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The Film Portal

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

A film – also called a movie, 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 to the art form that is the result of it. (Full article...)

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Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local discothèque while dealing with social tensions and disillusionment in his working-class ethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn. The story is based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", a mostly fictional 1976 article by music writer Nik Cohn.

A major critical and commercial success, Saturday Night Fever had a tremendous impact on the popular culture of the late 1970s. It helped popularize disco around the world and initiated a series of collaborations between film studios and record labels. It made Travolta, already well known from his role in the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, becoming the fifth-youngest nominee in the category. The film showcases aspects of the music, dancing, and subculture surrounding the disco era, including symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute couture styles of clothing, pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity, and graceful choreography. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide. Travolta reprised his role of Tony Manero in Staying Alive in 1983, which was panned by critics despite being successful at the box office. (Portal:Film/Featured content)

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

Image 1The first two shots of As Seen Through a Telescope (1900), with the telescope POV simulated by the circular mask (from History of film)
Image 2Film still from Dickson Greeting (from History of film technology)
Image 3The two scenes in Robert W. Paul's 1898 film, Come Along, Do! (from History of film)
Image 4GIF animation from retouched pictures of The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge (1879). (from History of film technology)
Image 5The Jazz Singer (1927), was the first full-length film with synchronized sound. (from History of film technology)
Image 6Insert shot in Old Wives for New (Cecil B. DeMille, 1918) (from History of film)
Image 7A.E. Smith filming The Bargain Fiend in the Vitagraph Studios in 1907. Arc floodlights hang overhead. (from History of film)
Image 8Flying 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 9Louis Poyet [fr]'s engraving of the mechanism of the "fusil photographique" as published in La Nature (april 1882) (from History of film technology)
Image 10Complex vignette shot in die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) (from History of film)
Image 11A scene from Raja Harishchandra (1913) – credited as the first full-length Indian motion picture. (from Film industry)
Image 12The Hollywood Sign (from Film industry)
Image 13Nestor studio, 1911 (from Film industry)
Image 14Edward Raymond Turner's three-color projector, 1902 (from History of film technology)
Image 15Italian neorealist movie Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, considered part of the canon of classic cinema. (from History of film)
Image 16Satyajit Ray, Indian Bengali film director (from History of film)
Image 17
An electrotachyscope
American Scientific, 16/11/1889, p. 303
(from History of film technology)
Image 18Cinématographe Lumière at the Institut Lumière, France (from History of film technology)
Image 19The Wizard of Oz (from History of film)
Image 20The 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 History of film)
Image 21A still from The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906; 80 min.) (from Film industry)
Image 22Off Plus Camera Film Festival in Kraków, 2012, with Andrzej Seweryn, Daniel Olbrychski, and Wojciech Pszoniak on stage. (from Film industry)
Image 23London IMAX has the largest cinema screen in Britain with a total screen size of 520m². (from Film industry)
Image 24Poster for a Biograph Studios release from 1913 (from Film industry)
Image 25Poster for the Egyptian film Yahya el hub (1938). (from Film industry)
Image 26Don 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 27The 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 28
The Pathé Brothers, by Adrien Barrère.
(from Film industry)
Image 29A production scene from the 1950 Hollywood film Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston (from History of film)
Image 30A frame from the Lumière brothers staged comedy film, L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895). (from History of film)
Image 31Charlie Chaplin (from History of film)
Image 32Cinema admissions in 1995 (from History of film)
Image 33Old Chinese Cinema in Qufu, Shandong (from Film industry)
Image 34Discounted DVD home video film releases sold in the Netherlands (from Film industry)
Image 35The Cinématographe Lumière in projection mode (from History of film technology)
Image 36William Friese-Greene (from Film industry)
Image 37Georges Méliès (left) painting a backdrop in his studio (from History of film)
Image 38Max Skladanowsky (right) in 1934 with his brother Eugen and the Bioscop (from History of film technology)
Image 39Poster for the 1956 Egyptian film Wakeful Eyes starring Salah Zulfikar (from History of film)
Image 40Czermak's 1855 Stereophoroskop (from History of film technology)
Image 41Animated GIF of Prof. Stampfer's Stroboscopische Scheibe No. X (Trentsensky & Vieweg 1833) (from History of film technology)
Image 42A surviving two-color-component image from the first Technicolor feature film, The Gulf Between (1917) (from History of film technology)
Image 43A film crew in the mid 20th century
Image 44A shot from Raja Harishchandra (1913), the first film of Bollywood. (from Film industry)

Selected image

Credit: Escarlati

The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud.

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Did you know...

... that Óscar Catacora directed Wiñaypacha (Eternity), the first Peruvian film in the Aymara language?
... that the final silent film directed by Giulia Cassini Rizzotto was partly funded by the Vatican and featured Italian aristocrats?
... that XO, Kitty, based on the film series To All the Boys I've Loved Before, is planned to be the first Netflix series to be spun off from a Netflix original film?
... that Jack Champion had to film all his scenes in Avatar: The Way of Water twice?
... that the 1994 film The Devil Never Sleeps centers on director Lourdes Portillo investigating her uncle's death?

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Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor from nine nominations. During his career, he appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screen's greatest actors. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College, and he later received a scholarship for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. His breakthrough came in 1930, when his lead performance in The Last Mile caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful film debut in John Ford's Up the River (in which he starred with Humphrey Bogart), he was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. Tracy's five years with Fox featured one acting tour de force after another that were usually ignored at the box office, and he remained largely unknown to movie audiences after 25 films, nearly all of them starring him as the leading man. None of them were hits, although his performance in The Power and the Glory (1933) was highly praised at the time. (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 77th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on February 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as the Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 2004. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and was directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Chris Rock hosted the show for the first time. Two weeks earlier in a ceremony at The Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena, California held on February 12, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Scarlett Johansson.

Million Dollar Baby won four awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included The Aviator with five awards, The Incredibles and Ray with two, and Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Mighty Times: The Children's March, The Motorcycle Diaries, Ryan, The Sea Inside, Sideways, Spider-Man 2, and Wasp with one. The telecast garnered over 42 million viewers in the United States alone. (Full article...)
Image 2
Hattie Jacques (/dʒeɪks/; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 1922–1980) was an English actress who appeared in many genres of light entertainment including radio, film, television and stage. Jacques's career spanned from 1939 until her death in 1980. She is best remembered for her appearances in fourteen Carry On films and for her professional partnership with Eric Sykes.

In 1939 Jacques became involved in amateur dramatics, appearing as Doris Gow in Noël Coward's short play Fumed Oak. Five years later, after wartime service as a nurse and a welder, she made her professional theatrical debut at the Players' Theatre in the revue Late Joys, a performance that she repeated on television in 1946. From there she became a regular stage performer, appearing in variety shows and Victorian-style pantomimes. (Full article...)
Image 3
True Grit is a 2010 American Western film directed by the Coen brothers. It is the second adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name, which was previously released in 1969 featuring John Wayne. The 2010 version stars Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld and Matt Damon. It was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States and Canada on December 22, 2010, grossing over USD $25.6 million at the box office, twice its pre-release projections, in its opening weekend. Since then it has made over USD $171 million domestically and USD $249 million worldwide. The film was well received by movie critics, with an approval rating of 96 percent on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It has appeared in more than a dozen movie reviewers' Top Ten lists for the best movies of the year.

True Grit has received honors in different categories, ranging from recognition of the movie itself, to its direction, art direction, cinematography, score and writing, as well as for performances by the cast, mainly Bridges for Best Actor and Steinfeld for Best Supporting Actress. The Coen's work on True Grits screenplay scored them a nomination from the Writers Guild of America, but lost to Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network. Deakins' work on True Grit's cinematography earned him more than ten nominations, including an award from the Boston Society of Film Critics. The Cinema Audio Society Awards presented Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey and Greg Orloff their Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures honor in 2011. ('Full article...)
Image 4
Atonement is a 2007 British romantic World War II film directed by Joe Wright. Christopher Hampton adapted the screenplay from the eponymous novel by Ian McEwan. The film focuses on fictional lovers Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie (James McAvoy), whose lives are ruined when Cecilia's younger sister, Briony (Saoirse Ronan), falsely accuses Robbie of a serious crime. The film opened the 64th Venice International Film Festival on 29 August 2007 and competed for the Golden Lion. The following month it screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Atonement was released in the United Kingdom by Universal Studios on 7 September 2007. It was then released in the United States by Focus Features on 7 December 2007. The film earned over £84 million in its combined total gross at the box office.

Atonement earned many awards and nominations in categories ranging from recognition of the film itself to Hampton's screenplay and the cast's acting performances, particularly those of Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Saoirse Ronan. The film received seven Academy Award nominations and came away with one award for Best Original Score. The Alliance of Women Film Journalists awarded Atonement two accolades from six nominations, while the American Society of Cinematographers and the Art Directors Guild gave the film one nomination apiece. Atonement gathered fourteen nominations at the 61st British Academy Film Awards, the most of any film that year, but ultimately came away with two awards. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey received a nomination for his work from the British Society of Cinematographers and costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, earned a nomination from the Costume Designers Guild. Atonement won three accolades out of five nominations at the 13th Empire Awards. (Full article...)
Bullock at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International
Haasan in 2017.
Image 7
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, painter, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound design. Indeed, the surreal and in many cases violent elements to his films have earned them the reputation that they "disturb, offend or mystify" their audiences.

Lynch's oeuvre encompasses work in both cinema and television. His films include The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, and perhaps his most critically successful film, 2001's Mulholland Drive; whilst his television debut, Twin Peaks, earned five Emmy Award nominations for its first season. (Full article...)
Velasquez at the Jollibee Family Values Awards in September 2015
Image 9
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established in 1933, based in the United Kingdom. It has awarded its Fellowship title to individuals in "recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television culture" and is considered the highest accolade presented by the Institute: British actor John Hurt said the award was "the highest honour possible".

The first awards were made in 1983, the same year as BFI National Archive's Silver Jubilee and the BFI's fiftieth anniversary, and as of February 2023, there are 91 Fellows. Awards are not presented every year, but every award ceremony has been held in London, on occasion at the National Film Theatre as part of the BFI London Film Festival. The inaugural ceremony honoured six recipients of the Fellowship: French film director Marcel Carné, British film directors David Lean, Michael Powell, Hungarian screenwriter Emeric Pressburger, Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray and American director and actor Orson Welles. The most recent Fellowship was bestowed in 2023 on American film director and screenwriter Spike Lee. (Full article...)
Chopra at the 21st Lions Gold Awards where she won the Best Actress award for Mary Kom (2014)

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Since actors need to get training someplace, in New York they tend to get it in the theater. In L.A., the only place they can get it is in TV. And the series are—as valuable as they are for sheer experience—deadening emotionally. Especially if you’re in a hit. After a year in a role, you’re not really discovering anything new. — Sidney Lumet

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Terms - Animation • Beta movement • Camera • Cult film • Digital cinema • Documentary film • Dubbing • Experimental film • Fan film • Film crew • Film criticism • Film festival • Film frame • Film genre • Film journals and magazines • Film industry • Film manifesto • Film stock • Film theory • Filmmaking • History of film • Independent film • Lost film • Movie star • Narrative film • Open content film • Persistence of vision • Photographic film • Propaganda • Recording medium • Special effect • Subtitles • Sound stage • Web film • World cinema

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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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. ((WikiProject Film))) or categorized correctly. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Animated phenakistiscope disc - Running rats Fantascope by Thomas Mann Baynes 1833
Chicago Theatre blend
De Orient Magazine advertisement for Panggilan Darah (1941)
Edison's Greatest Marvel-The Vitascope - Restoration
Geneva mechanism 6spoke animation
Jane Russell in The Outlaw
Lagu Kenangan (1953; obverse)
Muybridge race horse animated
Poesaka Terpendam ad, Poestaka Timoer 66 (15 Oct 1941), p3
Poster - Island of Lost Men 01
Poster for Quo Vadis (1913 silent film) - Lygia Bound to the Wild Bull
Poster for Quo Vadis (1913 silent film)
Ratna Moetoe Manikam ad, Poestaka Timoer 66 (15 Oct 1941), p6
Rory Kennedy 2011
State Fair (1933 film poster) - Restoration
Stunt Pyrotechnics Luc Viatour
Supir Istimewa (1954; obverse)
The Mummy 1932 film poster