film

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References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

A movie bingo card titled "Britannica's Movie B-I-N-G-O" featuring a 5x5 grid of iconic movie stills from various films, with instructions to name the movies.

Why do movie theaters serve popcorn?

Orson Welles: Citizen Kane

Lady in the Lake

For Students

Motion-picture projector.

motion picture summary

Read Next

Bag end on Bagshot row from the movies Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in Hobbiton, New Zealand, Australia

You Ought to Be in Pictures: 8 Filming Locations You Can Actually Visit

Tom Cruise as Maverick in Top Gun(1986) directed by Tony Scott.

Can You Guess the Movie by the Scene?

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in 2019. (Meghan Markle, British royalty)

6 Things You Should Know About Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Screen with https for internet security. (encryption, privacy, websites)

Inventions that Helped Shape How We Interact with Knowledge and Information

King Charles III and Queen Camilla (Camilla, Queen Consort) wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Coronation of King Charles in London, England on May 6, 2023

British Royal Line of Succession

Discover

Shoebill. A Shoebill Stork (Balaeniceps rex), aka 'Whalehead' standing in shallow marsh. Resides in tropical East Africa. A very large bird related to the storks. It derives its name from its massive shoe-shaped bill.

Funky Feathers: 10 Bizarre Birds

Black widow spider

9 of the World’s Deadliest Spiders

Adolf Hitler (Nazi, nazism, German leader).

9 Things You Might Not Know About Adolf Hitler

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Panoramic view of moai, Ahu Tongariki, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile

8 of the World’s Most-Remote Islands

Ahura Mazda - relief of the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda at the ancient ruins of Persepolis in Iran. Also known as Ormazd Zoroastrianism,

Which Religion Is the Oldest?

Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken late on July 13, 2015 from a distance of 289,000 miles

Why Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?

film: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	movie • moving picture • cinema • motion picture

Photos and Videos

Orson Welles: Citizen Kane

Lady in the Lake

D.W. Griffith: Intolerance

Why do movie theaters serve popcorn?

Study film-making techniques employed in an adaptation of John Millington Synge's The Well of the Saints

How talkies replaced silent films

Follow a director as he films a motion picture adaption of Eugène Ionesco's The New Tenant

Take a look at a video clip from Winsor McCay's “Gertie on Tour”

See All Videos, Images and Interactives →

Topics

history of film rating Britannica’s Female Directors Bingo Bechdel test experimental cinema romantic comedy neo-noir found footage Cinema Nôvo BAFTA architecture dance radio printmaking sculpture painting drawing history of photography garden and landscape design literature

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

John Krasinski

John Krasinski

American actor and director

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

British writer, producer, and actress

Catherine O'Hara

Catherine O’Hara

Canadian actress

Ben Elton

Ben Elton

British actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter and dramatist

Tom Hiddleston

Tom Hiddleston

British actor

Simu Liu

Simu Liu

Canadian actor, stuntperson, author, and advocate

Ariana DeBose

Ariana DeBose

American actress

Jenna Ortega

Jenna Ortega

American actress

Keri Russell

Keri Russell

American actress

Joe Rogan

Joe Rogan

American comedian, actor, and podcaster

Jason Statham

Jason Statham

British actor

Harry Smith

Harry Smith

American filmmaker, painter, musicologist, ethnographer, collector, and mystic

Louise Fletcher

Louise Fletcher

American actress

Anthony Edwards

Anthony Edwards

American basketball player

Carey Mulligan

Carey Mulligan

British actress

Taika Waititi

Taika Waititi

New Zealand director

Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John

British-Australian actress and singer

Sam Rockwell

Sam Rockwell

American actor

Margot Robbie

Margot Robbie

Australian actress

Timothy Olyphant

Timothy Olyphant

American actor

Quiz

USA 2006 - 78th Annual Academy Awards. Closeup of giant Oscar statue at the entrance of the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, film movie hollywood

Pop Culture Quiz

Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).

Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia

Publicity still showing Harold Lloyd from the motion picture film "Safety Last!" (1923); directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor. (movies, cinema)

Everything About Movies Quiz

Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), directed by Brian De Palma

Famous Hollywood Film Characters Quiz

Publicity still with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman from the motion picture film "Casablanca" (1942); directed by Michael Curtiz. (cinema, movies)

Best Picture Movie Quote Quiz

Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, with her dog, Toto, from the motion picture film The Wizard of Oz (1939); directed by Mervyn LeRay. (cinema, movies)

Classic Closing Lines

Academy Awards (Oscars) statue at the 2011 ceremonies in Los Angeles, California. (motion pictures, films, cinema)

Another Academy Awards Quiz

Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

Star Trekking

Publicity still from the motion picture film "The Terminator" (1984); directed by James Cameron. (cinema, movies)

Match the Quote to the Movie Quiz

The Jazz Singer (1927) Actor Al Jolson as Jakie Rabinowitz with Eugenie Besserer, who plays his mother as Sara Rabinowitz in a scene from the musical film directed by Alan Crosland. First feature-length movie with synchronized dialogue. The Jazz Singer

Film Buff

Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Role Call

Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, with her dog, Toto, from the motion picture film The Wizard of Oz (1939); directed by Mervyn LeRay. (cinema, movies)

Classic Closing Lines

Robert Altman (1925-2006) Lobby card of actors Donald Sutherland, left, and Elliott Gould in the comedy film M*A*S*H (1970) directed by Robert Altman. MASH movie Korean War

A Movie Lesson

Jodie Foster American actress in her Academy Award winning performance as the FBI agent Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) where she tracks the serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (in background) played by actor Anthony Hopkins.

You Can’t Handle the Truth: Famous Movie Quotes

List

Bag end on Bagshot row from the movies Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in Hobbiton, New Zealand, Australia

You Ought to Be in Pictures: 8 Filming Locations You Can Actually Visit