List of years in film

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.

• 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 and Letterboxd.
• 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.

• 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 – 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.

• 1890 - London's Trafalgar Square; Monkeyshines
• 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.[1][2][3]
  • 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. It is also discussed whether it is considered as the first LGBT film. Further in his book The Celluloid Closet (1981), film historian Vito Russo discusses the film, claiming, without attribution, that it was titled The Gay Brothers.[4] Russo's unsupported naming of the film has been adopted widely online and in at least three books, and his unsubstantiated assertions that the film's content is homosexual are frequently echoed.[5] In addition to there being no evidence for the title Russo gives the film, in fact, the word "gay" was not generally used as a synonym for "homosexual" at the time the film was made. A particularly relevant example of the way the word "gay" was actually used is provided by a later Edison Manufacturing Company film, directed by Edwin S. Porter. As described by scholar Linda Williams, The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903).
• 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
• 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.[6]

• 1900 – Sherlock Holmes Baffled, Joan of Arc, The Enchanted Drawing
• 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 – The Weavers, The Black Imp, Rip's Dream, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom, Rescued by Rover
• 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 – Ben-Hur, The Eclipse, or the Courtship of the Sun and Moon, L'Enfant prodigue
• 1908 – Fantasmagorie, A Visit to the Seaside, The Taming of the Shrew, The Thieving Hand, The Assassination of the Duke of Guise, The Adventures of Dollie; first use of Kinemacolor; 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.

• 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 – Cabiria, 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 – A Dog's Life, The Outlaw and His Wife, Stella Maris, Mickey, Shifting Sands, Shoulder Arms
• 1919 – Blind Husbands, Broken Blossoms, True Heart Susie, Feline Follies (First appearance of Felix the Cat), Dalagang Bukid, Male and Female, Wagon Tracks; United Artists is founded.

• 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, Häxan, 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, Our Hospitality, The Ten Commandments; Warner Bros. Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures are founded; 16 mm film introduced.
• 1924 – Sherlock Jr., The Thief of Bagdad, Greed, The Hands Of Orlac, 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, Don Q Son Of Zorro, The Pleasure Garden
• 1926 – The General, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Don Juan, The Black Pirate, Faust
• 1927 – The Jazz Singer, Metropolis, Laurel & Hardy, Wings, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Napoléon, The King of Kings, The Lodger: A Story Of The London Fog , The Cat and the Canary
• 1928 – The Man Who Laughs, Steamboat Willie, Lights of New York, The Circus, The Singing Fool, In Old Arizona; RKO Pictures is founded
• 1929 Un Chien Andalou, Blackmail, Pandora's Box, Man with a Movie Camera, The Broadway Melody, Disraeli, The Virginian; The Skeleton Dance, 1st Academy Awards

• 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, Betty Boop
• 1931 – Frankenstein, Dracula, The Champ, The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, Cimarron, M, City Lights, The Front Page, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Merrie Melodies
• 1932 – Shanghai Express, Scarface, Tarzan the Ape Man, The Mummy, Freaks, Trouble in Paradise, The Sign of the Cross, Grand Hotel; A Farewell to Arms, Baby Burlesks, 8mm film introduced.
• 1933 – King Kong, Gold Diggers of 1933, Fred & Ginger, The Invisible Man, 42nd Street, Duck Soup, The Three Stooges, She Done Him Wrong, Popeye the Sailor
• 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, Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Blood, Triumph of the Will; Top Hat 20th Century Studios 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 Emile 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, Golden Boy, The Little Princess, Gulliver's Travels

• 1940 – His Girl Friday, The Great Dictator, Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Rebecca, Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Grapes of Wrath, The Philadelphia Story, The Blue Bird, Road to... series, Woody Woodpecker
• 1941 – Citizen Kane, The Lady Eve, Sergeant York, Dumbo, How Green Was My Valley, The Maltese Falcon, The Wolf Man, The Reluctant Dragon
• 1942 – Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, The Magnificent Ambersons, To Be or Not to Be, Bambi, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cat People, Saludos Amigos, The Black Swan, Mighty Mouse
• 1943 – Ossessione, The Song of Bernadette, Heaven Can Wait, Phantom of the Opera, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Lassie Come Home, Shadow of a Doubt, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Ox-Bow Incident, Cabin in the Sky, Droopy, The Gang's All Here, Victory Through Air Power
• 1944 – Going My Way, Double Indemnity, Meet Me in St. Louis, Ivan the Terrible, Laura, To Have and Have Not, Murder, My Sweet, The Three Caballeros, Gaslight, Buffalo Bill, Bathing Beauty; Since You Went Away National Velvet 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, Rome, Open City, 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, Make Mine Music, Beauty and the Beast, The Big Sleep, Blue Skies, The Harvey Girls; The Yearling First Cannes Film Festival
• 1947 – Miracle on 34th Street, Black Narcissus, The Lady from Shanghai, Fun and Fancy Free, 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, Two Guys from Texas, Hamlet, Easter Parade, Melody Time, The Paleface, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Joan of Arc, So Dear to My Heart, The Three Musketeers; Fort Apache 1st British Academy Film Awards
• 1949 – The Third Man, Late Spring, All the King's Men, White Heat, Whisky Galore!, Stray Dog, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, The Heiress, On the Town, My Dream is Yours, Samson and Delilah, Tulsa, Mighty Joe Young

• 1950 – Rashomon, Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve, Cinderella, Harvey, Father of the Bride, Orphée, Annie Get Your Gun, In a Lonely Place, Cyrano de Bergerac, King Solomon's Mines, Born Yesterday, Pirates of the High Seas, Destination Moon
• 1951 – David and Bathsheba, A Streetcar Named Desire, An American in Paris, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Alice in Wonderland, Quo Vadis, The Great Caruso, The African Queen, The Thing from Another World, Ace in the Hole, Strangers on a Train, A Place in the Sun, Decision Before Dawn
• 1952 – Singin' in the Rain, High Noon, The Bad and the Beautiful, The Quiet Man, Limelight, This Is Cinerama, The Greatest Show on Earth; Hans Christian Andersen (film) first 3D films
• 1953 – Peter Pan, Tokyo Story, From Here to Eternity, Shane, Dangerous When Wet, The War of the Worlds, Ugetsu, The Robe, Trouble in Store, Calamity Jane, The Earrings of Madame de..., Salome, Roman Holiday, The Band Wagon, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Gun Fury; first use of CinemaScope; British cinema advertisement company Pearl & Dean is founded.
• 1954 – Godzilla, Rear Window, Seven Samurai, Dial M for Murder, White Christmas, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Sansho the Bailiff, A Star Is Born, On the Waterfront, La Strada, Three Coins in the Fountain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Barefoot Contessa, 3 Ring Circus, The Adventures of Hajji Baba
• 1955 – The Kentuckian, Rebel Without a Cause, The Night of the Hunter, To Catch a Thief, The Seven Year Itch, Marty, Ordet, Pather Panchali, All That Heaven Allows, Smiles of a Summer Night, Lady and the Tramp, Oklahoma!, Mr. Arkadin, The Court Jester, Mister Roberts, Blackboard Jungle, Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier
• 1956 – The Ten Commandments, High Society, Moby Dick, Carousel, The King and I, Giant, The Searchers, A Man Escaped, Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Night and Fog, Around the World in 80 Days, Wakeful Eyes, Rock Around the Clock, Invitation to the Dance, Rock, Rock, Rock!
• 1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai, 12 Angry Men, Sweet Smell of Success, Old Yeller, The Seventh Seal, Touch of Evil, Jailhouse Rock, Let's All Go to the Lobby, Mother India, The Snow Queen, Wild Strawberries, Paths of Glory, Throne of Blood, The Curse of Frankenstein, Back Again
• 1958 – Vertigo, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, Gigi, South Pacific, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Carry On, Ashes and Diamonds, Jalsaghar, The Fly, The Blob, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Jamila, the Algerian, Tom Thumb, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
• 1959 – Ben-Hur, Some Like It Hot, The 400 Blows, Hey Boy! Hey Girl!, Shake Hands with the Devil, North by Northwest, Anatomy of a Murder, Sleeping Beauty, Rio Bravo, Pickpocket, Hiroshima mon amour, Pillow Talk, Forbidden Women, Among the Ruins, The Second Man, Imitation of Life, Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Song of the Nightingale, The Shaggy Dog

• 1960 – Psycho, Spartacus, Breathless, The Apartment, Exodus, The Magnificent Seven, La Dolce Vita, L'Avventura, The Time Machine, Swiss Family Robinson, Pollyanna
• 1961 – West Side Story, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Divorce, Italian Style, Judgment at Nuremberg, Yojimbo, Last Year at Marienbad, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Absent-Minded Professor, The Parent Trap, Konga, Babes in Toyland
• 1962 – Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, James Bond film series, Seven Seas to Calais, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Ivan's Childhood, The Manchurian Candidate, Lolita, La Jetée, Sundays and Cybele, The Music Man, Gay Purr-ee
• 1963 – The Birds, The Great Escape, The Pink Panther, Tom Jones, Hud, Cleopatra, Charade, 8½, Not on Your Life, Lilies in the Field, The Haunting, How the West Was Won, The Nutty Professor, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Jason and the Argonauts, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, The Leopard, High and Low, Irma la Douce, Saladin the Victorious, McLintock!
• 1964 – Mary Poppins, A Hard Day's Night, My Fair Lady, Dr. Strangelove, Dollars Trilogy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
• 1965 – The Sound of Music, Doctor Zhivago, The Great Race, Cat Ballou, Repulsion
• 1966 – Persona, Blowup, Fantastic Voyage, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Au Hasard Balthazar, The Battle of Algiers, A Man for All Seasons, The Wild Angels, Winnie the Pooh, Alfie, Born Free, Andrei Rublev, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
• 1967 – Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Playtime, Belle de jour, Cool Hand Luke, In the Heat of the Night, The Jungle Book, Dont Look Back, The Dirty Dozen, The Producers, Doctor Dolittle, Thoroughly Modern Millie
• 1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rosemary's Baby, Planet of the Apes, Once Upon a Time in the West, Night of the Living Dead, Stolen Kisses, Yellow Submarine, Oliver!, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Love Bug, Bullitt, Funny Girl, Yours, Mine and Ours
• 1969 – Midnight Cowboy, True Grit, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Easy Rider, The Wild Bunch, Z, The Color of Pomegranates, The Night of Counting the Years, The Italian Job, Rascal

• 1970 – Love Story, The Conformist, Performance, Patton, M*A*S*H, Woodstock, The Aristocats, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Five Easy Pieces, Airport, Let It Be; The Boatniks, 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, Duel, Shaft, Big Jake
• 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, Deep Throat, Pink Flamingos, What's Up, Doc?, Last Tango in Paris, Sounder, Cabaret, Napoleon and Samantha
• 1973 – The Exorcist, Enter the Dragon, Amarcord, The Sting, American Graffiti, Paper Moon, Mean Streets, The Wicker Man, Fantastic Planet, Distant Thunder, Day for Night, Papillon, Serpico, Badlands, High Plains Drifter, Tom Sawyer
• 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, That's Entertainment!, Black Christmas, The Towering Inferno, Earthquake
• 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, Barry Lyndon, Mirror, Dersu Uzala, Sholay; 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, Bugsy Malone, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Alice Sweet Alice, Freaky Friday
• 1977 – Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Annie Hall, Saturday Night Fever, A Bridge Too Far, Suspiria, Eraserhead, House, Providence
• 1978 – Halloween, The Deer Hunter, Dawn of the Dead, Superman, Grease, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Midnight Express, Watership Down, Days of Heaven, Up in Smoke, National Lampoon's Animal House, The Wiz
• 1979 – Apocalypse Now, Alien, Mad Max, Kramer vs. Kramer, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Warriors, The Muppet Movie, Stalker, Manhattan, All That Jazz, The Black Stallion

• 1980 – The Shining, Raging Bull, Airplane!, The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, Ordinary People, Friday the 13th, Fame, Kagemusha, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, The Elephant Man, 9 to 5, Private Benjamin, The Blue Lagoon, Stir Crazy
• 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, Blow Out, Heavy Metal, Arthur, 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, The Dark Crystal, The Secret of NIMH, The Last Unicorn, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, First Blood, Annie, 48 Hrs., Fast Times at Ridgemont High, 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, Flashdance, Trading Places, A Christmas Story; Rock & Rule, 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, Romancing the Stone, Sixteen Candles, 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, Fright Night, A Room with a View
• 1986 – Top Gun, Aliens, Blue Velvet, The Sacrifice, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Platoon, Hannah and Her Sisters, Stand By Me, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Pretty in Pink, Crocodile Dundee, Three Amigos, 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, Harry and the Hendersons, Spaceballs
• 1988 – Rain Man, My Neighbor Totoro, Beetlejuice, Akira, Cinema Paradiso, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Die Hard, The Accused, Big, Willow, Moonwalker, Days of Terror, The Bear, The Last Temptation of Christ, Dead Ringers, Child's Play, Heathers, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, The Big Blue
• 1989 – Do the Right Thing, Driving Miss Daisy, Batman, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, A Fish Called Wanda, The Abyss, When Harry Met Sally..., The Little Mermaid, Say Anything..., Crimes and Misdemeanors, My Left Foot, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, Born on the Fourth of July, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; first publication of Empire

• 1990 – Home Alone, Ghost, Goodfellas, Close-Up, Dances with Wolves, Edward Scissorhands, Wild at Heart, Total Recall, Darkman, Misery, Pretty Woman, Journey of Hope, The Hunt for Red October
• 1991 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, JFK, Thelma & Louise, A Brighter Summer Day, Barton Fink, The Addams Family, My Girl, Point Break, Boyz n the Hood
• 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, Free Willy, Hocus Pocus, Mrs. Doubtfire, Cliffhanger, Ninja Scroll, Sleepless in Seattle, True Romance, Dazed and Confused, The Thief and the Cobbler
• 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, Babe, The Usual Suspects, Heat, 12 Monkeys, Clueless, The City of Lost Children, Ghost in the Shell, Leaving Las Vegas, Casino, La Haine, Before trilogy, Sense and Sensibility; first DVDs released.
• 1996 – Fargo, Flirting with Disaster, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Jerry Maguire, Mission: Impossible, Scream, Space Jam, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, That Thing You Do!, Fly Away Home, 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, The Full Monty, Princess Mononoke, Perfect Blue, 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, Little Voice, Blade, Bulworth, Waking Ned, The Mask of Zorro, Rush Hour, 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, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Eyes Wide Shut, All About My Mother, American Pie, The Green Mile, Election, Boys Don't Cry, Beau Travail, Office Space, Galaxy Quest, Being John Malkovich

• 2000 – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, In the Mood for Love, Gladiator, Billy Elliot, Cast Away, Platform, Memento, Erin Brockovich, Almost Famous, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, High Fidelity, Meet the Parents, Battle Royale, X-Men, Final Destination, 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, Waking Life, Monster's Ball, Ocean's Eleven, Amélie, Bridget Jones's Diary
• 2002 – City of God, Talk to Her, Spider-Man, Chicago, 8 Mile, Minority Report, The Pianist, Russian Ark, The Hours, The Quiet American, Gangs of New York, Bowling for Columbine, About a Boy, Frieda, 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, The Bourne Identity, Adaptation
• 2003 – Oldboy, Kill Bill, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Finding Nemo, Love Actually, Elf, Lost in Translation, Elephant, Monster, Big Fish, Cold Mountain, Bad Santa, 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, The Aviator, Ray, Hellboy, Saw, Shaun of the Dead (first film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Dodgeball, Team America: World Police, Mean Girls, Napoleon Dynamite, Finding Neverland, The Polar Express, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; 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, V for Vendetta, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Serenity, Sin City, Wedding Crashers, 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, The Devil Wears Prada, An Incovenient Truth, The Last King of Scotland, Snakes on a Plane, 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, Superbad, Grindhouse, Trick 'r Treat, Persepolis, Once, Michael Clayton, Enchanted, La Vie En Rose, Knocked Up, Son of Rambow, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• 2008 – The Marvel Cinematic Universe begins, WALL-E, Slumdog Millionaire, Mamma Mia!, Gran Torino, The Wrestler, Milk, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Frost/Nixon, Cloverfield, Ip Man, Tropic Thunder, Kung Fu Panda, Taken, Waltz with Bashir, Marley & Me, In Bruges, Man on Wire, Revolutionary Road, The Reader, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2009 – Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, Up, A Serious Man, District 9, The Hangover, Coraline, The Hurt Locker, Precious, The Princess and the Frog, Star Trek, The Lovely Bones, Moon, An Education, Up In The Air, In the Loop, Zombieland, Crazy Heart

• 2010 – The King's Speech, Inception, Black Swan, The Social Network, How to Train Your Dragon, Winter's Bone, Despicable Me, 127 Hours, True Grit, The Fighter, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Blue Valentine, The Kids Are All Right
• 2011 – The Artist, Drive, The Intouchables, Hugo, A Separation, The Tree of Life, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Midnight in Paris, Bridesmaids, Moneyball, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Help, The Cabin in the Woods
• 2012 – Life of Pi, Argo, Lincoln, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games, Ted, Pitch Perfect, Magic Mike, Looper, The Master, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Zero Dark Thirty
• 2013 – The Wolf of Wall Street, Gravity, Frozen, 12 Years a Slave, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Rush, American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club, Inside Llewyn Davis, Her, The Conjuring, Nebraska, Pacific Rim, Philomena, Prisoners, Blue Jasmine, Blue is the Warmest Colour
• 2014 – Interstellar, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman, Whiplash, Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Babadook, Paddington, American Sniper, Ex Machina, The Lego Movie, Selma, John Wick, Gone Girl, Foxcatcher, Nightcrawler, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything
• 2015 – Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Inside Out, The Hateful Eight, Spotlight, The Martian, Bridge of Spies, Anomalisa, The Big Short, Room, Carol, Creed, Amy, Straight Outta Compton
• 2016 – La La Land, Deadpool, Zootopia, Your Name, Arrival, Moana, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, Hacksaw Ridge, Fences, Lion, Dangal, Train To Busan, The Handmaiden, Don't Breathe, I, Daniel Blake, Silence, Hell or High Water
• 2017 – The Shape of Water, Wonder Woman, Get Out, It, Coco, Dunkirk, Logan, The Disaster Artist, Baby Driver, I, Tonya, Paddington 2, The Silent Child, In a Heartbeat, Lady Bird, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Call Me by Your Name, Phantom Thread, Darkest Hour, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, The Greatest Showman; The Harvey Weinstein scandal begins.
• 2018 – Bohemian Rhapsody, Spider-Verse, The Favourite, Roma, Eighth Grade, A Quiet Place, Hereditary, Crazy Rich Asians, BlacKkKlansman, Green Book, Free Solo, Shoplifters
• 2019 – Joker, 1917, Parasite, Rocketman, Little Women, The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Lighthouse, Marriage Story, Uncut Gems, Knives Out, Dolemite Is My Name, Jojo Rabbit, Richard Jewell

• 2020 – Nomadland, Minari, The Eight Hundred, Hamilton, Mank, Soul, The Invisible Man, Da 5 Bloods, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Another Round, Promising Young Woman, The Father, 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, The Last Duel, Flee, West Side Story (2021), Spencer, CODA, The White Tiger, King Richard, 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, Top Gun: Maverick, The Batman, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Tár, The Fabelmans, X, Triangle of Sadness, RRR, Elvis, Aftersun, The Banshees of Inisherin, All Quiet on the Western Front, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, She Said, The Whale, Women Talking
• 2023 – Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie, Oppenheimer, M3GAN, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Maestro, 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 ongoing strikes of actors and writers, affecting the film and television industries
• 2024

• List of cinematic firsts