Celebrating National Short Film Day

Dec 29, 2021

National Short Film Day was created to honour and celebrate the birth of “film.” Did you know that on this day in 1895, The Lumiere Brothers premiered their collection of short films in front of a public audience for the very first time. 33 guests joined Auguste and Louis at the Grand Cafe in Paris, France, to view the first ever series of 10 short films.Although each film was only about 50 seconds long, each of them truly captivated the audience since there had never been anything like it before.

In fact, their first projector was called the “Cinematographe” (based off of the Kinetoscope concept) and is where we derived the word “cinema!” The first ever motion picture captured by the brothers was titled “Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory” and is the earliest known video recording. Yes, that’s right, you have the Lumiere Brothers to thank for all of your favourite car, racing, and automotive blockbusters!

The brothers captured their movies using their Lumiere apparatus: a single camera used for photography and projecting moving images at just 16 frames per second. They used this device to capture daily life in France, creating more than 40 films in 1896 alone! In addition, they helped create the first newsreels and documentaries. They even sent a crew of cameramen across the globe to capture additional footage as well as show their work to new audiences! One might be able to call them the great great great grandfathers of Youtube and TikTok, if you will.

We’ve come a long way since then from short films to major motion pictures and blockbuster films, and the industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. We can even watch movies on the road in our car now! Pretty cool, if we may say so.

If you’re craving more Short Film content, we recommend browsing streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Each of these services is host to a litany of short films in multiple genres! In addition, you can also find incredible content for free on sites like YouTube or Vimeo, and even TikTok!