history of film, also called history of the motion picture, History of cinema from the 19th century to the present. Following the invention of photography in the 1820s, attempts began to capture motion on film. Building on the work of Eadweard Muybridge and others, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and his employer, Thomas Edison, developed one of the first motion-picture cameras, the Kinetograph, in 1891. Four years later the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière invented a camera and projector, and motion-picture technology soon spread from the U.S., France, and Britain to other countries. While early movies were often no more than “animated photographs,” filmmakers at the turn of the 20th century began to introduce narratives into their work. Especially notable was French director Georges Méliès, who combined illusion, comic burlesque, and pantomime in fantasy productions, including A Trip to the Moon (1902). In the U.S. the film industry grew particularly quickly, and Hollywood eventually become its centre, home to numerous studios. American director D.W. Griffith was credited with developing filmmaking as an art form with such techniques as the close-up, the scenic long shot, and crosscutting. Until the late 1920s, films were silent, but at that point a conversion to sound began, especially after the success of the musical The Jazz Singer (1927). This—as well as the later widespread adoption of Technicolor—launched a new era in cinema, and large-scale, often extravagant productions became popular. Following World War II, new genres developed, with a particular focus on realism, and movies faced competition from the emerging television industry. In the ensuing years, film continued to evolve, and, as the end of the 20th century approached, blockbusters and special-effects-driven fare became common, especially in the U.S. In addition, new technology led to advancements in animated movies, which became hugely popular. The introduction of streaming services in the early 21st century also affected the industry, notably by lessening the reliance on theatres.