Timeline

Film History Timeline: 1888 to 2026

The big turning points in the story of the movies, with a focus on how each change affected the people in front of the camera.

A cinema front at night in Sydney in 1928 with signs announcing that talkies are coming soon

Sydney cinema announcing talkies, 1928: photographed by Sam Hood, Public domain

1888
Roundhay Garden Scene
Louis Le Prince films a few seconds of movement in Leeds, England, one of the oldest surviving motion pictures.
1895
The Lumiere brothers
Auguste and Louis Lumiere hold a paid public screening of short films in Paris, often called the birth of cinema.
1910s
Hollywood rises
Film companies move to Southern California for sunshine and space. Studios begin promoting actors by name, creating the first movie stars.
1914
The Tramp appears
Charlie Chaplin creates his famous character at Keystone.
1919
United Artists
Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith start their own distribution company.
1927
The Jazz Singer
Synchronized songs and speech thrill audiences and start the move to talkies.
1929
First Academy Awards
A 15-minute dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
1932
Venice Film Festival
The world's first film festival opens on the Lido.
1930s
Technicolor
Three-strip Technicolor brings rich color to features in the second half of the decade.
1944
De Havilland Law
A California court limits studio contracts to seven calendar years.
1946
Cannes
The first full Cannes Film Festival takes place.
1948
Paramount decision
Studios are ordered to sell their cinema chains, starting the end of the studio system.
1951
Berlinale and Rashomon
The Berlin festival is founded, and Rashomon wins the Golden Lion in Venice.
1953
Oscars on TV
The Academy Awards are televised for the first time.
1976
Toronto
The Festival of Festivals, later TIFF, begins.
1978
Utah/US Film Festival
The event that becomes Sundance begins in Salt Lake City.
1995
Toy Story
The first fully computer-animated feature film, with Tom Hanks voicing Woody.
2000s
Digital cinema
Digital cameras and projection gradually replace 35mm film in most productions and cinemas.
2020
Parasite
The first non-English-language Best Picture winner.
2023
Michelle Yeoh
First Asian winner of Best Actress.
2026
Records and moves
Sinners sets a record of 16 Oscar nominations, and Sundance holds its last Utah edition before moving to Boulder in 2027.