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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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Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

Logo for the first Star Trek film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise that started with a television series (simply called Star Trek but now referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series) created by Gene Roddenberry. The series was first broadcast from 1966 to 1969. Since then, the Star Trek canon has expanded to include many other series, a film franchise, and other media.

The film franchise is produced by Paramount Pictures and began with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. That film and the five that followed all starred the cast of The Original Series. The seventh film, Star Trek Generations (1994), was designed to serve as a transition from the original cast to that of the next series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. The next three films just starred the cast of The Next Generation, and ended with Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), which disappointed at the box office. (Portal:Film/Featured content)

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

Image 1Italian neorealist movie Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, considered part of the canon of classic cinema (from History of film)
Image 2A scene from Raja Harishchandra (1913) – credited as the first full-length Indian motion picture. (from Film industry)
Image 3The first two shots of As Seen Through a Telescope (1900), with the telescope POV simulated by the circular mask (from History of film)
Image 4Film still from Dickson Greeting (from History of film technology)
Image 5Poster for the 1956 Egyptian film Wakeful Eyes starring Salah Zulfikar and Shadia (from History of film)
Image 6A shot from Raja Harishchandra (1913), the first film of Bollywood. (from Film industry)
Image 7London IMAX has the largest cinema screen in Britain with a total screen size of 520 m². (from Film industry)
Image 8Old Chinese Cinema in Qufu, Shandong (from Film industry)
Image 9A frame from the Lumière brothers staged comedy film, L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895) (from History of film)
Image 10A production scene from the 1950 Hollywood film Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston (from History of film)
Image 11Nestor studio, 1911 (from Film industry)
Image 12William Friese-Greene (from Film industry)
Image 13Flying 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 14Publicity still for the Egyptian film My Wife, the Director General (1966) (from Film industry)
Image 15Czermak's 1855 Stereophoroskop (from History of film technology)
Image 16Max Skladanowsky (right) in 1934 with his brother Eugen and the Bioscop (from History of film technology)
Image 17Cinématographe Lumière at the Institut Lumière, France (from History of film technology)
Image 18Oskar Messter (from History of film)
Image 19Edward Raymond Turner's three-color projector, 1902 (from History of film technology)
Image 20Poster for a Biograph Studios release from 1913 (from Film industry)
Image 21Maria Germanova in Anna Karenina (1914) (from Film industry)
Image 22Animated GIF of Prof. Stampfer's Stroboscopische Scheibe No. X (Trentsensky & Vieweg 1833) (from History of film technology)
Image 23
An electrotachyscope
American Scientific, 16/11/1889, p. 303
(from History of film technology)
Image 24Insert shot in Old Wives for New (Cecil B. DeMille, 1918) (from History of film)
Image 25A still from The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906; 80 min.) (from Film industry)
Image 26Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (from History of film)
Image 27The Jazz Singer (1927), was the first full-length film with synchronized sound. (from History of film technology)
Image 28The Hollywood Sign (from Film industry)
Image 29A surviving two-color-component image from the first Technicolor feature film, The Gulf Between (1917) (from History of film technology)
Image 30Georges Méliès (left) painting a backdrop in his studio (from History of film)
Image 31The 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 32The Wizard of Oz (from History of film)
Image 33Complex vignette shot in die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) (from History of film)
Image 34Louis Poyet [fr]'s engraving of the mechanism of the "fusil photographique" as published in La Nature (april 1882) (from History of film technology)
Image 35A.E. Smith filming The Bargain Fiend in the Vitagraph Studios in 1907. Arc floodlights hang overhead. (from History of film)
Image 36Frame from a c.1912 Chronochrome film (from History of film technology)
Image 37Off Plus Camera Film Festival in Kraków, 2012, with Andrzej Seweryn, Daniel Olbrychski, and Wojciech Pszoniak on stage. (from Film industry)
Image 38Discounted DVD home video film releases sold in the Netherlands (from Film industry)
Image 39The Babelsberg Studio near Berlin, the earliest large-scale film studio complex (founded 1912) Today its one of the major film studios worldwide. (from History of film)
Image 40GIF animation from retouched pictures of The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge (1879). (from History of film technology)
Image 41Publicity still for the Egyptian film Yahya el hub (1938) (from Film industry)
Image 42Charlie Chaplin (from History of film)
Image 43Don 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 44
The Pathé Brothers, by Adrien Barrère.
(from Film industry)
Image 45The Cinématographe Lumière in projection mode (from History of film technology)
Image 46Original script from the 1989 film Batman (from History of film)
Image 47Cinema admissions in 1995 (from History of film)

Selected image

Credit: The Great Train Robbery still, public domain image from 1903 film.

The Great Train Robbery was a milestone of cinema upon its release in 1903. The short clip shown at the end of the film depicting a bandit shooting his gun at the audience had a profound effect on them, with many allegedly thinking they were actually about to be shot.

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Did you know...

... that for several decades, Soviet actress Maria Vladimirovna Mironova acted out scenes of a quarrelling couple on stage with her real-life husband?
... that the experimental film 13 Lakes, which consists of 13 ten-minute-long static shots of different lakes in the United States, was deemed to be significant by the Library of Congress?
... that after a British Sikh physician could not find any recent mainstream English film led by a woman that resembled her, she co-wrote and co-produced her own?
... that after 2014 horror film The Babadook was listed as an "LGBT film" by Netflix, the titular monster was adopted as a gay icon in internet memes?
... that a story titled "The Adventures of Mr. Stupidhead in Russia" may have influenced the Soviet silent comedy film The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks?

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Cagney, c. 1930

James Francis Cagney Jr. (/ˈkæɡni/; July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances.

Cagney is remembered for playing multifaceted tough guys in films such as The Public Enemy (1931), Taxi! (1932), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), City for Conquest (1940) and White Heat (1949), finding himself typecast or limited by this reputation earlier in his career. He was able to negotiate dancing opportunities in his films and ended up winning the Academy Award for his role in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him eighth on its list of greatest male stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Orson Welles described him as "maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of a camera". (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
Mani Ratnam is an Indian filmmaker who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest Indian filmmakers, he is credited with redefining the "range and depth of Tamil cinema". As of 2019, he has directed 28 films, and produced over 15 under his production company Madras Talkies.

Mani Ratnam made his directorial debut, without formal training or education in filmmaking, with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi (1983). The critically acclaimed film, which he also wrote, won him the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Screenplay. Then he entered Malayalam film industry with Unaroo, which was based on then prevailing trade union politics. His first Tamil film Pagal Nilavu (1985) was a commercial failure, but immediately followed Idaya Kovil (1985) found theatrical success. The following year, he made the romantic drama Mouna Ragam, which narrated the story of a young woman who is forced into an arranged marriage by her family. The critical and commercial success of the film established him as a leading filmmaker in Tamil cinema. His next release Nayakan, starring Kamal Haasan, was inspired by the life of the Bombay-based gangster Varadarajan Mudaliar. The film was submitted by India as its official entry for the 60th Academy Awards. Later in 2005, Nayakan was included in Time's "All-Time 100 Movies" list. Mani Ratnam followed this with the tragic romance Geethanjali (1989), which marked his Telugu cinema debut; the tragedy Anjali (1990), which narrated the story of an autistic child; and the crime drama Thalapathi (1991), loosely adapted from the Indian epic Mahabharata. In 1992, he made the romantic thriller Roja for Kavithalayaa Productions. The film was dubbed into many Indian languages, including Hindi, and its widespread success brought national recognition to Mani Ratnam. Three years later, he made Bombay (1995), which was based on the 1992–93 Bombay riots. Although controversial for its depiction of religious riots, the film met with wide critical acclaim and became commercially successful in India. (Full article...)
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Grace Kelly in 1955

American actress Grace Kelly (1929–1982) made her screen debut in the televised play "Old Lady Robbins" (1948) on the anthology series Kraft Television Theatre. The following year, Kelly made her Broadway debut playing Bertha in The Father. In 1950, she appeared on numerous television anthology series, including The Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, The Clock, The Web, and Danger. Kelly played Helen Pettigrew in the television play "Berkeley Square" on the Prudential Family Playhouse (1951). In 1952, she portrayed Dulcinea in the drama "Don Quixote" on the anthology series CBS Television Workshop, and also starred in a number of other anthology series, including Hallmark Hall of Fame, Lux Video Theatre, and Suspense.

Kelly's film debut was a minor role in the 1951 drama Fourteen Hours. She followed this with an appearance in the western High Noon with Gary Cooper. For her performance as Linda Nortley in John Ford's Mogambo, she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 1954, she starred in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed thrillers Dial M for Murder, with Ray Milland, and Rear Window, with James Stewart. In the same year, she portrayed the long-suffering wife of an alcoholic actor, played by Bing Crosby, in The Country Girl (1954), for which she received the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama in 1955. Kelly re-teamed with Hitchcock on the romantic thriller To Catch a Thief (1955), with Cary Grant. (Full article...)
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Aadukalam (transl. Arena) is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language drama film written and directed by Vetrimaaran and produced by S. Kathiresan. Vetrimaaran co-wrote the dialogues with Vikram Sugumaran. The film stars Dhanush and Taapsee Pannu with Kishore, V. I. S. Jayapalan, Naren, and Murugadoss playing supporting roles. The musical score was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar while the cinematography and editing were respectively handled by Velraj and Kishore Te. The film's story revolves around Karuppu who is the understudy of an experienced cockfighter, Pettaikaran. When Karuppu wins in a cockfight against Pettaikaran's rival Rathnasamy, Pettaikaran, who is initially happy, becomes jealous of Karuppu's newfound popularity and plots his downfall.

Produced on a budget of ₹150-200 million, Aadukalam was released on 14 January 2011 and grossed ₹300 million according to a February 2011 report by The Economic Times. The film garnered awards and nominations in several categories, with particular praise for its direction, screenplay, Dhanush's performance, music, cinematography, and editing. The film has won 33 awards from 52 nominations. (Full article...)
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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) is A24's highest-grossing film and marks their third collaboration with the directing duo Daniels (pictured).

A24 is a film distribution company based in New York City. It launched in August 2012, released its first film, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, in February 2013, and gained recognition with the box-office success of Spring Breakers that March. They entered into deals with Amazon Prime Video and DirecTV Cinema in late 2013, with some films distributed through them and, in 2016, amassed seven Academy Award nominations for movies they distributed; Amy won Best Documentary, Ex Machina won Best Visual Effects, and Brie Larson received Best Actress for Room. A24 also became a production studio that year, financing Moonlight in partnership with Plan B Entertainment; that film earned critical acclaim and won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Since then, the company began producing more original content and announced partnerships with Apple TV+ and Showtime Networks for the digital releases of some of its films. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) is its highest-grossing film with $143 million in box office earnings and was the recipient of numerous accolades and seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. As of 2022, Lady Bird (2017) and Eighth Grade (2018) are A24's highest-rated films on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 99% approval rating for each, and Moonlight is one of the highest-scoring films on Metacritic with a 99 out of 100. (Full article...)
Image 5
Tabu at an event for De De Pyaar De in 2019

Indian actress Tabu appears primarily in Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil films. Her first credited role came as a teenager in Dev Anand's Hum Naujawan (1985), and her first major role was in the Telugu film Coolie No. 1 (1991). In 1994, Tabu received the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for the Hindi action drama Vijaypath, which marked her first of many collaborations with co-star Ajay Devgn. The year 1996 was key for Tabu. Her performance as a young woman affected by the Punjab insurgency in Gulzar's Maachis proved to be a breakthrough, winning her the National Film Award for Best Actress. Also that year, Tabu won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for the romance Ninne Pelladata, and featured alongside Govinda in the comedy film Saajan Chale Sasural.

Tabu had a brief role in the war film Border, the highest-grossing Hindi film of 1997, and portrayed a village girl opposite Anil Kapoor in the Priyadarshan-directed drama Virasat. Among her 1999 releases were two of the top-grossing Bollywood films of the year—the comedy Biwi No.1, and the family drama Hum Saath-Saath Hain. She also starred as the rebellious daughter of a corrupt politician in Gulzar's critically praised drama Hu Tu Tu (1999). The following year, she starred in Kandukondain Kandukondain, a Tamil adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, and played a submissive homemaker in the bilingual drama Astitva. Tabu garnered a second National Film Award for Best Actress for portraying a bar dancer in Madhur Bhandarkar's crime drama Chandni Bar (2001). In 2003, she starred in the Bengali film Abar Aranye, and portrayed a character based on Lady Macbeth, in Maqbool—an adaptation of Macbeth from Vishal Bhardwaj. Following a few commercial failures, Tabu played triple roles in M. F. Husain's musical drama Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities. Tabu's first international project came with Mira Nair's adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake. In R. Balki's Cheeni Kum (2007), Tabu starred alongside Amitabh Bachchan as a woman romantically involved with a much older man; the role earned her a record fourth Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. (Full article...)
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Mohabbatein (transl. Love Stories) is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic drama film written and directed by Aditya Chopra. It stars an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, and the newcomers Uday Chopra, Shamita Shetty, Jugal Hansraj, Kim Sharma, Jimmy Sheirgill, and Preeti Jhangiani. It tells the story of a fictional all-boys college Gurukul's principal Narayan Shankar (Bachchan) who prohibits his students from falling in love and will unhesitantly expel those who do not obey the rule. The rest of the film focuses on how the arrival of the violin teacher Raj Aryan Malhotra (Khan) changes his views. Mohabbatein's soundtrack was composed by Jatin–Lalit, and the lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi. The film was shot by Manmohan Singh on sets designed by Sharmishta Roy, while the editor was V. Karnik.

The film opened at theatres on 27 October 2000 and was met with widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the performances of Bachchan and Khan. Made on a production budget of ₹130 million (US$1.6 million), the film had a total gross of ₹900.1 million (US$11 million) becoming the year's highest-grossing Indian film. (Full article...)
Image 7
Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film The Counterfeiters

This is a list of submissions to the 80th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film every year since the award was created in 1956. The award is handed out annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films.

For the 80th Academy Awards, which were held on February 24, 2008, the Academy invited 95 countries to submit films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Sixty-three countries submitted films to the Academy, the highest number of submissions in the history of the award, including Azerbaijan and Ireland, which submitted films for the first time. Several of the submissions were subject to controversy. The Academy determined that initial submissions from Israel and Taiwan did not meet Academy requirements, and both countries submitted new films as replacements. Bolivia's official submission, Los Andes no creen en Dios, did not appear on the Academy's list of accepted submissions. (Full article...)
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The 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 2001. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Laura Ziskin and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the fourth time. She first hosted the 66th ceremony held in 1994 and had last hosted the 71st ceremony in 1999. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on March 2, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Charlize Theron.

A Beautiful Mind won four awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with four awards, Black Hawk Down and Moulin Rouge! with two, and The Accountant, For the Birds, Gosford Park, Iris, Monster's Ball, Monsters, Inc., Murder on a Sunday Morning, No Man's Land, Pearl Harbor, Shrek, Thoth, and Training Day with one. Despite a record length of four hours and twenty-three minutes, the telecast garnered nearly 42 million viewers in the United States. (Full article...)
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American Hustle is a 2013 American crime comedy-drama film directed by David O. Russell. The screenplay, written by Eric Warren Singer and Russell, is based on the FBI ABSCAM operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was filmed in Boston, Worcester, and New York City. It stars an ensemble cast of Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence.

Columbia Pictures initially provided a limited release to American Hustle at six theaters on December 13, 2013. It was later given a wide release at over 2,500 theaters in the United States and Canada on December 20. The film grossed a worldwide total of over $251 million on a budget of $40 million. As of 2019, it is also Russell's highest-grossing film to date. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, surveyed 280 reviews and judged 93% to be positive. (Full article...)
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Dune is a 2021 American epic science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth. It is the first of a two-part adaptation of the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert, primarily covering the first half of the book. Set in the far future, the film follows Paul Atreides as his family, the noble House Atreides, is thrust into a war for the deadly and inhospitable desert planet Arrakis. The ensemble cast includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.

Originally scheduled for a late 2020 release, Dune was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The film made its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2021. Warner Bros. Pictures released the film simultaneously in over 4,000 theaters in the United States and Canada and through the HBO Max streaming service on October 22, 2021. The film grossed a worldwide total of $406 million on a $165 million budget. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, surveyed 498 reviews and judged 83% to be positive. (Full article...)

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Pure cinema is complementary pieces of film put together, like notes of music make a melody. There are two primary uses of cutting or montage in film: montage to create ideas--and montage to create violence and emotions.

— Alfred Hitchcock

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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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1961-04-13 Tale Of Century - Eichmann Tried For War Crimes
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
A Trip Down Market Street (High Res)
A Visit to the Seaside (1908)
Animated phenakistiscope disc - Running rats Fantascope by Thomas Mann Baynes 1833
Annie Oakley shooting glass balls, 1894
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Chicago Theatre blend
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
De Orient Magazine advertisement for Panggilan Darah (1941)
Edison's Greatest Marvel-The Vitascope - Restoration
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Jane Russell in The Outlaw
Lagu Kenangan (1953; obverse)
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Lonesome (1928)
MultiplaneDemo
Muybridge race horse animated
Nanook of the North
Napoléon (1927)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
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
Regeneration (1915)
Rory Kennedy 2011
Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) 7fps
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State Fair (1933 film poster) - Restoration
Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
Stunt Pyrotechnics Luc Viatour
Supir Istimewa (1954; obverse)
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The Dover Boys at Pimento University 1080p
The Freshman
The General (1926)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
The Lodger - A Story of the London Fog (1927)
The Mummy 1932 film poster
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)
Wings (1927)
Winsor McCay (1912) How a Mosquito Operates