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Key Moments in the History and Evolution of Cinema

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  • The First Private Screening

    In France, Auguste and Louis Lumière hold the first private screening.The brothers invent the Cinématograph, a combination camera and projector.

  • The First Movie Theatre

    The first movie theater opens in Pittsburgh.

  • The First Feature Film

    The first feature film is released when the two reels of D. W. Griffith's "Enoch Arden" are screened together.

  • The Birth of a Nation

    D.W.Griffith's technically brilliant Civil War epic, "The Birth of a Nation", introduces the narrative close-up, the flashback and other elements that endure today as the structural principles of narrative filmmaking.

  • The First Cartoon

    Walt Disney creates his first cartoon, "Alice's Wonderland."

  • Potemkin

    Sergei Eisenstein makes "Potemkin", a revolutionary portrait of mutiny aboard a battleship. In the hands of Eisenstein, montage is raised to the highest structural role in filmmaking, serving as the unifying element of the medium.

  • Gone with the Wind

    The big-screen adaptation of "Gone with the Wind" premieres, and will go on to gross $192 million, making it one of the most profitable films of all time.

  • Citizen Kane

    In "Citizen Kane", Orson Welles subordinates all previous technological and cinematic accomplishments to his own essentially cinematic vision. Using newly developed film stocks and a wider, faster lens, Welles pushes the boundaries of montage and mise-en-scène, as well as sound, redefining the medium.

  • CinemaScope

    To counteract the threat of television, Hollywood thinks big and develops wide-screen processes such as CinemaScope, first seen in "The Robe".

  • Psycho

    Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" terrifies audiences and becomes one of the year's most successful films, as well as one of the most memorable psychological thrillers.

  • Steadicam

    The Steadicam is used for the first time in "Rocky".

  • Titanic

    "Titanic" becomes the highest-grossing film of all time, raking in more than $580 million domestically. "Titanic" captures a record-tying 11 Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture and Best Director.