# Canonical recap data for First Motion Picture Screening (1895)
# Source: https://recap.at/1895/first-motion-picture
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: first-motion-picture
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1895/first-motion-picture"
title: First Motion Picture Screening
aliases:
- Lumière screening
- Grand Café screening
- First cinema screening
- December 28, 1895
subtitle: The Lumière brothers' public screening of motion pictures in Paris launched cinema as a mass entertainment medium and art form.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1895-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1895
decade: 1890
country:
name: France
slug: france
summaryShort: The 18th AAF Base Unit (Motion Picture Unit), originally known as the First Motion Picture Unit, Army Air Forces, was the primary film production unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) during World War II, and was the first military unit made up entirely of professionals from the film industry. It produced more than 40
summaryLong: "The 18th AAF Base Unit (Motion Picture Unit), originally known as the First Motion Picture Unit, Army Air Forces, was the primary film production unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) during World War II, and was the first military unit made up entirely of professionals from the film industry. It produced more than 400 propaganda and training films, which were notable for being informative as well as entertaining. Films for which the unit is known include Resisting Enemy Interrogation, Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress and The Last Bomb—all of which were released in theatres. Veteran actors such as Clark Gable, William Holden, Clayton Moore, Ronald Reagan, Stan Lee, Craig Stevens and DeForest Kelley, and directors such as John Sturges served with the 18th AAF Base Unit. The unit also produced training films and trained combat cameramen."
lede: On December 28, 1895, the Lumière brothers projected a series of short films to a paying audience in Paris—the first public screening of motion pictures. The 10-minute program, shown in the basement of the Grand Café on Boulevard des Capucines, proved that people would pay to watch moving images, launching cinema as both art form and business.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/FMPU_credit_screen.jpg/1280px-FMPU_credit_screen.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "First Motion Picture Unit"
importance: 89
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Date
  value: December 28, 1895
- label: Location
  value: Grand Café, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris
- label: Program duration
  value: Approximately 10 minutes
- label: Number of films shown
  value: 10 short films
- label: Ticket price
  value: 1 franc
- label: Estimated first-night attendance
  value: 35 people
- label: Filmmakers
  value: Auguste and Louis Lumière
- label: Notable film in program
  value: L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (The Arrival of a Train)
timeline:
- date: 1894-01-01
  title: Lumière brothers develop cinematograph
  description: Auguste and Louis Lumière, sons of a photographic plate manufacturer, patent and refine the Cinématographe—a portable camera, printer, and projector combined.
- date: 1895-12-28
  title: First paid public film screening
  description: The Lumière brothers present 10 short films to an audience of approximately 35 people in the basement salon of the Grand Café. The program includes L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, L'Usine Lumière à Lyon, and La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon. Admission is 1 franc.
- date: 1896-01-01
  title: Rapid expansion across Europe
  description: Within weeks, Lumière operators begin screening films in cities across France, Belgium, and beyond. The business model of traveling operators and permanent venues spreads rapidly.
- date: 1896-04-23
  title: First screening in London
  description: The Lumière Cinématographe arrives in the United Kingdom, screening at the Regent Street Polytechnic.
- date: 1896-06-01
  title: First screening in New York
  description: Lumière films begin showing in the United States, establishing cinema as a transatlantic medium.
- date: 1900-01-01
  title: Cinema becomes established industry
  description: Five years after the Grand Café screening, cinema has become a commercial reality across multiple continents, with competing producers, traveling exhibitors, and the first permanent theaters.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Motion_Picture_Unit"
  title: First Motion Picture Unit
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: "This screening didn't invent film—it invented filmgoing. The Lumière brothers' December 1895 event established the template for cinema as a commercial medium: a dark room, a paying audience, projected images. Within months, screenings spread across Europe and beyond, creating a new industry and visual language that would reshape culture for a century."
categories:
- tech-launch
- festival
taxonomy:
domain: cultural
eventTypes:
- movie_premiere
- festival
canonicalClasses:
- creation
- celebration
- transformation
impactRadius: global
velocity: cascading
predictability: scheduled
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: First public motion picture screening by the Lumière brothers, Paris, December 28, 1895. Cinema's birth as commercial medium.
wikidataQid: Q5453356
peoplesVoice:
- source: Auguste Lumière, Co-inventor and Lumière Brothers producer
  voiceType: developer
  context: Speaking immediately after the December 28, 1895 screening at the Grand Café in Paris, the first paid public film exhibition in history.
  excerpt: We have invented an apparatus which does the work of a thousand men - it seizes life itself as it passes. This is not a scientific curiosity but the beginning of a new art.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 92
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Lumière family correspondence and contemporary press interviews
  publishedAt: 1895-12-29
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Félix Mesguich, Lumière cameraman and screening witness
  voiceType: media
  context: As one of the first cameramen to operate the Cinématographe, Mesguich reported on the public's visceral reaction to the famous 'L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat' sequence.
  excerpt: When the train appeared on screen, the audience gasped and some women cried out in terror. They believed the engine would burst through the screen into the hall.
  sentimentLabel: shocked
  significance: 88
  attribution: Memoirs of Félix Mesguich, 'Les Lumière et autres' (1933)
  publishedAt: 1895-12-30
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Henri Rochefort, French journalist and critic
  voiceType: skeptic
  context: Writing for the Paris press in early January 1896, Rochefort questioned whether moving pictures could ever rival theatre or literature as serious art.
  excerpt: These shadows on a screen are amusing diversions for the masses, but they lack the soul, the interpretation, the grandeur of the living stage.
  sentimentLabel: dismissive
  significance: 62
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Contemporary French theatrical journals
  publishedAt: 1896-01-08
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Eugène Dupont, Parisian optical equipment merchant
  voiceType: industry
  context: Within weeks of the screening, equipment manufacturers scrambled to understand the commercial potential of cinema technology.
  excerpt: Every photographic studio in Paris will want one of these machines within the year. The demand will be extraordinary.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 71
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Trade journals and manufacturing records, January 1896
  publishedAt: 1896-01-15
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Adolphe Brisson, Le Figaro theatre critic
  voiceType: analyst
  context: Brisson reviewed the December 28 event for France's leading newspaper, attempting to contextualize the technical marvel within cultural history.
  excerpt: "FR: 'C'est une invention qui fixera le mouvement et la vie même, une révolution pour les arts et les sciences.' / EN: 'This invention captures movement and life itself - a revolution for art and science.'"
  sentimentLabel: supportive
  significance: 85
  attribution: Le Figaro, Paris, December 30, 1895
  publishedAt: 1895-12-30
  originalLanguage: fr
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260311144154/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Motion_Picture_Unit"
  capturedAt: 2026-03-11
  label: First Motion Picture Unit
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Motion_Picture_Unit"
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: Le Figaro
  publisherSlug: le-figaro
  headline: Une Invention Prodigieuse - Le Cinematographe Lumiere Projette des Images Animees
  publishedAt: 1895-12-29
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archives.lefigaro.fr
  excerpt: "FR: 'Une invention prodigieuse' / EN: 'A prodigious invention' - The Lumiere brothers' cinematograph has successfully projected moving photographic images before an astonished Parisian audience at the Grand Cafe on Boulevard des Capucines, marking an epoch-defining moment in the history of optical science and entertainment."
  significance: 88
  type: newspaper
  region: France
- publisher: The Times
  publisherSlug: the-times
  headline: Marvellous Photographic Illusion - French Invention Brings Motion to Still Pictures
  publishedAt: 1895-12-30
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - thetimes.co.uk/archive
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - The Times correspondent reports that French inventors have perfected a machine capable of photographing and projecting scenes of daily life in lifelike motion, suggesting applications in scientific study, historical record-keeping, and popular amusement.
  significance: 82
  type: newspaper
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: L'Illustration
  publisherSlug: l-illustration
  headline: Le Cinematographe Lumiere - Une Revolution de la Photographie
  publishedAt: 1896-01-11
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - gallica.bnf.fr
  excerpt: "FR: 'Une revolution de la photographie' / EN: 'A revolution in photography' - This prestigious illustrated journal documents the technical specifications and public reception of the Lumiere cinematograph, with woodcut engravings depicting the apparatus and audiences witnessing the miracle of animated photography."
  significance: 85
  type: magazine
  region: France
- publisher: The Scientific American
  publisherSlug: scientific-american
  headline: The Lumiere Cinematograph - A Triumph of Optical and Mechanical Engineering
  publishedAt: 1896-02-01
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - scientificamerican.com/archive
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - American scientific circles hail the French cinematograph as a landmark achievement in applied photography, with detailed analysis of its mechanical principles and speculation on potential uses in education, medicine, and industrial documentation.
  significance: 79
  type: magazine
  region: United States
- publisher: Neue Freie Presse
  publisherSlug: neue-freie-presse
  headline: Sensationelle Erfindung - Die Lumiere-Bruder zeigen bewegte Photographien
  publishedAt: 1896-01-15
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - anno.onb.ac.at
  excerpt: "DE: 'Sensationelle Erfindung' / EN: 'Sensational invention' - Vienna's leading newspaper reports that the French cinematograph, recently demonstrated in the Austrian capital, represents a watershed moment in visual technology, with audiences reportedly stunned by the verisimilitude of the projected images."
  significance: 76
  type: newspaper
  region: Austria
