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Film & Television timeline
Cinema, television and screen culture.
38 moments in QuoAnno
Reading the timeline
A wider chronology
Screen history begins before any single accepted birth of cinema. Experiments in photography, projection and motion gradually became public film exhibition, while sound, colour and new production systems changed the medium again. Television later created a different rhythm of scheduled, serial and domestic viewing.
The timeline continues through global popular cinema, music television, long-running series and streaming. Release dates are useful landmarks, but films and programmes also belong to wider histories of technology, censorship, distribution, audiences and preservation.
What this category covers
Themes to follow
Early cinema
Projection, editing and exhibition practices that established moving pictures as a public medium.
Sound and colour
Technical and creative transitions that reshaped production and performance.
Broadcast television
Networks, formats and serial programmes designed for regular home viewing.
Digital distribution
Home video, online services and streaming models that changed access to screen media.
Across the category
Timeline highlights
Lumière brothers hold a famous paid public film screening
Cinema has multiple inventors and precursor technologies; this screening is a famous milestone.
The Jazz Singer premieres
It was not the first sound film, but its commercial impact was enormous.
The first Academy Awards ceremony is held
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks, honored the best films from August 1, 1927, to July 31, 1928, and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres
It was Disney’s first feature-length animated film.
Akira Kurosawa releases Rashomon
Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese jidaigeki psychological thriller film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay he co-wrote with Shinobu Hashimoto.
Doctor Who first airs on the BBC
The programme became one of the longest-running science-fiction series.
Star Wars is released
The original film was later retitled Episode IV – A New Hope.
Alien is released
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon, based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett.
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Further reading
These independent reference works and institutions provide broader context. QuoAnno links to them for further reading; the summaries on this page are original and are not copied from those sources.
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