1909 in film
The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.
Events
- Carl Laemmle founds the Independent Moving Pictures Company.
- Selig Polyscope Company establish the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles in Edendale, Los Angeles.
- The New York Motion Picture Company is founded and also open a film studio in Edendale. The studio is later used by Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and then Mascot Pictures, which become part of Republic Pictures.
- February 4 – The Paris Film Congress begins, an attempt by leading European producers to form a cartel similar to that of the Motion Picture Patents Company in the United States.
- February 26 – Kinemacolor is shown to the public for the first time in the Palace Theatre in London.
- March 16 – Charles Urban forms the Natural Color Kinematograph Company.
- May 12 – Mr. Flip is released, the first film to feature someone being hit in the face with a pie.
- May 23 – The first news cinema, The Daily Bioscope, opens in London.
- June 17 – In the Sultan's Power, directed by Francis Boggs, is the first film ever completely made in Los Angeles, California.
- October 25 – IMP release their first film, Hiawatha, based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
- November 5 - A Nature Movie by Arthur C. Pillsbury using film to explore the wonders of Yosemite. This first showing was for John Muir, a friend and associate of Pillsbury. Included was footage of the Hetch Hetchy. This film was then shown for the 1910 season at the Pillsbury Studio in Yosemite, advertised using postcards.
- December 2 – Matsunosuke Onoe, who will become the first superstar of Japanese cinema, appears in his first film, Goban Tadanobu.
- December 20 – James Joyce opens the Volta Cinematograph, the first cinema in Dublin.
Notable films
Films produced in the United States unless stated otherwiseA
- The Airship Destroyer, sci-fi trick film directed by Walter R. Booth –
- At the Altar, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company
C
- A Corner in Wheat, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company
- The Country Doctor, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mary Pickford
- The Cowboy Millionaire, western directed by Francis Boggs and Otis Turner, starring Tom Mix
- The Cricket on the Hearth, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Owen Moore; based on the 1845 novella by Charles Dickens
- The Curtain Pole, comedy directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mack Sennett and Florence Lawrence
D
- The Diabolic Tenant, trick film directed by and starring Georges Méliès for Star Film –
- A Drunkard's Reformation, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company
E
- Edgar Allen Poe, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Herbert Yost
G
- The Golden Louis, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company
H
- The Hessian Renegades, war film directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Owen Moore
L
- Lady Helen's Escapade, comedy directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Florence Lawrence
- The Life of Moses, epic directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios
- The Lonely Villa, crime drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford
M
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, comedy directed by Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios; based on the 16th-century play by William Shakespeare
- Moscow Clad in Snow, documentary directed by Joseph-Louis Mundwiller for Pathé-Frères –
- Mr. Flip, comedy directed by Broncho Billy Anderson for Essanay Studios, starring Ben Turpin
N
- Nero, or the Fall of Rome, historical epic directed by Luigi Maggi and Arturo Ambrosio for Ambrosio Film –
O
- Oliver Twist, drama directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios; based on the 1838 novel by Charles Dickens
P
- Princess Nicotine; or, the Smoke Fairy, trick film directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios
R
- The Red Man's View, western directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Owen Moore
- Resurrection, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Florence Lawrence; based on the 1899 novel by Leo Tolstoy
S
- Slippery Jim, trick film directed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathe-Freres –
- The Spider and the Butterfly, trick film directed by and starring Georges Méliès for Star Film –
T
- Theodore Roosevelt in Africa, documentary directed by Cherry Kearton
- Those Awful Hats, comedy directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mack Sennett
- A Trap for Santa Claus, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Henry B. Walthall
V
- The Voice of the Violin, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company
W
- Whimsical Illusions, trick film directed by and starring Georges Méliès for Star Film –
Births
- January 1 – Dana Andrews, actor
- January 3 – Victor Borge, musician, actor
- January 8 - Willy Millowitsch, actor
- January 15 – Gene Krupa, musician, actor
- January 22 – Ann Sothern, actress
- January 24 – Ann Todd, actress
- January 29 – Alan Marshal, actor
- February 2 – Frank Albertson, actor
- February 6 – Aino Talvi, Estonian actress
- February 9
- *Carmen Miranda, singer, actress
- *Heather Angel, actress
- February 11
- *Max Baer – boxer, actor
- *Joseph L. Mankiewicz – director, screenwriter, producer
- February 16
- *Hugh Beaumont, actor, director, writer
- *Jeffrey Lynn, actor
- March 19 – Louis Hayward, actor
- March 26 – Chips Rafferty, actor
- April 4 – Bobby Connelly, child actor
- April 22– Ralph Byrd, actor
- April 29 – Tom Ewell, actor
- May 4 – Howard Da Silva, actor, director
- May 15 – James Mason, actor
- May 16 – Margaret Sullavan, actress
- May 24 – Victoria Hopper, Canadian-born British actress and singer
- May 30 – Benny Goodman, musician, actor
- June 7 – Jessica Tandy, actress
- June 8 – Robert Carson, actor
- June 14 – Burl Ives, actor
- June 20 – Errol Flynn, actor
- June 26- Wolfgang Reitherman, director, producer, animator
- July 1 – Madge Evans, actress
- July 11
- *Irene Hervey, actress
- *John 'Dusty' King, actor, singer
- July 12 – Curly Joe DeRita, actor
- July 23 – Helen Martin, American actress
- July 24 - Sydney Bromley, English character actor
- August 25
- *Ruby Keeler, singer, actress
- *Michael Rennie, actor
- August 26 – Jim Davis, American actor
- September 7 – Elia Kazan, director
- September 27 - Amerigo Tot, Hungarian actor
- October 6 – Robert Carson, screenwriter
- October 20 – Carla Laemmle, actress
- October 29 – Douglass Montgomery, actor
- November 11 – Robert Ryan, actor
- November 26 – Frances Dee, actress
- December 9 – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., actor
- December 12 – Karen Morley, actress
- December 20 – Diane Ellis, actress
- December 22 - Patricia Hayes, English character actress
Deaths
- January 27 – Benoît-Constant Coquelin, actor, Cyrano de Bergerac
- September 4 – Clyde Fitch, author & playwright whose works have been adapted into films.
Film debuts
- Fatty Arbuckle – Ben's Kid
- Ethel Clayton – Justified
- Dolores Costello – A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Helene Costello – Les Misérables
- Marie Dressler – Marie Dressler
- Francis Ford – The Stolen Wireless
- Annette Kellerman – The Bride of Lammermoor: A Tragedy of Bonnie Scotland
- James Kirkwood – The Heart of an Outlaw
- Florence La Badie – The Politician's Love Story
- Tom Mix – The Cowboy Millionaire
- Mary Pickford – Mrs. Jones Entertains
- Billy Quirk – The Heart of an Outlaw
- William A. Russell – Tag Day
- William Stowell – The Cowboy Millionaire
- Blanche Sweet – A Man with Three Wives
- Rose Tapley – The Way of the Cross
- Clara Kimball Young – Washington Under the American Flag