Overview
- On December 28, 1895, at Paris’s Grand Café, a paying audience watched La Sortie des usines Lumière, a milestone widely recognized as cinema’s public debut.
- The Lumières’ cinématographe functioned as both camera and projector, and their father, Antoine, organized and promoted the first paid screening.
- Days later came L’arrivée d’un train à La Ciotat, famed for legends about startled viewers and often mistakenly cited as the first film.
- Theatrical attendance remains weak as streaming platforms alter release windows and revenues, with the strain falling hardest on young and independent filmmakers.
- AI is reshaping workflows and archives—examples include Google’s Veo 3 for text-to-video, synthetic performers such as Tilly Norwood, and restoration uses like new presentations of The Wizard of Oz—while reported consolidation talk, including Netflix potentially acquiring Warner Bros, remains unconfirmed.