History of Hollywood: Celebrities, Oscars, & Moviemaking
In the early 20th century, the captivating new art form of the motion picture became big business in a small district of Los Angeles. Ever since, Hollywood has been producing beloved entertainment for the masses and turning its stars into the biggest celebrities in the world. Its outsize cultural power has also made Hollywood the site of fierce battles over morality and politics. Though it now faces challenges from streaming giants such as Netflix and ascendant overseas competitors, including India’s Bollywood and Nigeria’s Nollywood, the U.S. film industry remains by far the world’s largest in terms of revenue and still enjoys the farthest cultural reach.
Hollywood
Hollywood, district within the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S., whose name is synonymous with the American film industry....
History of film
History of film, history of cinema, a popular form of mass media, from the 19th century to the present. (Read Martin Scorsese’s...
Silent film era
Silent film era, period in cinema history before the introduction of synchronized sound in movies. The silent film era began...
New Hollywood
New Hollywood, American film movement that took place roughly from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. The movement marked...
Hays Code
Hays Code, set of guidelines, self-imposed by Hollywood studios, regulating the moral content of films produced from 1934...
Hollywood blacklist
Hollywood blacklist, list of media workers ineligible for employment because of alleged communist or subversive ties, generated...
Hollywood Ten
Hollywood Ten, in U.S. history, 10 motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American...
The Best Movies of All Time
Encyclopædia Britannica strives to be an authoritative source on subjects from Aa to ZZ Top, but which movies are the best...
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (MGM), American corporation that was once the world’s largest and most profitable motion-picture...
western
Western, a genre of novels and short stories, motion pictures, and television and radio shows that are set in the American...
Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.
Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc., American motion-picture studio that became a major Hollywood studio under its longtime...
romantic comedy
What is a romantic comedy? A romantic comedy, or rom-com, is a movie genre characterized by a narrative focused on the pursuit...
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., American motion-picture studio that made some notable films in the 1930s and ’40s. Radio-Keith-Orpheum...
blaxploitation movies
Blaxploitation movies, group of films made mainly in the early to mid-1970s that featured Black actors in a transparent effort...
Warner Brothers
Warner Brothers, American entertainment conglomerate founded in 1923 and especially known for its film studio. In 1990 it...
musical film
Musical film, motion picture consisting of a plot integrating musical numbers. Although usually considered an American genre,...
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures, one of the first and most successful of the Hollywood film studios. It became a subsidiary of Viacom...
film noir
Film noir, style of filmmaking characterized by such elements as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, frequent use of...
Universal Studios
Universal Studios, American motion-picture studio that was one of the leading producers of film serials in the 1920s and...
Disney Company
Disney Company, American corporation best known as a purveyor of family entertainment. During the 20th and early 21st centuries,...
United Artists Corporation
United Artists Corporation, major investor in and distributor of independently produced motion pictures in the United States....
20th Century Studios
20th Century Studios, major American film studio formed in 1935 by the merger of Twentieth Century Pictures and the Fox Film...
The Oscars
The Academy Awards are perhaps the most famous way that Hollywood tells its own story. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began granting the awards in 1929, and winning an Oscar quickly became a path to glory for Tinseltown’s creatives. Indeed, the list of who has won the most Oscars includes some of the worthiest names in cinema history. However, the Oscars have faced criticism—such as the 2015 #OscarsSoWhite campaign—for its voting body, which has historically skewed older, whiter, and more male than Hollywood at large and has often chosen winners who look like themselves. Take a look at past Oscar winners.
Home of the Academy Awards
Since its construction in 2001, the Dolby Theatre has served as the permanent home of the Oscars ceremony. It is located on Hollywood Boulevard, adjacent to the historic Grauman's Chinese Theatre movie palace.
© Richard Harbaugh, handout photo—A.M.P.A.S./Getty Images
Academy Award for best picture
Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. It...
Academy Award for best director
Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honors...
Academy Award for best actress
Academy Award for best actress, award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly...
Academy Award for best actor
Academy Award for best actor, award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly...
Academy Award for best supporting actress
Each year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honours the actress in a supporting role who delivered the most...
Academy Award for best supporting actor
Each year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honours the man who delivered the most outstanding performance...
Academy Award for best original screenplay
Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honors...
Academy Award for best adapted screenplay
Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honors...
Academy Award for best cinematography
Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honors...
Major Aspects of Moviemaking
Movie credits are filled with a dizzying array of job titles of the people who contribute to making a film. Although roles such as actor and director have been crucial to filmmaking from the beginning, other specialties arise whenever technology and tastes change. For example, synchronized sound was introduced with The Jazz Singer in 1927. Enter the Foley artist, who adds supplemental noises and sound effects to make onscreen action believable to audiences. More recently, innovations in motion capture and computer animation have inaugurated new rounds of creativity and specialization. Take a closer look at some of the technologies and disciplines involved in moviemaking.
The Filmmaker's Toolbox
1
film
Film, series of still photographs on film, projected in rapid succession onto a screen by means of light. Because of the optical phenomenon known as persistence of vision, this gives the illusion of actual, smooth, and continuous movement. A popular form of mass media, film is a remarkably
2
motion-picture technology
Motion-picture technology, the means for the production and showing of motion pictures. It includes not only the motion-picture camera and projector but also such technologies as those involved in recording sound, in editing both picture and sound, in creating special effects, and in producing
3
cinematography
Cinematography, the art and technology of motion-picture photography. It involves such techniques as the general composition of a scene; the lighting of the set or location; the choice of cameras, lenses, filters, and film stock; the camera angle and movements; and the integration of any special
4
animation
Animation, the art of making inanimate objects appear to move. Animation is an artistic impulse that long predates the movies. History’s first recorded animator is Pygmalion of Greek and Roman mythology, a sculptor who created a figure of a woman so perfect that he fell in love with her and begged
5
script
Script, in motion pictures, the written text of a film. The nature of scripts varies from those that give only a brief outline of the action to detailed shooting scripts, in which every action, gesture, and implication is explicitly stated. Frequently, scripts are not in chronological order but in
6
motion-picture camera
Motion-picture camera, any of various complex photographic cameras that are designed to record a succession of images on a reel of film that is repositioned after each exposure. Commonly, exposures are made at the rate of 24 or 30 frames per second on film that is either 8, 16, 35, or 70 mm in
7
3-D
3-D, motion-picture process that gives a three-dimensional quality to film images. It is based on the fact that humans perceive depth by viewing with both eyes. In the 3-D process, two cameras or a twin-lensed camera are used for filming, one representing the left eye and the other the right. The
8
dubbing
Dubbing, in filmmaking, the process of adding new dialogue or other sounds to the sound track of a motion picture that has already been shot. Dubbing is most familiar to audiences as a means of translating foreign-language films into the audience’s language. When a foreign language is dubbed, the
9
montage
Montage, in motion pictures, the editing technique of assembling separate pieces of thematically related film and putting them together into a sequence. With montage, portions of motion pictures can be carefully built up piece by piece by the director, film editor, and visual and sound technicians,
Watch and Learn
How a Foley artist creates sound effects for screen
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Test Your Knowledge
Best Picture Movie Quote Quiz
Take this quiz or you may regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.
Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia
Whether you do well or not, it's an honor just to have taken the quiz.
Women in Classic Cinema Quiz
What’s the definitive Rita Hayworth film? Who played Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois? Test your knowledge of the women...
Famous Hollywood Film Characters Quiz
How much of a movie buff are you? In this quiz you’ll be shown a character’s name, and you’ll need to pick the film in which...
History Speaks
Alfred Hitchcock on film production
Five years after his Psycho forever changed perspectives on taking a shower, the legendary film director and “master of suspense”...
Cecil B. DeMille on cinema
The 14th edition (1929) of the Encyclopædia Britannica substantially enlarged the treatment given to cinema. In the new omnibus...
Lillian Gish on silent film
Lillian Gish (1893–1993), with her sister Dorothy (1898–1968), starred in many early D.W. Griffith classics. Her work in...
Lee Strasberg on acting
Actor, director, and teacher Lee Strasberg was the chief American exponent of the popular but controversial Stanislavsky...
Lon Chaney on movie makeup
Perhaps no one was better prepared for a career in silent cinema than Lon Chaney (1883–1930). His skills were honed during...
Roger Ebert on the future of the feature film
In 1967 Roger Ebert became the chief film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, a position he held for more than 40 years. During...
Film Preservation: A Dire Need
The term “film preservation” now has an official ring to it. In one sense, that’s progress—it means that people take it seriously,...
Last Modification: Feb 03, 2025