces
1939 – Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, The Rules of the Game, Sherlock Holmes, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Of Mice and Men, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach
1940s
1940 – His Girl Friday, The Great Dictator, Rebecca, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Tom and Jerry, The Grapes of Wrath, The Philadelphia Story, Road to... series
1941 – Citizen Kane, The Lady Eve, Sergeant York, Dumbo, How Green Was My Valley, The Maltese Falcon, The Wolf Man
1942 – Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, The Magnificent Ambersons, To Be or Not to Be, Bambi, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cat People
1943 – The Song of Bernadette, Heaven Can Wait, Phantom of the Opera, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Ox-Bow Incident
1944 – Going My Way, Double Indemnity, Meet Me in St. Louis, Ivan the Terrible, Laura, To Have and Have Not, Murder, My Sweet; 1st Golden Globe Awards
1945 – Brief Encounter, Children of Paradise, Fallen Angel, Leave Her to Heaven, The Lost Weekend, The Naughty Nineties, Anchors Aweigh, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Spellbound, Along Came Jones
1946 – It's a Wonderful Life, Notorious, My Darling Clementine, Great Expectations, The Best Years of Our Lives, Song of the South, The Big Sleep, Blue Skies; First Cannes Film Festival
1947 – Miracle on 34th Street, Black Narcissus, The Lady from Shanghai, Monsieur Verdoux, Out of the Past, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Odd Man Out, Life with Father
1948 – Bicycle Thieves, The Red Shoes, Red River, Hamlet, The Three Musketeers; 1st British Academy Film Awards
1949 – The Third Man, Late Spring, All the King's Men, White Heat, Whisky Galore!, Stray Dog, The Heiress
1950s
1950 – Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve, Cinderella, Harvey, Rashomon, Father of the Bride, Orphée, Annie Get Your Gun, In a Lonely Place, Cyrano de Bergerac, King Solomon's Mines, Born Yesterday
1951 – A Streetcar Named Desire, An American in Paris, The Day the Earth Stood Still, A Place in the Sun
1952 – Singin' in the Rain, High Noon, The Bad and the Beautiful, The Quiet Man, Limelight, This Is Cinerama, The Greatest Show on Earth; first 3D films
1953 – Peter Pan, Tokyo Story, From Here to Eternity, Shane, Dangerous When Wet, The War of the Worlds, Ugetsu, The Earrings of Madame de..., Salome, Roman Holiday, The Band Wagon, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; first use of CinemaScope; British cinema advertisement company Pearl & Dean is founded.
1954 – Rear Window, Seven Samurai, Dial M for Murder, White Christmas, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, Sansho the Bailiff, A Star Is Born, On the Waterfront
1955 – Rebel Without a Cause, The Night of the Hunter, To Catch a Thief, The Seven Year Itch, Marty, Ordet, The Apu Trilogy, All That Heaven Allows, Smiles of a Summer Night, Lady and the Tramp, Oklahoma!
1956 – Mukh O Mukhosh, The Ten Commandments, High Society, Carousel, The King and I, Giant, The Searchers, The Silent World, Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Around the World in 80 Days
1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai, 12 Angry Men, Sweet Smell of Success, The Seventh Seal, Touch of Evil, Jailhouse Rock, Let's All Go to the Lobby, Wild Strawberries, Paths of Glory, Throne of Blood
1958 – Vertigo, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, Gigi, South Pacific, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Carry On, Jalsaghar, The Fly
1959 – Ben-Hur, Some Like It Hot, North by Northwest, Anatomy of a Murder, Sleeping Beauty, Rio Bravo, Pickpocket, Pillow Talk
1960s
1960 – Psycho, Spartacus, Breathless, The Apartment, Exodus, The Magnificent Seven, La Dolce Vita, L'Avventura
1961 – West Side Story, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Divorce, Italian Style, Judgment at Nuremberg, Yojimbo, One Hundred and One Dalmatians
1962 – Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Ivan's Childhood, The Manchurian Candidate, Lolita, La Jetée, Sundays and Cybele
1963 – The Birds, The Great Escape, Tom Jones, Hud, Cleopatra, Charade, 8½, Not on Your Life, Lilies in the Field, The Haunting, How the West Was Won, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Jason and the Argonauts, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, The Pink Panther
1964 – Mary Poppins, A Hard Day's Night, My Fair Lady, The Pink Panther cartoon series, Goldfinger, Dr. Strangelove, Dollars Trilogy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
1965 – The Sound of Music, Doctor Zhivago, Repulsion
1966 – Persona, Blowup, Fantastic Voyage, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Au Hasard Balthazar, The Battle of Algiers, A Man for All Seasons, Winnie the Pooh, Alfie, Born Free, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
1967 – Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke, In the Heat of the Night, The Jungle Book, Dont Look Back, The Dirty Dozen
1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rosemary's Baby, Planet of the Apes, Once Upon a Time in the West, Night of the Living Dead, Yellow Submarine, Bullitt, Funny Girl
1969 – Midnight Cowboy, True Grit, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Easy Rider, The Wild Bunch, Z, The Italian Job
1970s
1970 – Love Story, The Conformist, Performance, Patton, M*A*S*H, Woodstock, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Five Easy Pieces, Airport, Let It Be; first IMAX films
1971 – The French Connection, A Clockwork Orange, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Dirty Harry, Get Carter, The Last Picture Show, Fiddler on the Roof, Harold and Maude, Straw Dogs
1972 – The Godfather, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, The Poseidon Adventure, Cries and Whispers, Those People of the Nile, Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Solaris, Last Tango in Paris, Cabaret, Napoleon and Samantha, Deep Throat, What's Up, Doc?
1973 – The Exorcist, Enter the Dragon, Amarcord, The Sting, American Graffiti, Paper Moon, Mean Streets, The Wicker Man, Distant Thunder, Day for Night, Papillon
1974 – A Woman Under the Influence, The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Phantom of the Paradise, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Benji, The Conversation, Black Christmas, The Towering Inferno
1975 – Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Dog Day Afternoon, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Passenger, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Nashville; videocassette recorders appear on mass markets.
1976 – Taxi Driver, Rocky, Network, Carrie, All the President's Men, In the Realm of the Senses, 1900, The Omen, Logan's Run, The Outlaw Josey Wales
1977 – Star Wars, Annie Hall, Saturday Night Fever, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, A Bridge Too Far, Eraserhead, Providence
1978 – Halloween, The Deer Hunter, Dawn of the Dead, Superman, Grease, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Midnight Express, Days of Heaven, Up in Smoke, National Lampoon's Animal House
1979 – Apocalypse Now, Alien, Mad Max, Kramer vs. Kramer, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Stalker, Manhattan, All That Jazz, The Black Stallion
1980s
1980 – The Shining, Raging Bull, Airplane!, Caddyshack, Ordinary People, Friday the 13th, Fame, Kagemusha, The Blues Brothers, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, The Elephant Man, Private Benjamin
1981 – Raiders of the Lost Ark (first Indiana Jones film), Chariots of Fire, Reds, The Evil Dead, On Golden Pond, Pennies from Heaven, Das Boot, Scanners, Time Bandits, Clash of the Titans, Escape from New York, An American Werewolf in London
1982 – Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, Tron, Sophie's Choice, Tootsie, Fanny and Alexander, Fitzcarraldo, Gandhi, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, First Blood, 48 Hrs., The Dark Crystal, An Officer and a Gentleman
1983 – Michael Jackson's Thriller, Terms of Endearment, Risky Business, Sans Soleil, L'Argent, The King of Comedy, The Right Stuff, Strange Brew, National Lampoon's Vacation, Scarface, Nostalghia, Trading Places, A Christmas Story; THX sound system is developed.
1984 – This Is Spinal Tap, Amadeus, The Terminator, Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid, Once Upon a Time in America, Paris, Texas, Stop Making Sense, Gremlins, Footloose, Beverly Hills Cop, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The NeverEnding Story
1985 – Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club, Out of Africa, The Color Purple, Brazil, Shoah, Ran, Come and See, The Goonies, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, A Room with a View
1986 – Blue Velvet, The Sacrifice, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Aliens, Platoon, Hannah and Her Sisters, Top Gun, Stand By Me, Crocodile Dundee, The Color of Money, Stewardess School, Labyrinth, Flight of the Navigator, Big Trouble in Little China, Short Circuit, The Fly, Little Shop of Horrors
1987 – Fatal Attraction, The Untouchables, The Princess Bride, Dirty Dancing, Full Metal Jacket, Wings of Desire, The Dead, RoboCop, Evil Dead II, The Last Emperor, Raising Arizona, Wall Street, The Lost Boys, Hellraiser, Predator, Moonstruck, Hope and Glory, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Empire of the Sun, Lethal Weapon, Babette's Feast, Au revoir les enfants, Good Morning, Vietnam, Broadcast News
1988 – Rain Man, Cinema Paradiso, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Die Hard, Beetlejuice, My Neighbor Totoro, Akira, The Accused, Big, Days of Terror, The Bear, The Last Temptation of Christ, Dead Ringers, Child's Play, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
1989 – Do the Right Thing, Driving Miss Daisy, Batman, A Fish Called Wanda, The Abyss, When Harry Met Sally..., The Little Mermaid, Say Anything..., Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Crimes and Misdemeanors, My Left Foot, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, Born on the Fourth of July; first publication of Empire
1990s
1990 – Home Alone, Ghost, Goodfellas, Close-Up, Dances with Wolves, Edward Scissorhands, Wild at Heart, Total Recall, Misery, Pretty Woman, Journey of Hope, The Hunt for Red October
1991 – The Silence of the Lambs, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Beauty and the Beast, JFK, Boyz n the Hood, Thelma & Louise, A Brighter Summer Day, Barton Fink, The Addams Family
1992 – Unforgiven, Reservoir Dogs, Basic Instinct, Aladdin, A Few Good Men, The Player, The Crying Game, Wayne's World, Indochine, Candyman, A League of Their Own
1993 – Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, The Piano, Groundhog Day, In the Name of the Father, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Philadelphia, Three Colours trilogy, True Romance, Dazed and Confused
1994 – Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, The Lion King, Legends of the Fall, Clerks, Sátántangó, Interview with the Vampire, Speed, True Lies, The Crow, Maverick, Léon: The Professional, Il Postino: The Postman, The Mask, Through the Olive Trees, Four Weddings and a Funeral
1995 – Braveheart, Se7en, Apollo 13, Toy Story, The Usual Suspects, Heat, 12 Monkeys, Clueless, Babe, The City of Lost Children, Leaving Las Vegas, Casino, Before trilogy, Sense and Sensibility; first DVDs released.
1996 – Fargo, Flirting with Disaster, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Jerry Maguire, Mission: Impossible, Scream, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, That Thing You Do!, Shine, Shall We Dance?
1997 – Titanic, Life is Beautiful, Good Will Hunting, Boogie Nights, Jackie Brown, L.A. Confidential, Taste of Cherry, Gattaca, Hana-bi, Men in Black, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, The Full Monty, Princess Mononoke, Perfect Blue, The Fifth Element, I Know What You Did Last Summer
1998 – Saving Private Ryan, American History X, The Thin Red Line, Shakespeare in Love, The Big Lebowski, Buffalo '66, Bulworth, The Truman Show, The Wedding Singer, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Run Lola Run, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, There's Something About Mary
1999 – American Beauty, The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, Fight Club, Magnolia, Notting Hill, The Blair Witch Project, Girl, Interrupted, The Iron Giant, The Green Mile, Election, Boys Don't Cry, Beau Travail, Being John Malkovich
2000s
2000 – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, In the Mood for Love, Gladiator, Cast Away, Platform, Memento, Erin Brockovich, Billy Elliot, Almost Famous, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, High Fidelity, Battle Royale, X-Men, Unbreakable, American Psycho, Before Night Falls, Requiem for a Dream; first digital cinema in Europe by Phillippe Binant.
2001 – The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Shrek, A Beautiful Mind, The Royal Tenenbaums, Spirited Away, Mulholland Drive, Donnie Darko, The Fast & the Furious, Moulin Rouge!, Zoolander, Training Day, Black Hawk Down, Monster's Ball, Amélie, Bridget Jones's Diary
2002 – City of God, Talk to Her, Minority Report, The Pianist, Russian Ark, Spider-Man, Chicago, 8 Mile, The Hours, The Quiet American, Gangs of New York, Bowling for Columbine, About a Boy, Frida, 28 Days Later, Bend It Like Beckham, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Punch-Drunk Love, The Ring, Better Luck Tomorrow, Catch Me If You Can, Adaptation
2003 – Oldboy, Kill Bill, Lost in Translation, Elephant, Monster, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Finding Nemo, Love Actually, Elf, Cold Mountain, The Room, School of Rock, Once Upon a Time in Mexico
2004 – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Million Dollar Baby, The Incredibles, The Passion of the Christ, Sideways, Hotel Rwanda, Downfall, Friday Night Lights, Ray, Saw, Shaun of the Dead, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Mean Girls, Napoleon Dynamite; Anti-piracy campaign "Piracy. It's a crime", which features the first line You Wouldn't Steal a Car, first advertised.
2005 – Caché, The New World, Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, A History of Violence, Pride & Prejudice, Walk the Line, March of the Penguins, Munich, Capote, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Good Night, and Good Luck
2006 – Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, The Departed, Dreamgirls, The Lives of Others, The Prestige, Happy Feet, The Queen, Borat, Little Miss Sunshine, The Pursuit of Happyness, An Incovenient Truth, The Last King of Scotland, Babel, United 93; First Blu-rays released
2007 – 300, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, I Am Legend, Ratatouille, Into the Wild, Juno, Atonement, Persepolis, Once, La Vie En Rose
2008 – Iron Man (starting off the Marvel Cinematic Universe), WALL-E, Slumdog Millionaire, Mamma Mia!, Gran Torino, The Wrestler, Milk, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Cloverfield, Ip Man, Waltz with Bashir, In Bruges, Man on Wire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2009 – Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, Up, A Serious Man, District 9, The Hurt Locker, The Hangover, Coraline, Precious, An Education, In the Loop
2010s
2010 – The King's Speech, Inception, Black Swan, The Social Network, How to Train Your Dragon, Winter's Bone, Despicable Me, 127 Hours, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Kids Are All Right
2011 – The Artist, Drive, The Intouchables, Hugo, A Separation, The Tree of Life, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Bridesmaids, Moneyball, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Help, The Cabin in the Woods
2012 – Life of Pi, Argo, Lincoln, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, The Avengers, Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games, Ted, Pitch Perfect, Magic Mike, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Zero Dark Thirty
2013 – The Wolf of Wall Street, Gravity, Frozen, 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club, Inside Llewyn Davis, Her, The Conjuring, Pacific Rim, Philomena, Prisoners, Blue is the Warmest Colour
2014 – Interstellar, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman, Whiplash, Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Babadook, Paddington, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lego Movie, John Wick, The Theory of Everything
2015 – Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Inside Out, The Hateful Eight, Spotlight, The Martian, Ex Machina, Anomalisa, Room, Creed, Amy, Straight Outta Compton
2016 – La La Land, Deadpool, Zootopia, Your Name, Arrival, Moana, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion, Dangal, Train To Busan, The Handmaiden, Don't Breathe
2017 – The Shape of Water, Wonder Woman, Get Out, It, Dunkirk, Logan, The Disaster Artist, Baby Driver, Paddington 2, The Silent Child, In a Heartbeat, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour; The Harvey Weinstein scandal begins.
2018 – Bohemian Rhapsody, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: The Spider-Verse trilogy, The Favourite, Roma, Eighth Grade, A Quiet Place, Black Panther, Hereditary, BlacKkKlansman, Free Solo
2019 – Joker, 1917, Avengers: Endgame, Parasite, Rocketman, Little Women, The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Lighthouse, Marriage Story, Uncut Gems, Knives Out, Jojo Rabbit
2020s
2020 – Nomadland, Minari, The Eight Hundred, Hamilton, Mank, The Invisible Man, Another Round, Promising Young Woman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Half of It; due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of films shut down production, or are either removed from their originally scheduled releases and moved to new release dates or digital releases.
2021 – Dune, The Power of the Dog, Encanto, Judas and the Black Messiah, Belfast, Licorice Pizza, Don't Look Up, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Flee, CODA, The White Tiger, Tick, Tick... Boom!, The Lost Daughter; American movie theatre chain AMC Theatres launches its movie theatre commercial starring actress Nicole Kidman
2022 – Everything Everywhere All at Once, Hawa, Top Gun: Maverick, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, The Batman, Tár, X, Triangle of Sadness, RRR, Elvis, Aftersun, The Banshees of Inisherin, All Quiet on the Western Front, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, The Whale
2023 – Poor Things, Surongo, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie, Oppenheimer, M3GAN, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Maestro, The Boy and the Heron, Once Upon a Studio, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.; In Hollywood, the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA begin a series of strikes of actors and writers for six months separately, affecting the film and television industries
2024 – Civil War, Rajkumar
See also
List of cinematic firsts
References
Sources
The Silent Cinema Reader edited by Lee Grieveson and Peter Kramer
Movies of the 30s, edited by Jürgen Müller, Taschen
The Magic of Méliès, documentary by Jacques Mény, special collector's edition DVD, Spain