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The Film Portal

Man working with a movie projector in a movie theater, 1958

A film (British English) – also called a movie (American English), motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick – is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and the art form that is the result of it. (Full article...)

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One Chance is a 2013 British biographical film about opera singer and Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts, directed by David Frankel and written by Justin Zackham. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. (Portal:Film/Featured content)

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The following are images from various film-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Complex vignette shot in die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) (from History of film)
Image 2The Hollywood Sign (from Film industry)
Image 3Poster for a Biograph Studios release from 1913 (from Film industry)
Image 4Nestor studio, 1911 (from Film industry)
Image 5Italian neorealist movie Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, considered part of the canon of classic cinema (from History of film)
Image 6The Wizard of Oz (from History of film)
Image 7London IMAX has the largest cinema screen in Britain with a total screen size of 520 m². (from Film industry)
Image 8The Jazz Singer (1927), was the first full-length film with synchronized sound. (from History of film technology)
Image 9
An electrotachyscope
American Scientific, 16/11/1889, p. 303
(from History of film technology)
Image 10Georges Méliès (left) painting a backdrop in his studio (from History of film)
Image 11Old Chinese Cinema in Qufu, Shandong (from Film industry)
Image 12Frame from a c.1912 Chronochrome film (from History of film technology)
Image 13The Babelsberg Studio near Berlin was the first large-scale film studio in the world (founded 1912) and the forerunner to Hollywood. It still produces global blockbusters every year. (from Film industry)
Image 14A scene from Raja Harishchandra (1913) – credited as the first full-length Indian motion picture. (from Film industry)
Image 15A shot from Raja Harishchandra (1913), the first film of Bollywood. (from Film industry)
Image 16Original script from the 1989 film Batman (from History of film)
Image 17Cinema admissions in 1995 (from History of film)
Image 18Louis Poyet [fr]'s engraving of the mechanism of the "fusil photographique" as published in La Nature (april 1882) (from History of film technology)
Image 19Insert shot in Old Wives for New (Cecil B. DeMille, 1918) (from History of film)
Image 20Animated GIF of Prof. Stampfer's Stroboscopische Scheibe No. X (Trentsensky & Vieweg 1833) (from History of film technology)
Image 21Cinématographe Lumière at the Institut Lumière, France (from History of film technology)
Image 22GIF animation from retouched pictures of The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge (1879). (from History of film technology)
Image 23Film still from Dickson Greeting (from History of film technology)
Image 24Poster for the 1956 Egyptian film Wakeful Eyes starring Salah Zulfikar and Shadia (from History of film)
Image 25Flying pelican captured by Marey around 1882. He created a method of recording several phases of movement superimposed into one photograph (from History of film technology)
Image 26William Friese-Greene (from Film industry)
Image 27Maria Germanova in Anna Karenina (1914) (from Film industry)
Image 28Max Skladanowsky (right) in 1934 with his brother Eugen and the Bioscop (from History of film technology)
Image 29Don Juan is the first feature-length film to use the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. (from History of film)
Image 30
The Pathé Brothers, by Adrien Barrère.
(from Film industry)
Image 31A production scene from the 1950 Hollywood film Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston (from History of film)
Image 32A.E. Smith filming The Bargain Fiend in the Vitagraph Studios in 1907. Arc floodlights hang overhead. (from History of film)
Image 33The first two shots of As Seen Through a Telescope (1900), with the telescope POV simulated by the circular mask (from History of film)
Image 34Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (from History of film)
Image 35The Cinématographe Lumière in projection mode (from History of film technology)
Image 36Edward Raymond Turner's three-color projector, 1902 (from History of film technology)
Image 37A surviving two-color-component image from the first Technicolor feature film, The Gulf Between (1917) (from History of film technology)
Image 38Off Plus Camera Film Festival in Kraków, 2012, with Andrzej Seweryn, Daniel Olbrychski, and Wojciech Pszoniak on stage. (from Film industry)
Image 39Czermak's 1855 Stereophoroskop (from History of film technology)
Image 40Discounted DVD home video film releases sold in the Netherlands (from Film industry)
Image 41Charlie Chaplin (from History of film)
Image 42A still from The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906; 80 min.) (from Film industry)
Image 43A frame from the Lumière brothers staged comedy film, L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895) (from History of film)

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Credit: Andrew Dunn

A modern replica of a Victorian zoetrope. A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.

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Did you know...

... that plans to shoot the Beijing-set portions of the 1989 Japanese film Beijing Watermelon on location were cancelled after the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre occurred mid-production?
... that the English actor Jude Law is actually named David, a result of his parents naming their children after their best friends?
... that Prey is the first feature film to have a full Comanche language dub?
... that George F. Kosco filmed the signing of the Japanese surrender in color?
... that fewer than half of the seventy cues composed by Dmitri Shostakovich for the 1971 film King Lear made it into the final cut?

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Rogers in 1943

Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940), and performed during the 1930s in RKO's musical films with Fred Astaire. Her career continued on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century.

Rogers was born in Independence, Missouri, and raised in Kansas City. She and her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, when she was nine years old. In 1925, she won a Charleston dance contest that helped her launch a successful vaudeville career. After that, she gained recognition as a Broadway actress for her stage debut in Girl Crazy. This led to a contract with Paramount Pictures, which ended after five films. Rogers had her first successful film roles as a supporting actress in 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). (Full article...)

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Per a review process, Featured lists are considered to be the best list articles on English Wikipedia.

Image 1
The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after its usual late-February date to avoid conflicting with the 2014 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, and produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan and directed by Hamish Hamilton. Actress Ellen DeGeneres hosted the show for the second time, having previously hosted the 79th ceremony held in 2007.

In related events, the academy held its 5th annual Governors Awards ceremony at the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center on November 16, 2013. On February 15, 2014, in a ceremony at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by hosts Kristen Bell and Michael B. Jordan. (Full article...)
Image 2
Cartoonist and film producer Walt Disney in 1953, winning the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Water Birds

Walt Disney (1901–1966) won or received a total of twenty-six Academy Awards and holds the record for most Academy Awards in history. He won twenty-two competitive Academy Awards from a total of fifty-nine nominations, and also holds the records for most wins and most nominations for an individual in history.

Disney won his first competitive Academy Award and received his first Honorary Academy Award at the 5th Academy Awards (1932). He received the Honorary Academy Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse and won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) for the film Flowers and Trees. In the seven Academy Award ceremonies that followed (6th–12th), Disney consecutively earned nominations and won in the same category. (Full article...)
Image 3
The 62nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1989 and took place on March 26, 1990, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Jeff Margolis. Actor Billy Crystal hosted the show for the first time. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on March 3, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by hosts Richard Dysart and Diane Ladd.

Driving Miss Daisy won four awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included Glory with three awards, Born on the Fourth of July, The Little Mermaid, and My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown with two, and The Abyss, Balance, Batman, Cinema Paradiso, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Dead Poets Society, Henry V, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Johnstown Flood, and Work Experience with one. The telecast garnered more than 40 million viewers in the United States. (Full article...)
Image 4
Baxter as Eve Harrington in All About Eve (1950)

Anne Baxter (1923–1985) was an American actress who had an extensive career in film, television, and on stage. She made her acting debut at the age of 13 on stage in the Broadway play Seen, But Not Heard in 1936. Four years later, Baxter starred in her first feature film, the western 20 Mule Team (1940). She appeared in Orson Welles' period drama The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), with Joseph Cotten and Dolores Costello, and followed this with a lead role in Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo (1943). In 1946, she starred as a young woman suffering from alcoholism in the drama The Razor's Edge, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, Baxter appeared with Gregory Peck in the western Yellow Sky.

For her performance as Eve Harrington, an ambitious understudy, in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve (1950), she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Three years later, Baxter starred in Alfred Hitchcock's film noir I Confess (1953). In the same year, she also appeared in the Fritz Lang-directed film noir The Blue Gardenia. In 1956, Baxter appeared as Egyptian princess Nefretiri in the Cecil B. DeMille-directed biblical epic The Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. Four years later, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (Full article...)
Image 5
The Dirty Picture is a 2011 Indian biographical drama film directed by Milan Luthria and produced by Shobha and Ekta Kapoor. Inspired by the lives of such actresses as Silk Smitha and Disco Shanti, the film narrates the rise and fall of a dancing girl in Tamil cinema. The Dirty Picture features Vidya Balan in the lead role, and co-stars Emraan Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah. Rajat Arora wrote the screenplay, dialogues and lyrics for the film and Vishal–Shekhar composed the music.

Made on a budget between ₹170 million (US$2.0 million) and ₹180 million (US$2.2 million), The Dirty Picture was released worldwide on 2 December 2011, and earned ₹1.14 billion (US$14 million). The film garnered awards and nominations in several categories, with particular praise for Vidya's performance, the dialogues, and the costume design by Niharika Khan. As of 2012, the film has won 51 awards. (Full article...)
Image 6

Parineeti Chopra in 2017

Parineeti Chopra is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films. Chopra has 24 awards to her credit including a National Film Award, one each from the Filmfare, Screen and Zee Cine Awards, and two awards each from the Producers Guild and International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA).

Chopra made her film debut with a supporting role in the 2011 romantic comedy Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, which won her the Best Female Debut at the 57th Filmfare Awards. She also received Best Debut awards at other ceremonies, including Screen Awards, IIFA Awards, Producers Guild Film Awards, and Zee Cine Awards. Additionally, Chopra won the IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and was nominated in the same category at the Filmfare, Screen, and Zee Cine award ceremonies for her performance in the film. In 2012, she played her first lead role in the action romantic drama Ishaqzaade, for which she earned a Special Mention at the 60th National Film Awards. For the film, Chopra also received her first nomination for the Filmfare Award and Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, among other honours. (Full article...)
Image 7
McDormand on the set of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day in 2007

Frances McDormand is an American actress and producer who made her film debut in the Coen brothers' neo-noir Blood Simple (1984) and also made her Broadway debut in the revival Awake and Sing! in the same year. In 1985, she starred in the crime drama series Hunter and played a police officer on the procedural drama Hill Street Blues. For her performance as a sheriff's wife in Mississippi Burning (1988), she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the same year, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing Stella Kowalski in the revival A Streetcar Named Desire.

McDormand received critical acclaim and won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of a pregnant Minnesotan police chief in the Coen brothers' black comedy Fargo. In the same year, she played a psychiatrist in legal thriller Primal Fear. In 1997, McDormand garnered a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her role as a mechanic in the television film Hidden in America. She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as an overprotective mother in Almost Famous (2000). (Full article...)
Image 8
Sophia Loren received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Two Women and a Best Actress nomination for Marriage Italian Style.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has given Academy Awards to actors and actresses for non-English performances in films, with the first award given in 1961. For an actor or actress to be eligible for any of the Academy Awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, or Best Supporting Actress for a foreign language performance in a film produced outside the United States, the film must have been commercially released in Los Angeles County and have English subtitles with the theatrical release.

This list is current as of the 95th Academy Awards ceremony held on March 12, 2023. (Full article...)
Image 9
John Ford with portrait and Academy Award, circa 1946

John Ford (1894–1973) was an American film director whose career spanned from 1913 to 1971. During this time he directed more than 140 films; however, nearly all of his silent films are lost. Born in Maine, Ford entered the filmmaking industry shortly after graduating from high school with the help of his older brother, Francis Ford, who had established himself as a leading man and director for Universal Studios. After working as an actor, assistant director, stuntman, and prop man – often for his brother – Universal gave Ford the opportunity to direct in 1917. Initially working in short films, he quickly moved into features, largely with Harry Carey as his star.

In 1920 Ford left Universal and began working for the Fox Film Corporation. During the next ten years he directed more than 30 films, including the westerns The Iron Horse (1924) and 3 Bad Men (1926), both starring George O'Brien, the war drama Four Sons and the Irish romantic drama Hangman's House (both 1928 and both starring Victor McLaglen). In the same year of these last two films, Ford directed his first all-talking film, the short Napoleon's Barber. The following year he directed his first all-talking feature, The Black Watch. (Full article...)

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Because of the movies I make, they get nervous, because they think of me as difficult and angry. I AM difficult and angry [laughs], but they don't expect a sense of humor. And the only thing that gets me through is a sense of humor.

— Martin Scorsese

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Lists - List of basic film topics • List of film topics • List of films • List of film festivals • List of film formats • List of film series • List of film techniques • List of highest-grossing films • List of longest films by running time • List of songs based on a film or book • Lists of film source material • List of open content films

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Poster for Quo Vadis (1913 silent film)
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