page_title: 1896 in film
section_title: Events
hierarchical_section_title: 1896 in film / Events
caption_attribution_description: 1896 advertisement for "Vitascope Hall" on Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Ad notes the "Vitascope" (early movie projector) is at 623 Canal Street, not earlier location at West End (amusement park) and an "entirely new series of pictures" will be shown. "Vitascope Hall" has since been called the world's first movie theater, as location in business only showing motion pictures.
context_page_description: The following is an overview of the events of 1896 in film, including a list of films released and notable births.
context_section_description: January – In the United States, the Vitascope film projector is designed by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat. Armat begins working with Thomas Edison to manufacture it.
  January 14 – Birt Acres demonstrates his film projector, the Kineopticon, the first in Britain, to the Royal Photographic Society at the Queen's Hall in London. This is the first film show to an audience in the U.K.
  February 20 – In London:
  Robert W. Paul demonstrates his film projector, the Theatrograph (later known as the Animatograph), at the Alhambra Theatre.
  The Lumière Brothers first project their films in Britain, at the Empire Theatre of Varieties, Leicester Square.
  April – Edison and Armat's Vitascope is used to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City.
  May 14 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia is crowned in Moscow, the first coronation ever recorded in film.
  July 11 – First films screened in Venezuela by Luis Manuel Méndez and Manuel Trujillo Durán at the Baralt Theatre in Maracaibo.
  July 26 – "Vitascope Hall" opens on Canal Street, New Orleans, the first business devoted exclusively to showing motion pictures at a fixed location 
  September 28 – The Pathé Frères film company is founded.
  October 19 – "Edisonia Hall" in Buffalo, New York, the first building constructed specifically for showing motion pictures. 
  In France, magician and filmmaker Georges Méliès begins experimenting with the new motion picture technology, developing early special effect techniques, including stop motion. Films that year included The Devil's Castle, A Nightmare, A Terrible Night.
  William Selig founds the Selig Polyscope Company in Chicago.
  Demeny-Gaumont work on a 60 mm format, first known as Biographe (unperforated), then Chronophotographe (perforated).
  Casimir Sivan and E. Dalphin create a 38 mm format.
caption: Ad for Vitascope Hall, New Orleans, offering "an entirely new series of pictures".
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