1897 in film

Events

• January 1 - The first set of films was shown in the Philippines for the first time using 60 mm Gaumont Chrono-photograph projector at the Salon de Pertierra No. 12 Escolta, Manila. The first film shown was Espectaculo Scientifico and followed by other four movies, namely, Un Homme Au Chapeau , Une scène de danse japonnaise , Les Boxers , and La Place de L' Opéra .
• January 28 – The first Venezuelan-made films are screened at the Baralt Theatre in Maracaibo, two locally made actuality shorts, Un célebre especialista sacando muelas en el gran Hotel Europa and Muchachos bañándose en la laguna de Maracaibo.
• May 4 – During a film screening at the Charity Bazaar in Paris, a curtain catches on fire from the ether used to fuel the projector lamp. The fire spreads and becomes catastrophic, ultimately resulting in 126 deaths.
• June 20 – Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee procession filmed.
• The American Vitagraph Company is founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in Brooklyn.
• Mitchell and Kenyon go into a film-making partnership at Blackburn in the north of England.
• Enoch J. Rector, develops a 63 mm film format called Veriscope, which The Veriscope Company of New York City films The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight in Carson City, Nevada, on St. Patrick's Day,, March 17, film released in May
• Thomas Henry Blair develops a 48 mm film format called Viventoscope.

Films released in 1897

Debut

• Marshall P. Wilder