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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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Brighton Rock is a 2010 British crime film written and directed by Rowan Joffé and loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel of the same name. The film stars Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Serkis, John Hurt, Sean Harris and Helen Mirren.

The novel had previously been made into a film under the same title by the Boulting brothers that premiered in 1948. Although the novel and original film are both set in the 1930s, the 21st century adaptation is set during the Mods and Rockers era of the 1960s. (Portal:Film/Featured content)

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

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

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Credit: John Mueller

The cast and crew of Monster House at the 2006 Annie Awards red carpet at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. The Annie Awards is an animation award show created and produced by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972.

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Did you know...

... that the contrabass trombone has experienced a revival in film music and video game soundtracks?
... that a television in the film Day of Reckoning includes scenes from Big Ass Spider!?
... that at the time of its construction in 1920, the Howard Theatre in Atlanta was the second-largest movie theater in the world, with a seating capacity of 2,700?
... that despite having roles in more than 170 films, Josef Somr preferred acting in theatre?
... that disability-rights activist Edith Prentiss objected to the title of a documentary about her, Edith Prentiss: Hell on Wheels, for being too mild?

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Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (English: /ˈsɑːʃə nəʊ ˈbærən ˈkəʊən/; Hebrew: סָשָׁה נֹעַם בָּרוֹן כֹּהֵן; born 13 October 1971) is a British actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Aladeen. He adopts a variety of accents and guises for his characters and interacts with unsuspecting subjects who do not realise they have been set up. At the 2012 British Comedy Awards, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award and accepted the award in-character as Ali G. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy. In 2018, The Times named him among the 30 best living comedians.

Baron Cohen has produced and/or performed in comedic films such as Ali G Indahouse (2002), Borat (2006) and its sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Brüno (2009), and The Dictator (2012). He has also appeared in dramatic films including Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011), Tom Hooper's Les Misérables (2012), and Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020). In 2016, he starred in Grimsby and co-starred in Alice Through the Looking Glass. His voice acting roles include King Julien XIII in the Madagascar film series (2005–2012) and Uncle Ugo in Luca (2021). (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

Jacques Grétillat, J. Gordon Edwards, and Paulette Duval during the production of Nero (1922)

J. Gordon Edwards (1867–1925) was a Canadian American film director, screenwriter, and producer of the silent era. His oeuvre consists of over fifty feature films made between 1914 and 1924. He is perhaps best known for directing twenty-four films starring vamp actress Theda Bara—including Cleopatra, her most famous role— and also the 1921 epic The Queen of Sheba. Edwards was born in Montreal and educated at a military academy with the expectation that he would pursue a career as a British Army officer. He decided against a life in the military in favor of a future in theater. At the time, the Canadian theater and film industry was limited primarily to repertory theatre, so Edwards became one of many to emigrate to the United States to work in the field. He had a short career as an actor before becoming a stage director. By 1910, he was working for American motion picture producer William Fox, who sent him to Europe to study film production.

In 1914, the Balboa Amusement Producing Company produced the drama St. Elmo. Balboa was not a film distributor, and had a standing agreement to sell its films to Fox's Box Office Attractions Company for distribution. Some modern writers credit this film as Edwards's directorial debut. However, contemporary sources named Bertram Bracken in that role, as does the American Film Institute. Aubrey Solomon's history of the Fox Film Corporation states Bracken "reportedly" directed. Regardless of Edwards's role in St. Elmo, he was chosen to direct Life's Shop Window (1914), Box Office Attractions' first film as a production company rather than merely a distributor. (Full article...)
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Khurrana in 2012

Ayushmann Khurrana is an Indian actor, singer, and television host who works in Hindi films. Khurrana first appeared in 2004 teen drama reality show MTV Roadies, winning the second season of the show. He went to star in many other MTV shows, including MTV Fully Faltoo Movies, Cheque De India and Jaadoo Ek Baar, and hosted multiple television shows, including India's Got Talent and Music Ka Maha Muqqabla. In 2012, he made his feature film debut with the romantic comedy Vicky Donor, about sperm donation, which received critical acclaim and performed strongly at the box office. Khurrana's performance won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer (for the song "Pani Da Rang"), Screen Award for Best Male Debut, Producers Guild Film Award for Best Male Debut, and Producers Guild Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer. He then starred in a series of commercially unsuccessful films, including the comedy-drama Nautanki Saala (2013), romantic comedy Bewakoofiyaan (2014), and drama Hawaizaada (2015).

In 2015, Khurrana starred in the Sharat Katariya-directed romantic drama Dum Laga Ke Haisha opposite Bhumi Pednekar. His performance was praised, and the film emerged as a commercial success. He then starred in Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017). The latter two were commercially successful. In 2018, he starred in the black comedy Andhadhun and the comedy-drama Badhaai Ho. The former grossed ₹4.56 billion (US$64 million) worldwide, and became one of Indian cinema's biggest grossers; for his performance he won the National Film Award for Best Actor (shared with Vicky Kaushal for Uri: The Surgical Strike) and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. Badhaai Ho became a sleeper hit, earning over ₹2.21 billion (US$31 million) worldwide. This success continued with Khurrana's 2019 releases, Article 15, Dream Girl, and Bala. For the first of these, he won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, and Screen Award for Best Actor (Critics). In the comedy Bala, he played a man plagued with premature balding. (Full article...)
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The 85th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2012 and took place on February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was the first in the Academy's 85-year history to adopt the phrase "The Oscars" as the ceremony's official name during the broadcast and marketing. 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 Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and directed by Don Mischer. Actor Seth MacFarlane hosted the show for the first time.

In related events, the Academy held its 4th annual Governors Awards ceremony at the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center on December 1, 2012. On February 9, 2013, in a ceremony at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by hosts Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana. (Full article...)
Image 4
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...)
Image 5
The Ariel Award for Best Director (Premio Ariel a la Mejor Dirección, officially known as the Ariel Award for Best Directing) is an award presented by the Academia Mexicana de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas (AMACC) in Mexico. It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the Mexican film industry. In 1947, the 1st and 2nd Ariel Awards were held, with Roberto Gavaldón and Emilio "El Indio" Fernández winning for the films La Barraca and Enamorada, respectively. With the exception of the years 1959 to 1971, when the Ariel Awards were suspended, the award has been given annually. Nominees and winners are determined by a committee formed every year consisting of academy members (active and honorary), previous winners and individuals with at least two Ariel nominations; the committee members submit their votes through the official AMACC website.

In 1953, filmmakers Luis Buñuel, Alfredo B. Crevenna and Gavaldón were nominated, but no winner was declared. Carlos Carrera and Fernández hold the record for most wins in the category, with four each. Carerra's El Crimen del Padre Amaro was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003. Since 1976, Felipe Cazals has been nominated at least once every decade, winning three times for El Año de la Peste (1980), Bajo la metralla (1984), and Las Vueltas del Citrillo (2006). Buñuel and Amat Escalante won the Ariel for Best Director and the same award at the Cannes Film Festival for Los Olvidados and Heli, respectively. Alfonso Cuarón won the Ariel and the Academy Award for Best Direction, Cuarón is the first one to win both accolades for the same film. Since its inception, the award has been given to 40 directors. As of the 2022 ceremony, Alonso Ruizpalacios is the most recent winner in this category for her work on Una Película de Policías. (Full article...)
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Velaiilla Pattadhari (transl. Unemployed graduate) is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film written and filmed by Velraj while also making his directorial debut. The film featured Dhanush, who produced the film under his production company Wunderbar Films, and Amala Paul in the lead roles. Saranya Ponvannan, Samuthirakani, Vivek, Surbhi and Amitash Pradhan played supporting roles. The film's story focuses on Raghuvaran (Dhanush), a civil engineering graduate who is unemployed for four years, and his search for a job. As soon as he finds employment, he faces competition from Arun Subramaniam (Amitash), the head of a rival engineering company, for a government project contract. The rest of the film shows how Raghuvaran overcomes the obstacles set by Arun. The soundtrack and score were composed by Anirudh Ravichander while the editing was handled by M. V. Rajesh Kumar.

Produced on a budget of ₹80 million, Velaiilla Pattadhari was released on 18 July 2014 and received positive reviews. It was commercially successful, grossing ₹530 million worldwide. The film won 19 awards from 31 nominations; its direction, performances of the cast members and music have received the most attention from award groups. (Full article...)
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James Bond is a fictional character created by British novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, Bond has been portrayed on film in twenty-seven productions by actors Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Eon Productions, which now holds the adaptation rights to all of Fleming's Bond novels, made all but two films in the film series.

In 1961, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman purchased the filming rights to Fleming's novels. They founded Eon Productions and, with financial backing by United Artists, produced Dr. No, directed by Terence Young and featuring Connery as Bond. Following its release in 1962, Broccoli and Saltzman created the holding company Danjaq to ensure future productions in the James Bond film series. The Eon series currently has twenty-five films, with the most recent, No Time to Die, released in September 2021. With a combined gross of $7.8 billion to date, it is the fifth-highest-grossing film series in nominal terms. Adjusting for inflation, the series has earned over $19.2 billion in 2022 dollars from box-office receipts alone, with non-Eon entries pushing this inflation-adjusted figure to a grand total in excess of $20 billion. (Full article...)
Image 8
Neerja is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical thriller film directed by Ram Madhvani and produced by Atul Kasbekar. The film stars Sonam Kapoor as Neerja Bhanot and features Shekhar Ravjiani, Shabana Azmi and Yogendra Tiku among others in supporting roles. The film's script and screenplay were penned by Saiwyn Quadras, the dialogue was written by Sanyuktha Chawla Sheikh, and the editing was handled by Monisha R Baldawa. Set in Karachi, the plot of Neerja centres on the Libyan-backed Abu Nidal Organization's hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan, on 5 September 1986. The film is shown from the point of view of the flight's head purser, Neerja Bhanot, who died saving passengers on the hijacked flight.

Made on a budget of ₹200 million (US$3.1 million), Neerja was released on 19 February 2016, and grossed ₹1.35 billion (US$17 million) worldwide. The film won 31 awards from 45 nominations; its direction and performances of the cast members have received the most attention from award groups. (Full article...)
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A Star Is Born is a 2018 American musical romantic drama film produced and directed by Bradley Cooper (in his directorial debut) and written by Eric Roth, Cooper and Will Fetters. A remake of the 1937 film of the same name, it stars Cooper, Lady Gaga, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, and Sam Elliott, and follows a hard-drinking musician (Cooper) who discovers and falls in love with a young singer (Gaga). It marks the fourth remake of the original 1937 film, after the 1954 musical, the 1976 musical and the 2013 Bollywood romance film.

A Star Is Born grossed a worldwide total of over $436 million on a production budget of $36 million. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 534 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With appealing leads, deft direction, and an affecting love story, A Star Is Born is a remake done right—and a reminder that some stories can be just as effective in the retelling." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 60 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported film-goers gave it a 90% positive score. (Full article...)
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12 Years a Slave is a 2013 historical drama film directed and produced by Steve McQueen. It is an adaptation of the 1853 autobiographical slave narrative memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup, a New York-born free negro who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841 and sold into slavery. The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as the protagonist, Northup. Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt (also a producer of the film), and Alfre Woodard feature in supporting roles. The screenplay based on the aforementioned memoir was written by John Ridley.

Following successful screenings at the Telluride Film Festival and New York Film Festival, the film held its public premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award. Fox Searchlight Pictures initially gave the film a limited release at nineteen theaters on October 18, aimed primarily towards art house and African American patrons. The film was later given a wide release at over 1,100 theaters in the United States and Canada on November 8. 12 Years a Slave has grossed a worldwide total of over $187 million on a production budget of $20 million. As of 2019, it is McQueen's highest grossing film. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, surveyed 358 reviews and judged 95% to be positive. (Full article...)

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There’s so many things that go into making a film. The director, the actors that you're working with, the time that you have to rehearse, whether you catch up with a character in time. It’s pretty hard to tell which performer performed the best. Somebody may have started out with a piece of junk and brought it up past mediocrity until it was pretty damn good, and another guy starts off with a beautiful script and deliciously defined character and marvelous director, comfortable schedule and he’s got everything going for him. I would give the credit to the guy in front of him.

— Paul Newman

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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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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
A Trip Down Market Street (High Res)
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Animated phenakistiscope disc - Running rats Fantascope by Thomas Mann Baynes 1833
Annie Oakley shooting glass balls, 1894
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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MultiplaneDemo
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Nanook of the North
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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
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Winsor McCay (1912) How a Mosquito Operates