Arrival of film

Film On display

Louis Le Prince shot the first film on a single lens camera in 1888. But before his contribution was recognised, the French inventor mysteriously disappeared and has been largely forgotten. Thomas Edison wasn’t forgotten though. After revealing his Kinetoscope in 1893, crowds lined up to watch short films through a peephole. Housed in a large cabinet, the Kinetoscope contained 50-foot loops of 35mm film that showed everything from barber shops to bodybuilding. In 1895, moving images broke free with the Lumiere Brothers’ Cinematographe, a device that could record, develop and project film onto a screen for public viewing. It even inspired the name of the new art form – cinema.

How are these works connected?

Explore this constellation

Related articles

Related works

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

Collection

In ACMI's collection

On display until

16 February 2031

ACMI: Gallery 1

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

181407

Curatorial sections

The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-04. Materiality → MI-04-AV01B

The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-04. Materiality → MI-04-C01

Object Types

Moving image file/Digital

Collected

12564 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/100857--arrival-of-film-screen-exhibition-video/ |title=Arrival of film |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=7 November 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}