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Film

Also Known As Cinema · Motion Pictures
Media and Time-Based Arts

Film is the art of moving images, recorded and arranged in sequence to tell a story or convey an experience, combining elements of photography, writing, performance, music, and editing into a single medium. It emerged as a technology in the final years of the nineteenth century and matured rapidly into a narrative art over the following decades, developing techniques of editing, camera movement, and sound that had no precedent in the older performing arts. National film industries developed distinct styles, and Japanese cinema in particular, through directors such as Akira Kurosawa, brought a rigorous visual and narrative discipline to international attention in the decades after the Second World War, influencing filmmakers worldwide. Film is often described as a collaborative and industrial art, typically produced by large creative and technical teams and dependent on the equipment and, later, the digital tools of its era, in contrast to the more solitary practice associated with painting or sculpture. Its combination of moving image and recorded sound allows a single work to reach audiences across the world in a way earlier performing arts, tied to a single live performance, could not.

Facts
Medium
Recorded moving images arranged in sequence, combined with sound, on photographic or digital media 1
Signature Technique
Montage: separate pieces of film selected, edited and assembled together to build a new sequence or meaning within a film. 2
Place of Origin
The idea of film as a fine art in its own right, rather than merely a recording technology, is dated to 1911 and Ricciotto Canudo's manifesto The Birth of the Sixth Art. 2
Notable Example
Ricciotto Canudo's 1911 manifesto The Birth of the Sixth Art, the founding argument for treating film as a fine art alongside painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry. 2
Connections

Associated With

Animation, Art Forms
Source Wikipedia

chroma key compositing is a technique of the film art form.

Claymation, Artistic Techniques

Claymation is produced and released as film.

Source Deep focus (Wikipedia)
Found Footage, Artistic Techniques

found footage is a technique of the film art form.

Source Jump cut (Wikipedia)
Long Take, Artistic Techniques

long take is a technique of the film art form.

Source Montage (filmmaking) (Wikipedia)
Music, Art Forms
Photography, Art Forms
Photography, Art Forms
Rotoscoping, Artistic Techniques

Rotoscoping originated as, and remains, a live-action film technique in addition to animation.

Stop-motion animation is produced and released as film.

Theatre, Art Forms

time lapse photography is a technique of the film art form.

Video Art, Art Forms

Video art grew directly out of the moving-image tradition of film, adapting its techniques to gallery and installation contexts using video technology instead of celluloid.

Genre Of

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

8½, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Bicycle Thieves, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Casablanca, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Citizen Kane, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

M (1931 film), Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Metropolis, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Nosferatu, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Rashomon, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Rome, Open City, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Seven Samurai, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

The Godfather, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Tokyo Story, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Vertigo, Works

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Movements

Modernism, Movements
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors

Practitioners

Source The Films of Akira KurosawaDonald Richie
Source Wikipedia: Alfred Hitchcock
Source Wikipedia: Andrei Tarkovsky
Andy Warhol, Artists
Source Andy Warhol (Wikipedia)
Billy Wilder, Artists
Source Wikipedia: Billy Wilder
Charles Eames, Artists
Source Wikipedia: Charles Eames
David Lean, Artists
Source Wikipedia: David Lean
Source Wikipedia: Federico Fellini
Gordon Parks, Artists
Source Gordon Parks - Wikipedia
Source Jacques Katmor (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Niki de Saint Phalle
Orson Welles, Artists
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Robert Frank, Artists
Source Robert Frank - Wikipedia
Source Wikipedia: Sergei Eisenstein
Source Wikipedia: Stanley Kubrick
Umm Kulthum, Artists
Source Umm Kulthum - Wikipedia
Werner Herzog, Artists
Source Wikipedia: Werner Herzog

Works In This Form

Source 2001: A Space Odyssey (Wikipedia)
8½, Works
Source Wikipedia
Source Wikipedia
Bicycle Thieves, Works

Landmark Italian Neorealist film.

Casablanca, Works
Source Wikipedia
Citizen Kane, Works
M (1931 film), Works
Source M (1931 film) (Wikipedia)
Metropolis, Works
Source Wikipedia
Nosferatu, Works

Silent film by F.W. Murnau.

Film by Ingmar Bergman.

Rashomon, Works
Source Wikipedia
Rome, Open City, Works

Founding film of Italian Neorealism.

Seven Samurai, Works
Source The Films of Akira KurosawaDonald Richie

Silent film by F.W. Murnau.

Source Sunset Boulevard (Wikipedia)
The Godfather, Works
Source Wikipedia

Silent film by Carl Theodor Dreyer.

Tokyo Story, Works
Source Wikipedia
Vertigo, Works
Source Wikipedia
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
  • entry: history of film
  • Movements: Modernism, entry: Modernism
  • Practitioners: Orson Welles, entry: Orson Welles
View the Source
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Film, Film Theory section
    The concept of film as an art-form began in 1911 with Ricciotto Canudo's manifest The Birth of the Sixth Art.
  • Associated With: Animation, Animation, lead section
    Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby pictures are created or manipulated and then played in sequence to create the illusion of moving images.
  • Works In This Form: Battleship Potemkin
  • Works In This Form: Metropolis
  • Works In This Form: Vertigo
  • Works In This Form: Tokyo Story
  • Works In This Form: Rashomon
  • Works In This Form: Casablanca
  • Works In This Form: The Godfather
  • Works In This Form: 8½
View the Source
The Films of Akira Kurosawa
Donald Richie, University of California Press
  • Practitioners: Akira Kurosawa, introductory chapters on Kurosawa's life and career
  • Works In This Form: Seven Samurai, chapter on Seven Samurai
Sunset Boulevard (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWorks In This Form: Sunset Boulevard, Lead section, paragraph 1
Quote, Works In This Form: Sunset Boulevard, Lead section, paragraph 1
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American black comedy film noir directed by Billy Wilder and co-written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D. M. Marshman Jr.
View the Source
M (1931 film) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationWorks In This Form: M (1931 film), lead paragraph
Quote, Works In This Form: M (1931 film), lead paragraph
M is a 1931 German mystery thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a serial killer who targets children, in his third screen role. Both Lang's first sound film and an early example of a proce
View the Source
2001: A Space Odyssey (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWorks In This Form: 2001: A Space Odyssey, lead paragraph
Quote, Works In This Form: 2001: A Space Odyssey, lead paragraph
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke. Its plot was inspired by several short stories optioned from Clarke, primarily
View the Source
Andy Warhol (Wikipedia)
Practitioners: Andy Warhol, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Andy Warhol, lead paragraph
Andy Warhol ( ; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928, February 22, 1987) was an American artist and filmmaker. Widely regarded as the most important artist of the second half of the 20th century, Warhol's practice spanned vari
View the Source
Gordon Parks - Wikipedia
Practitioners: Gordon Parks, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Gordon Parks, lead paragraph
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912, March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s-par
View the Source
Umm Kulthum - Wikipedia
Practitioners: Umm Kulthum, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Umm Kulthum, lead paragraph
Fatima Ibrahim es-Sayyid el-Beltagi (4 May 1904-3 February 1975), known by her stage name Umm Kulthum, was an Egyptian singer and film actress. She was given the honorific title Kawkab el-Sharq (Egyptian Arabic: كوكب الشرق, lit.
View the Source
Robert Frank - Wikipedia
Practitioners: Robert Frank, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Robert Frank, lead paragraph
Robert Frank (Swiss Standard German: [fraŋk]; November 9, 1924, September 9, 2019) was a Swiss American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled The Americans, earned Frank comparisons t
View the Source
Wikipedia: Charles Eames
Practitioners: Charles Eames, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Charles Eames, lead paragraph
Charles Ormond Eames Jr. (June 17, 1907, August 21, 1978) was an American designer, architect and filmmaker. In professional partnership with his wife Ray-Bernice Kaiser Eames, he made groundbreaking contributions in the fields o
View the Source
Wikipedia: Sergei Eisenstein
Practitioners: Sergei Eisenstein, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Sergei Eisenstein, lead paragraph
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (22 January [O.S. 10 January] 1898-11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer
View the Source
Wikipedia: Alfred Hitchcock
Practitioners: Alfred Hitchcock, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Alfred Hitchcock, lead paragraph
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899-29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he direct
View the Source
Wikipedia: Federico Fellini
Practitioners: Federico Fellini, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Federico Fellini, lead paragraph
Federico Fellini (Italian: [fedeˈriːko felˈliːni]; 20 January 1920-31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. Recognized
View the Source
Wikipedia: Niki de Saint Phalle
Practitioners: Niki de Saint Phalle, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Niki de Saint Phalle, lead paragraph
Niki de Saint Phalle (French: [niki d(ə) sɛ̃ fal]; born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle; 29 October 1930-21 May 2002) was a French American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. W
View the Source
Wikipedia: Billy Wilder
Practitioners: Billy Wilder, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Billy Wilder, lead paragraph
Billy Wilder (born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906, March 27, 2002) was an Austrian and American film director and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of America's most versatile fil
View the Source
Wikipedia: Andrei Tarkovsky
Practitioners: Andrei Tarkovsky, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Andrei Tarkovsky, lead paragraph
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (Russian: Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский, pronounced [ɐnˈdrʲej ɐrˈsʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ tɐrˈkofskʲɪj] ; 4 April 1932-29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely
View the Source
Wikipedia: Werner Herzog
Practitioners: Werner Herzog, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Werner Herzog, lead paragraph
Werner Herzog (German: [ˈvɛʁnɐ ˈhɛʁtsoːk]; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, author, and documentarian. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious
View the Source
Wikipedia: David Lean
Practitioners: David Lean, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: David Lean, lead paragraph
Sir David Lean (25 March 1908-16 April 1991) was an English filmmaker and editor, widely considered one of the most important figures of British cinema. He directed the large-scale epics The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawr
View the Source
Deep focus (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Deep Focus, lead paragraph
Quote, Associated With: Deep Focus, lead paragraph
Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus in an image, or how much of it appears sharp and clear. In deep focus, the foreground, mid
View the Source
Jump cut (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Jump Cut, lead paragraph
Quote, Associated With: Jump Cut, lead paragraph
A jump cut is a cut in film editing that breaks a single continuous sequential shot of a subject into two parts, with a piece of footage removed to create the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positioning on the subject ac
View the Source
Montage (filmmaking) (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Montage (Film Editing), lead paragraph
Quote, Associated With: Montage (Film Editing), lead paragraph
A montage ( mon-TAHZH) is a film editing technique in which a series of short shots are sequenced to condense space, time, and information. Montages enable filmmakers to communicate a large amount of information to an audience ove
View the Source
Wikipedia: Stanley Kubrick
Practitioners: Stanley Kubrick, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Stanley Kubrick, lead paragraph
Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928, March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. A prominent figure of the New Hollywood era, Kubrick is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers. His films spanned
View the Source
Jacques Katmor (Wikipedia)
Practitioners: Jacques Katmor, lead paragraph
Quote, Practitioners: Jacques Katmor, lead paragraph
Jacques Mory-Katmor (Hebrew: ז׳אק מורי־קתמור; 4 September 1938 in Cairo, Egypt, 6 September 2001 in Tel Aviv, Israel was an Israeli bohemian/counterculture experimental filmmaker, painter, and multimedia artist of anarchical, und
View the Source
Frequently Asked Questions

What is considered the birth of cinema?

The Lumiere brothers' first public film screening in Paris in December 1895 is conventionally cited as the birth of cinema.

The Lumiere brothers' first public film screening in Paris in December 1895 is conventionally cited as the birth of cinema, since it was the first paying public exhibition of projected moving pictures. Earlier experiments, including Eadweard Muybridge's motion studies and Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, had already demonstrated moving images, but to individual viewers rather than a projected public audience.

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