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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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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a 2005 fantasy film directed by Mike Newell from a screenplay by Steve Kloves, based on the 2000 novel of the same name by J.K. Rowling. It is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and the fourth instalment in the Harry Potter film series. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively. The story follows Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts as he is chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the Triwizard Tournament.

Principal photography began in early 2004, and the film premiered worldwide on 18 November 2005. Five days following release, it had earned over US$102 million at the North American box office, the third-highest first-weekend tally for a Harry Potter film behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2. Goblet of Fire enjoyed a successful run at the box office, grossing $896 million worldwide, the highest-grossing film of 2005 and the sixth-highest-grossing film in the series. (Portal:Film/Featured content)

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Image 1The 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 2Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (from History of film)
Image 3
An electrotachyscope
American Scientific, 16/11/1889, p. 303
(from History of film technology)
Image 4A scene from Raja Harishchandra (1913) – credited as the first full-length Indian motion picture. (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 Hollywood Sign (from Film industry)
Image 7Publicity still for the Egyptian film My Wife, the Director General (1966) (from Film industry)
Image 8Czermak's 1855 Stereophoroskop (from History of film technology)
Image 9Charlie Chaplin (from History of film)
Image 10Max Skladanowsky (right) in 1934 with his brother Eugen and the Bioscop (from History of film technology)
Image 11Animated GIF of Prof. Stampfer's Stroboscopische Scheibe No. X (Trentsensky & Vieweg 1833) (from History of film technology)
Image 12William Friese-Greene (from Film industry)
Image 13Off Plus Camera Film Festival in Kraków, 2012, with Andrzej Seweryn, Daniel Olbrychski, and Wojciech Pszoniak on stage. (from Film industry)
Image 14Publicity still for the Egyptian film Yahya el hub (1938) (from Film industry)
Image 15Don 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 16Cinématographe Lumière at the Institut Lumière, France (from History of film technology)
Image 17Flying 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 18Mona Zaki, Egyptian film star (from Film industry)
Image 19Insert shot in Old Wives for New (Cecil B. DeMille, 1918) (from History of film)
Image 20A surviving two-color-component image from the first Technicolor feature film, The Gulf Between (1917) (from History of film technology)
Image 21Poster for a Biograph Studios release from 1913 (from Film industry)
Image 22The Wizard of Oz (from History of film)
Image 23Georges Méliès (left) painting a backdrop in his studio (from History of film)
Image 24Old Chinese Cinema in Qufu, Shandong (from Film industry)
Image 25Louis Poyet [fr]'s engraving of the mechanism of the "fusil photographique" as published in La Nature (april 1882) (from History of film technology)
Image 26Frame from a c.1912 Chronochrome film (from History of film technology)
Image 27The Jazz Singer (1927), was the first full-length film with synchronized sound. (from History of film technology)
Image 28Nestor studio, 1911 (from Film industry)
Image 29The Cinématographe Lumière in projection mode (from History of film technology)
Image 30Film still from Dickson Greeting (from History of film technology)
Image 31GIF animation from retouched pictures of The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge (1879). (from History of film technology)
Image 32Bahiga Hafez (1901–1983) Egyptian filmmaker and actress in 1920s and 1930s (from Film industry)
Image 33A frame from the Lumière brothers staged comedy film, L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895) (from History of film)
Image 34Edward Raymond Turner's three-color projector, 1902 (from History of film technology)
Image 35A shot from Raja Harishchandra (1913), the first film of Bollywood. (from Film industry)
Image 36Discounted DVD home video film releases sold in the Netherlands (from Film industry)
Image 37London IMAX has the largest cinema screen in Britain with a total screen size of 520 m². (from Film industry)
Image 38Cinema admissions in 1995 (from History of film)
Image 39
The Pathé Brothers, by Adrien Barrère.
(from Film industry)
Image 40The 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 41Salah Zulfikar and Nadia Lutfi in Saladin the Victorious (1963) (from History of film)
Image 42Eadweard Muybridge's The Horse in Motion cabinet cards utilized the technique of chronophotography to study motion. (from History of film)
Image 43A production scene from the 1950 Hollywood film Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston (from History of film)
Image 44A still from The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906; 80 min.) (from Film industry)
Image 45Complex vignette shot in die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) (from History of film)
Image 46A.E. Smith filming The Bargain Fiend in the Vitagraph Studios in 1907. Arc floodlights hang overhead. (from History of film)
Image 47Poster for the 1956 Egyptian film Wakeful Eyes starring Salah Zulfikar and Shadia (from History of film)
Image 48The first two shots of As Seen Through a Telescope (1900), with the telescope POV simulated by the circular mask (from History of film)

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Credit: Bain News Service

Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993), was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987. She was a prominent film star of the 1910s and 1920s, particularly associated with the films of director D. W. Griffith, including her leading role in Griffith's seminal Birth of a Nation (1915).

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... 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?
... that writer Ed Brubaker earned more from the residuals for his cameo appearance in the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier than he did for his comic from which the film was adapted?
... that an Irish comedy group wrote the film Apocalypse Clown?
... that the creators of the cartoon Jade Armor filmed live-action martial arts stunts to visualize the show's animated action sequences?
... that to film the series Quarterback, the NFL allowed quarterbacks to wear microphones for every game of the 2022 season?

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Hayworth in a publicity still, 1945

Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer, and pin-up girl. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films in total over 37 years. The press coined the term "The Love Goddess" to describe Hayworth, after she had become the most glamorous screen idol of the 1940s. She was the top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II.

Hayworth is perhaps best known for her performance in the 1946 film noir Gilda, opposite Glenn Ford, in which she played the femme fatale in her first major dramatic role. She is also known for her performances in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Strawberry Blonde (1941), Blood and Sand (1941), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Pal Joey (1957), and Separate Tables (1958). Fred Astaire, with whom she made two films, You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942), once called her his favorite dance partner. She also starred in the Technicolor musical Cover Girl (1944), with Gene Kelly. She is listed as one of the top 25 female motion picture stars of all time in the American Film Institute's survey, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars. (Full article...)

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Robert Downey Jr.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a media franchise and shared fictional universe that is the setting of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios, based on characters that appear in Marvel Comics publications. Phase One of the franchise includes six films, featuring four different superhero properties, leading up to a crossover in the 2012 film Marvel's The Avengers. The franchise's Phase Two features three sequels to Phase One films, as well as two new film properties, and the crossover Avengers: Age of Ultron, which released in 2015. Phase Three features four sequels to earlier films, and four new film properties, as well as the crossover films Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The films from Phase One through Phase Three are collectively known as "The Infinity Saga".

As the franchise is composed of films adapted from a variety of Marvel Comics properties, there are multiple lead actors: Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark / Iron Man in the films Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), and Iron Man 3 (2013); Chris Evans portrays Steve Rogers / Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Captain America: Civil War (2016), where he is joined by Downey as Stark; and Chris Hemsworth plays Thor in Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017). All three actors star in The Avengers (2012), and reprise their roles in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Edward Norton headlined The Incredible Hulk (2008), playing Bruce Banner / Hulk, but did not reprise the role in future films, being replaced by Mark Ruffalo for all subsequent films involving the character. Chris Pratt portrays the lead character, Peter Quill / Star-Lord, in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and returns for its sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), while Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas respectively star as Scott Lang / Ant-Man and Hank Pym / Ant-Man in Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), in which Evangeline Lilly co-stars as Hope van Dyne / Wasp. (Full article...)
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Tom Hanks received five nominations for his voice role of Woody in the film.

Toy Story 4 is a 2019 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the fourth installment in the Toy Story franchise and the sequel to Toy Story 3 (2010). The film was directed by Josh Cooley (in his feature directorial debut) from the screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom; they also conceived the story with John Lasseter, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Valerie LaPointe, and Martin Hynes. Toy Story 4 stars the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, and Joan Cusack. Set after the third film, Toy Story 4 follows Woody (Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Allen) as the pair and the other toys go on a road trip with Bonnie (McGraw), who creates Forky (Hale), a spork made with recycled materials from her school. Meanwhile, Woody is reunited with Bo Peep (Potts), and must decide where his loyalties lie.

Toy Story 4 premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 11, 2019, and was released in the United States on June 21. Produced on a budget of $200 million, Toy Story 4 grossed $1.073 billion worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2019. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 459 reviews. (Full article...)
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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...)
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American actress Sharon Stone has won 11 awards from 42 nominations, including one Emmy Award, one Golden Globe Award, two MTV Movie Awards, and one Satellite Award. She has also received several "dishonors" for poor performances in films, earning three Golden Raspberry Awards, and two Stinkers Bad Movie Awards.

Stone's breakout role as Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct (1992) earned her a Chicago Film Critics Association Award, Golden Globe Award, and Saturn Award nominations. This was followed by two nominations for MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Female for the films Sliver (1993) and The Specialist (1994). For her role as Ginger McKenna in Casino (1995), she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and received an Academy Award nomination, in the Best Actress category. She guest starred as an attorney who believes she can communicate with God in The Practice (1997–2004), a role that earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. In Basic Instinct 2 (2006), her return to the character Tramell received mixed critical reviews, and garnered her a Golden Raspberry Award. (Full article...)
Image 5
The Grammy Award for Best Music Video is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".

Originally called the Grammy Award for Best Video, Short Form, the award was first presented in 1984, as was a similar award for Best Long Form Music Video. From 1986 to 1997, the category name was changed to Best Music Video, Short Form. However, in 1988 and 1989, the award criteria were changed and the video awards were presented under the categories Best Concept Music Video and Best Performance Music Video. The awards were returned to the original format in 1990. The category was called Best Short Form Music Video until 2012, from 2013 it was shortened to Best Music Video. Award recipients include the performers, directors, and producers associated with the winning videos, except for its first two years when the Grammy went to the performing artist only. For unknown reasons, the award for the Best Music Video in 1987 - Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits - went to the band only, not to the director(s) and/or producer(s). (Full article...)
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Studio publicity photo of Hitchcock in 1955

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) was an English director and filmmaker. Popularly known as the "Master of Suspense" for his use of innovative film techniques in thrillers, Hitchcock started his career in the British film industry as a title designer and art director for a number of silent films during the early 1920s. His directorial debut was the 1925 release The Pleasure Garden. Hitchcock followed this with The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, his first commercial and critical success. It featured many of the thematic elements his films would be known for, such as an innocent man on the run. It also featured the first of his famous cameo appearances. Two years later he directed Blackmail (1929) which was his first sound film. In 1935, Hitchcock directed The 39 Steps; three years later, he directed The Lady Vanishes, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave.

In 1940, Hitchcock transitioned to Hollywood productions, the first of which was the psychological thriller Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. He received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director, and the film won Best Picture. Hitchcock worked with Fontaine again the following year on the film Suspicion, which also starred Cary Grant. In 1943, Hitchcock directed another psychological thriller Shadow of a Doubt, which starred Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Three years later, he reunited with Grant on Notorious, which also starred Ingrid Bergman. The film included a three-minute intermittent kissing scene between the leads shot specifically to skirt the Motion Picture Production Code which at the time limited such scenes to three seconds. In 1948, Hitchcock directed Rope, which starred James Stewart. The film was his first in Technicolor and is remembered for its use of long takes to make the film appear to be a single continuous shot. Three years later, he directed Strangers on a Train (1951). (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...)
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Formby entertaining British troops during the Second World War

The English comic, singer and actor George Formby (1904–1961) performed in many mediums of light entertainment, including film, radio and theatre. His career spanned from 1915 until December 1960. During that time he became synonymous with playing "a shy, innocent, gauche, accident-prone Lancashire lad".

Formby began his working life as a jockey but always held an ambition to become a performer. In 1915, against the wishes of his father, Formby made his screen debut in the film By the Shortest of Heads. Upon his father's death in 1921, he began to build a full-time performing career, and worked predominantly on the variety circuit. In 1926 he began his music career, singing light, comical songs, and playing the ukulele or banjolele. From 1934 he increasingly worked in film, and had become a major star by the 1930s and '40s. He appeared on television for the first time in 1938 in the festive special Christmas Greetings. He became the UK's highest-paid entertainer during those decades. The film historian Brian McFarlane writes that Formby portrayed "essentially gormless incompetents, aspiring to various kinds of professional success ... and even more improbably to a middle-class girlfriend, usually in the clutches of some caddish type with a moustache. Invariably he scored on both counts". (Full article...)
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Mad Max: Fury Road is a 2015 post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller. It was produced by Miller, Doug Mitchell, and P. J. Voeten. The screenplay was written by Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris. The film is set in a dystopian desert wasteland where gasoline and water are rare commodities. Tom Hardy stars as the title character Max Rockatansky, who helps rebel soldier Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), rescue five women from the imprisonment of despotic leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Nicholas Hoult and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley feature in supporting roles. It is the fourth film in the Mad Max franchise.

The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on 7 May 2015. Warner Bros. later gave the film a wide release on 15 May at over 3,700 theaters in the United States and Canada. Mad Max: Fury Road grossed a worldwide total of $380.4 million on a production budget of $154.6–185.1 million. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, surveyed 424 reviews and judged 97 percent to be positive. (Full article...)
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Nesbitt in 2008

James Nesbitt is an actor from Northern Ireland whose filmography encompasses both television and film roles over a 30-year period. Nesbitt's screen career began in the early 1980s with uncredited roles in episodes of the BBC Play For Today strand, which he had while attached to the Riverside Theatre's youth group. His first credited role came in 1989, as a bit player in the John Ogdon biopic Virtuoso, which was followed by his first feature film role in 1991 in Hear My Song.

As a casual actor in the early 1990s, Nesbitt mixed television and film roles; he appeared in episodes of Boon, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Covington Cross, Lovejoy, and Between the Lines. He also played roles in several Michael Winterbottom films, beginning with Loves Lies Bleeding in 1993 and continuing with Go Now in 1995, Jude in 1996 and Welcome to Sarajevo in 1997. (Full article...)

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I think that the tendency for most people is to fall back on a comic interpretation of things -- because things are so sad, so terrible. If you didn't laugh you'd kill yourself. But the truth of the matter is that existence in general is very very tragic, very very sad, very brutal and very unhappy.

— Woody Allen

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