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1918

Austria 

– Sascha-Film became the agent of Paramount in Austria [MORE] [ADD]

– The government establishes the Exhibits and Publicity Bureau to centralise promotional film production. [MORE] [ADD]

Czechoslovakia

Suzanne Marwille makes her screen debut in Vaclav Binovec’s Demon Rodu Halkenu. [MORE] [ADD]

Denmark 

Nordisk Film Company suffers financial difficulties as a result of competition from the recently formed Germany production company, Ufa. [MORE] [ADD]

– Sophus Madsen builds a new Palace Theatre on the grounds of the old theatre.  The first film screened in the new theatre is D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. [MORE] [ADD]

Egypt

Le Comptoir, Gaumont’s film-hire service, enters into a contract with America's Paramount Pictures under which they gain exclusive rights to their productions. [MORE] [ADD]

Eclipse release Un Roman d’amour et d’aventures, starring Sacha Guitry, Yvonne Printemps and Fred Wright.   Rene Hervil and Louis Mercanton co-direct. [MORE] [ADD]

French producers stage a strike that is due to last until 23^rd May in protest at the difficulties encountered in importing unexposed reels and foreign films. [MORE] [ADD]

Abel Gance starts filming J’Accuse for Pathe.   It is to be the first in a trilogy of films about war and peace.   Romuald Joube and Severin-Mars star. [MORE] [ADD]

While filming 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for the Jules Verne Company, an aviator named Rouit drowns performing a stunt which requires him to dive into a whirlpool. [MORE] [ADD]

Addressing the Cinema Employers Federation in Paris, Charles Pathe proposes that a percentage of takings replace the existing film rental system.   He also calls for heavy import taxes on foreign films. [MORE] [ADD]

Andre Antoine leaves France for Italy to film Israel for Tiber Film. [MORE] [ADD]

Abel Gance’s La Dixieme Symphonie is released to mixed reviews. [MORE] [ADD]

Pathe split into two companies.   The Sound Reproduction Machine Company is to be run by Emile Pathe , while brother Charles will control the Pathe-Cinema Company. [MORE] [ADD]

Ufa assumes control of all cinemas previously owned by the Danish company Nordisk. [MORE] [ADD]

The Decla Film Company, formed by Erich Pommer with financing from French film company Eclair, becomes wholly German after buying all stocks. [MORE] [ADD]

The Rat der Volksbeauftragten (Council of the People's Representatives) abolish state censorship. [MORE] [ADD]

Ernst Lubitsch’s second feature film, Carmen, is released in Berlin.   The film stars Pola Negri and Harry Liedtke, both of whom starred in his first feature, Die Augen der Mumie Ma, earlier in the year. [MORE] [ADD]

– The Nederlandse Bond voor Theater– en Bioscooppersoneel (The Dutch Union for Theatre and Cinema employees) wins a raise of 20% for its members. [MORE] [ADD]

– Cinema owners form their own union, the Bond van Exploitanten van Nederlandsche Bioscooptheaters (Union of Dutch Cinema Owners). [MORE] [ADD]

– S N Patankar directs the first Indian serial, the four-part Ram Vanwas (The Exile of Shree Rama) [MORE] [ADD]

– Censorship comes to India when the Cinematograph Act comes into effect. [MORE] [ADD]

– The Kohinoor Film Co. is founded. [MORE] [ADD]

– Dadasaheb Phalke’s Hindustan Cinema Films Co. is founded. [MORE] [ADD]

- The first Bengalee owned film company, Indo British Film Co., is opened by Dhirendra Nath Ganguly. [MORE] [ADD]

The Soviet Cinema Committee begin filming Signal, the first state-produced fiction film.   Aleksandr Arkatov directs from a story by Vladimir Mikhailovich Garshin. [MORE] [ADD]

Lenin’s newly installed government harnesses the power of film to spread its propagandistic message with the maiden journey of its propaganda train.  The train, equipped with projector equipment and darkroom is despatched to the Kazan region to film the struggles of the civil war in an attempt to dispel counter-revolutionary propaganda by the Bolsheviks. [MORE] [ADD]

Switzerland

– Josef Lange founds Iris Film in Zurich. [MORE] [ADD]

– Weissman-Emelka open offices in Zurich. [MORE] [ADD]

Syria 

– Following the burning of the country's first cinema in 1916, Zahrat Dimashq, the country's second cinema, is opened by Salo, who operated the first cinema's machines, and the proprietor of the cafe on which the cinema was built. [MORE] [ADD]

The Technicolor Film Corporation complete filming of The Gulf Between, the first two-strip film production. [MORE] [ADD]

Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes receives his first screen depiction, thanks to Elmo Lincoln, who is directed by Scott Sidney and partnered by Enid Markey as Jane. [MORE] [ADD]

The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation acquires Paramount Pictures. [MORE] [ADD]

D. W. Griffith is elected President of the Motion Picture War Service Association which sells war bonds to aid the American war effort. [MORE] [ADD]

Playmates, a short film directed by Charley Chase for King Bee Productions, is released.   The film stars Chase, Billy West, and Oliver ‘Babe’ Hardy. [MORE] [ADD]

The International Film Service and Educational Pictures release Crabs iss Crabs, an animation of the “Katzenjammer Kids” comic strip.   Gregory La Cava directs. [MORE] [ADD]

John ‘Jack’ Ford directs Harry Carey as Cheyenne Harry for the ninth time in Hell Bent. [MORE] [ADD]

Winsor McCay’s 12-minute The Sinking of the Lusitania, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

The Romance of Tarzan, a sequel to Tarzan of the Apes which was released earlier in the year, is released.   Directed by Wilfred Lucas, the film re-unites its predecessor’s co-stars. [MORE] [ADD]

Charlie Chaplin marries 16-year-old actress Mildred Harris.   As a result, Louis B. Mayer offers Harris a six-film, $50,000 contract [MORE] [ADD]

Mary Pickford signs a three-film deal with First National after making her name in 34 films for Adolph Zukor.   The deal is worth $250,000 per film plus a $150,000 advance to the actress. [MORE] [ADD]

Cecil B. DeMille completes filming of his second version in four years of his first feature, The Squaw Man.   Elliott Dexter and Katherine McDonald star. [MORE] [ADD]

1918 sees an influx of foreign talent to Hollywood.   Directors working in America’s film capital by the end of the year include Maurice Tourneur, Emile Chautard, Leonce Perret, and Louis Gasnier. [MORE] [ADD]

– America replaces Great Britain as the chief importer of movies to South America. [MORE] [ADD]

– The Louis B. Mayer Pictures Company is incorporated. [MORE] [ADD]

– Samuel Goldfish changes his name to Samuel Goldwyn. [MORE] [ADD]

– Selig Polyscope stops production. [MORE] [ADD]

– The MPPC’s appeal against the court’s 1916 decision is dismissed. [MORE] [ADD]

– Thomas Edison sells its studio to the Lincoln & Parker Film Company, bringing to an end his company’s involvement in film production. [MORE] [ADD]

– The film business is declared an ‘essential industry’ by the US government under wartime legislation. [MORE] [ADD]

– Rudolph Valentino gets his first major film role as Count Roberto di San Fraccini in The Married Virgin. [MORE] [ADD]