1916: Movie Movie - The History of World Cinema

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			Australia

			– A federal entertainments tax is imposed. [MORE] [ADD]

			Austria

		30/11 -	Within three days of the funeral of Emperor Franz Joseph, 255 copies of the film are distributed across the country. [MORE] [ADD]

			– A. Kolowrat-Krakowsky builds a studio in Vienna's 19th district, Sievering. [MORE] [ADD]

			– The first Kinospiegel (film criticism) is published in a daily newspaper. [MORE] [ADD]

			– The first regulations regarding the safety of children and young people at the cinema are enforced. [MORE] [ADD]

			Azerbaijan

		14/5 -	Svetlov’s In the Realm of Oil and Millions premieres at the Biograph Theatre in Baku. [MORE] [ADD]


			Czechoslovakia

		20/10 -	Antonin Fenci’s debut directorial film, Zlate Srdecko (Heart of Gold) is released. [MORE] [ADD]

			Denmark

			– The Kino–Teatret at Christianshavn on Wildersgade opens. [MORE] [ADD]

			Finland

		Aut -	Ruling Russian authorities ban all film activity in the country. The ban will remain in place until the March 1917 Russian revolution. [MORE] [ADD]

			– Erik Erstlander opens the country’s first film studio for his Finlandia Film production company. [MORE] [ADD]

			France
		22/1 -	Leon Gaumont employs 30-year-old actor Jacques Feyder as a director. [MORE] [ADD]

		18/2 -	Foreign films begin to flood the French market as a result of a severe drop in the output of the domestic industry. [MORE] [ADD]

		29/3 -	The committee formed to promote the use of film for education purposes is appointed by decree in Paris. [MORE] [ADD]

		7/4 -	L’ecran, the first official journal of the French Union of Cinematographers, is published. [MORE] [ADD]

		22/4 -	In a Paris courtroom, two young girls claim that scenes they saw in a film inspired their crime of attempted murder. [MORE] [ADD]

		13/5 -	Alphonse Frank reopens the German-owned cinema Palais Rochechouart in Paris. [MORE] [ADD]

		17/5 -	Demands are made to ban the screening of “cinematographic performances which, in the guise of fantastic adventures, teach the most skilful means of robbing and killing” after a number of criminals claim to have been inspired by the film serial Mysteries of New York. [MORE] [ADD]

		18/5 -	Gaumont release Le Pied qui etreint. A parody of Louis Feuillade’s Les Vampires, it is directed by Jacques Feyder and stars Andre Roanne, Georges Biscot and Musidora. [MORE] [ADD]

		30/6 -	The tenth and final episode of Les Vampires is released. [MORE] [ADD]

		1/7 -	Georges-Michel Coissac publishes an article in Cine-Journal “moralising about the cinema and calling for a banning of vulgarity on the screen". [MORE] [ADD]

		5/9 -	Following the completion of his Le droit a la vie, Abel Gance signs a 10-picture deal with Louis Nalpas, head of Film d’Arte. Gance will receive 1,500 francs for each film. [MORE] [ADD]

		30/9 -	Comedian Max Linder sails for America to replace Charlie Chaplin at Essanay following horrendous war traumas when, in addition to being stricken by pneumonia, he suffered gas poisoning and a serious breakdown. He will earn $5,000 per week for the duration of the contract, during which he is expected to shoot 12 films. [MORE] [ADD]

		16/12 -	The press receive a screening of the first episodes of Louis Feuilade’s new serial, Judex, starring Musidora, Yvette Andreyor and Rene Creste. [MORE] [ADD]

Georgia

- Tsutsunava’s Christine, the country’s first full-length feature, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

Germany

31/10 -	Deputy Gustav Streseman calls for a parliamentary debate on the importation of foreign films. All foreign films – other than Danish – are subsequently banned. [MORE] [ADD]

	– The German High Command establishes Bild & Film Amt (BUFA) – the Office of Photography & Film – in an attempt to influence public opinion. [MORE] [ADD]

	– Alfred Hugenberg founds Deutsche Lichtspiel-Gessellschaft e. V (DLG, German Motion Picture Company). [MORE] [ADD]

	Great Britain

31/3 -	The Triangle Film Company assumes control of 882 cinemas within the block booking system. [MORE] [ADD]

	– An entertainment tax is imposed. [MORE] [ADD]

	Holland

	– Cinema employees found the Nederlandse Bond voor Theater– en Bioscooppersoneel (The Dutch Union for Theatre and Cinema employees). [MORE] [ADD]

	Hungary

	– The Star film production company is formed. [MORE] [ADD]

	India

	– R. Nataraja Mudaliar makes Keechak Vadha, the first full length South Indian film. [MORE] [ADD]

	Iran

	– Khan-baba Khan Mo'tazedi returns to Iran after studying engineering in Paris. Having worked in a film company, Mo’tazedi buys film equipment and becomes a court photographer. [MORE] [ADD]

	Italy

11/9 -	Filippo Tommaso Marinetti publishes his manifesto called The Futuristic Cinema. [MORE] [ADD]

	New Zealand

	– The government passes a Cinematograph Film Censor Act – focusing particularly on war subjects. [MORE] [ADD]

	Norway

	– The Christiana Film Company is established. [MORE] [ADD]

	Sweden

14/8 -	Mauritz Stiller’s Karlek och Journalistik (Love and Journalism), the first domestic comedy, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

	Syria

	– The country's first film theatre, called Janaq Qala'at in commemoration of a Turkish military victory over the British, opens in Damascus on the site which now houses the parliament building. Its premiere is attended by Jamal Pasha, the Turkish ruler of Syria, who was treated to a screening of German films. Unfortunately, the theatre burnt down a month later. [MORE] [ADD]

	USA

25/2 -	Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse Discuss the Letter G, the first in the cartoon series of George Herriman’s comic strip character, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

26/2 -	Charlie Chaplin signs a new one-year contract with Mutual. He will receive $10,000 per week in addition to a sum of $150,000 upon signing, making him the world’s highest paid film star. [MORE] [ADD]

12/3 -	The Habit of Happiness, starring Douglas Fairbanks and directed by Allan Dwan, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

27/3 -	Actress Gloria Swanson marries character actor Wallace Beery. [MORE] [ADD]

27/3 -	Mutual Film Corporation equips The Lone Star studios to make Chaplin films. [MORE] [ADD]

17/4 -	Thomas Ince’s pacifist epic Civilisation is released. Inspired by J Stuart Blackton’s Battle Cry of Peace, the ten-reel film is produced by Triangle. [MORE] [ADD]

April -	Cowboy star William S. Hart’s popularity grows due to a series of films made at Triangle. [MORE] [ADD]

15/5 -	The Floorwalker, Charlie Chaplin’s first film for Mutual, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

16/6 -	The Jesse Lasky Feature Play Co. and Famous Players merge to form Famous Players-Lasky Corporation with Adolph Zukor as company president. [MORE] [ADD]

24/6 -	Charlie Chaplin loses his legal battle with Essanay over their reworking of his Charlie Chaplin’s Burlesque on Carmen. Essanay added scenes deleted by Chaplin and added additional scenes (directed by Lee Taylor) featuring Ben Turpin. Chaplin claimed his rights as an author had been infringed. [MORE] [ADD]

1/8 -	Comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle signs a contract for producer Joseph M. Schenck which gives him full artistic control over the Comique Film Corporation. Arbuckle will earn $7,000 per week plus 25% of profits. Paramount will finance and distribute the films. [MORE] [ADD]

5/8 -	A selected audience is invited to the screening of D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance at Riverside, California. Featuring, in its Babylon sequence, the largest backdrop to date, the movie is another made on the grand scale. Griffith went into debt to complete filming when his backers faltered. The film, however, is not a popular commercial success, largely due to its groundbreaking structure in which four separate tales are intertwined. [MORE] [ADD]

15/8 -	The Artcraft Pictures Corporation is formed by Paramount to distribute Mary Pickford films. [MORE] [ADD]

14/9 -	Samuel Goldfish resigns as administrative president of Famous Players-Lasky after a series of disagreements with company President Adolph Zukor. [MORE] [ADD]

Sept -	Vitagraph buys out Lubin, Selig and Essanay, its partners in VLSE. It also acquires the Kalem production company. [MORE] [ADD]

12/11 -	Alla Nazimova makes her film debut in Herbert Brenon’s pacifist short, War Brides. [MORE] [ADD]

9/12 -	Charlie Chaplin wins a court case to prevent the publishing of an unauthorised biography, Charlie Chaplin’s Own Story. [MORE] [ADD]

16/12 -	Samuel Goldfish forms a new production company, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, with Broadway producers Edgar and Arch Selwyn. Goldfish will soon take the name of Goldwyn as his own. [MORE] [ADD]

	– The world’s first known ‘twin cinema’ opens at 1540 Chene Street, Detroit. Originally designed by architect C. Howard Crane in 1913, it is enlarged and converted into two auditoria by architect George D. Hurlburt. [MORE] [ADD]

	– The National Committee for Better Films is formed. Its aim is to ‘both liberate and formulate thought regarding motion pictures, their uses and possibilities, and the best way to achieve a free screen of the most desirable kind.’ [MORE] [ADD]

	– William Fox leases a studio in Edendale, Los Angeles. [MORE] [ADD]

	– The Society of Motion Picture Engineers (SMPE) is formed. [MORE] [ADD]

	– German-born Harvard psychologist Hugo Munsterburg carries out a study on the effects on audiences of watching films entitled The Photoplay: a Psychological Study. [MORE] [ADD]

	– Siegmund Lubin’s Los Angeles and Coronado studios are closed, while creditors claim his Lubinville and Betzwood studios. [MORE] [ADD]

	– Universal sets up Hollywood’s first Indian agency. [MORE] [ADD]