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The History of Cinema: 1946

Afghanistan - Italy

Afghanistan

– Ishq Wa Dosti (Love and Friendship), directed by Reshid Latif, is the first Afghan film production (co-produced with an Indian company). [ADD]

Austria

– The Rosenhuegel-Studios become a USIA operation under the occupying Soviet Administration. [ADD]

Canada

Feb -

John Grierson testifies before the Royal Commission on Espionage in Government Service amidst allegations of communist spies within the Film Board.   Shortly after, the NFB loses the right to make films for the Department of National Defence. [ADD]

China

– The Central Film Bureau is established to control all aspects of Chinese film production, distribution and exhibition. [ADD]

Congo

23/9 -

The Congolese Center for Catholic Action Cinema is established to produce films intended to convert Africans to Christianity. [ADD]

Croatia

– The Croatia Film Company is established. [ADD]

Czech Republic

– A film festival takes place at Mariánske Lazne.   In future it will be moved to Karlovy Vary, and become the country’s largest film festival. [ADD]

Denmark

– Arthur Elton goes to Denmark to advise on the production of a series of documentary films under the banner title of Social Denmark. [ADD]

East Germany

4/5 -

Director Wolfgang Staudte begins work on Die Mörder sind unter uns (Murderers Among Us) at the newly-opened Defa studio. [ADD]

17/5 -

The Defa film production company is founded in the Soviet sector of Berlin-Babelsberg. [ADD]

15/10 -

Die Mörder sind unter uns (Murderers Among Us), directed by Wolfgang Staudte, is the first film to be released by the new East German-Soviet film company Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (Defa).   Hildegarde Knef stars as a young Jewish girl in love with a battle-scarred doctor. [ADD]

West Germany

12/10 -

Filmaufbau GmbH begins production in Goettingen after receiving its production licence from the British Authorities [ADD]

– Erich Pommer is appointed Film Production Control Officer with the remit to rebuild the German film industry during the process of national reconstruction [ADD]

– Following the Nazi surrender, US officer and director Billy Wilder is sent to Bad Homburg to report on the reconstruction of the German film industry. [ADD]

– Arthur Brauner founds the CCC production company in West Berlin, but must wait until the spring of 1949 to receive his licence. [ADD]

India

– Khwaja Ahmad Abbas’s Dharti Ke Lal, the first film produced by The Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), is released. [ADD]

– Information Films of India is disbanded. [ADD]

– Dev Anand makes his film debut in P. L. Santoshi’s Hum Ek Hain. [ADD]

Italy

1/9 -

After a three-year break, the Mostra (Venice Film Festival) is staged once more in the Lido at Venice. [ADD]

22/12 -

The premiere of Vittorio De Sica's Sciuscia (Shoeshine) takes place.   Shot largely on location, the film stars Rinaldo Smordoni and Franco Interlengi as the impoverished shoeshine boys plying their trade in Rome. [ADD]

Other Key Films of 1946

Argentina

El Angel desnudo (Carlos Hugo Christensen) [ADD]

Cyprus

Cyprus is an Island (Ralph Keene) [ADD]

Denmark

Det gælder din Frihed (Theodor Christensen) [ADD]

Greece

Papoutsi apo ton topo sou (Alekos Sakellarios) [ADD]

India

Dr. Kotnis ki Amar Kahani (Rajaram Vankudre Shantaram) [ADD]

Ranakdevi (V. M. Vyas) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1946