1900 Salvation Army's Soldiers of the Cross
Australia's Salvation Army produces an ambitious presentation of film and slides in Soldiers of the Cross

1902 Pathé studio near Paris
Charles Pathé develops film facilities capable of mass production, in Vincennes near Paris

1902 Journey to the Moon on screeen
French film pioneer Georges Méliès uses trick effects for his film Journey to the Moon

1903 The Great Train Robbery
Edwin S. Porter directs The Great Train Robbery, providing a big commercial success for Thomas Edison's film company

1906 Pathé opens cinema
Charles Pathé opens the first purpose-built luxury cinema, the Omnia-Pathé, in Paris

1906 First animated cartoon
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, created by New Yorker J. Stuart Blackton, introduces the concept of the animated cartoon

1906 Kelly Gang on screen
The Story of the Kelly Gang, produced in Australia, is the first feature-length film, with a running time of nearly an hour

1908 Horror movie of Jekyll and Hyde
The Polyscope Film Company releases the first horror movie, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, filmed from a popular stage production

1908 Cellophane
Swiss chemist Jacques Brandenberger patents cellophane, a flexible transparent film made from cellulose

1909 Mary Pickford appears on screen
Mary Pickford begins her film career at sixteen, when she is hired by D.W. Griffith

1909 First film studio in Los Angeles
The Selig Polyscope Company sets up the first film studio in the Los Angeles region, at Edendale

1910 First film shot in Hollywood
D.W. Griffith directs In Old California, the first film shot in the California village of Hollywood

1911 First film studio in Hollywood
The Nestor Film Company opens the first film studio in Hollywood, on Sunset Boulevard

1912 Gish sisters on screen
Lillian and Dorothy Gish make their screen debut with the Biograph Company

1912 Keystone Kops
Mack Sennett sets up the Keystone studio in California, soon to be famous for the knockabout farce of the Keystone Kops

1913 De Mille and Goldwyn in joint venture
Cecil B. de Mille, Jesse Lasky and Sam Goldwyn join forces to form a film production company

1914 Chaplin appears as the tramp
Charlie Chaplin introduces his most famous character, the little tramp, in Kid Auto Races at Venice

1915 The Birth of a Nation
D.W. Griffith's epic film The Birth of a Nation has its premiere in New York

1915 Australia's Sentimental Bloke
Australian author C.J. Dennis creates the Sentimental Bloke, featuring first in a book of poems and four years later in a film

1915 Chaplin's The Tramp
Charlie Chaplin makes The Tramp, giving prominence to the famous character he launched the previous year in Kid Auto Races at Venice

1916 Intolerance
In his ground-breaking film Intolerance D.W. Griffith intercuts four parallel stories from different historical periods

1917 Harold Lloyd adopts familiar props
Silent film comedian Harold Lloyd adopts the glasses and the straw hat that become his familiar props

1917 Buster Keaton's screen debut
Comedian Buster Keaton makes his first appearance in a film, The Butcher Boy

1919 Broken Blossoms
Lillian Gish stars as a Cockney girl in D.W. Griffith's inter-racial film romance Broken Blossoms, set in London's slums

1919 Hollywood heavyweights form United Artists
The actors Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin establish United Artists with the director D.W. Griffith

1920 The Mark of Zorro
Douglas Fairbanks makes the first of his swashbuckling adventure movies, The Mark of Zorro

1920 Pickford and Fairbanks marry
The marriage of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks is a Hollywood sensation after a three-year affair

1921 Four Horsemen and Sheik
Italian sex symbol Rudolph Valentino has two sensational hits within the same year, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and The Sheik

1922 Nanook of the North
Robert J. Flaherty lives with the Inuit in the Arctic to make his dramatized documentary Nanook of the North

1922 Lubitsch goes to Hollywood
German film director Ernst Lubitsch moves to Hollywood, at the request of Mary Pickford

1924 Marx Brothers on Broadway
The Marx Brothers (at this stage Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Gummo) make their Broadway debut with the show I'll Say She Is

1924 Von Stroheim's Greed
Erich von Stroheim completes Greed, his epic silent film of ferociously competitive acquisition in turn-of-the-century San Francisco

1925 The Gold Rush
Charlie Chaplin makes The Gold Rush, involving his little tramp in the horrors of wintry Alaska

1925 Battleship Potemkin
The Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein completes his film about the 1905 revolution, The Battleship Potemkin

1925 Garbo arrives in Hollywood
Film actress Greta Garbo and her director Maurits Stiller move from Sweden to Hollywood

1926 First movie with a sound track
Don Juan, starring John Barrymore, has a synchronized musical score, making it the earliest example of a film with a sound track

1927 Clara Bow in It
Clara Bow stars in It, the silent film that gives her her famous nickname – the 'It' Girl

1927 Fritz Lang's Metropolis
Austrian director Fritz Lang creates a wildly ambitious silent film, Metropolis, the commercial failure of which bankrupts its studio

1927 The Jazz Singer
Although not the first film with synchronized sound, The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson in the title role does much to popularize the 'talkies'

1927 Laurel and Hardy team up
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star together for the first time in the silent film Duck Soup

1928 Un Chien andalou
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali make Un Chien andalou, a surrealist film specifically designed to shock

1928 Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse makes his first appearance in Walt Disney's short animated film Steamboat Willie

1929 Crawford and Fairbanks marry
Hollywood stars Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr marry

1929 Hitchcock's Blackmail
Alfred Hitchcock directs Blackmail, the first British talkie, with a climax on the roof of the British Museum

1929 Marx Brothers on film
The Marx Brothers (now Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo) make their Hollywood debut with The Cocoanuts

1930 Sous les Toits de Paris
René Clair blends satire and surrealism in his film Sous les Toits de Paris, a dark comedy about a Parisian street singer

1930 The Blue Angel
Joseph von Sternberg directs Marlene Dietrich in the film The Blue Angel, shot in both German and English, making her an immediate international star

1930 Will H. Hays is censor
The Hays Code sets exacting standards of public decency in US movies

1930 Harlow in Hell's Angels
18-year-old Jean Harlow is a sensation in Hell's Angels, directed by Howard Hughes

1930 Gabin's first film
French actor Jean Gabin makes his screen debut in Chacun sa Chance

1930 All Quiet on the Western Front on screen
Lewis Milestone makes a powerful film of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front, published in the previous year

1930 Little Caesar
Edward G. Robinson gives a chilling portrayal of a gangster loosely based on Al Capone in the film Little Caesar

1930 Greta Garbo in Anna Christie
'Garbo talks' and breaks box office records in her first sound film, Anna Christie, directed by Clarence Brown

1930 Busby Berkeley in Hollywood
US choreographer Busby Berkeley moves to Hollywood to provide the first of his famous dance spectaculars, in Whoopee

1931 Bette Davis makes screen debut
US actress Bette Davis moves to Hollywood and appears in her first film, The Bad Sister

1931 Cagney plays his first gangster
US film star James Cagney has a great success in the first of his many gangster roles, in The Public Enemy

1931 City Lights
Charlie Chaplin makes City Lights, in which the tramp befriends and helps a blind flower girl

1931 Frankenstein on screen
Boris Karloff gives a touching portrayal of the monster created by Dr Frankenstein, in the first of several screen performances in the role

1932 Mae West's first film
Mae West stars alongside George Raft in her first film, Night after Night

1932 Trouble in Paradise
Ernst Lubitsch has a great success with Trouble in Paradise, a Hollywood comedy about villainy and romance in Paris

1932 First Tarzan talkie
Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan star as Tarzan and Jane in Tarzan the Ape Man, the first of countless Tarzan talkies

1933 42nd Street
Lloyd Bacon directs 42nd Street, a classic backstage movie about putting a musical comedy on Broadway

1933 Private Life of Henry VIII
Alexander Korda directs Charles Laughton in the film The Private Life of Henry VIII

1933 Hepburn wins first Oscar
US actress Katherine Hepburn wins the first of four Oscars in only her second film, Morning Glory

1933 Flying Down to Rio
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance together for the first time on film, in Flying Down to Rio

1933 King Kong
King Kong, an enduringly successful horror film, is based on a story by Edgar Wallace

1933 Duck Soup
The Marx Brothers make their last film as a foursome, Duck Soup, with Zeppo still in the team

1933 Mae West picks Cary Grant
Mae West gives Cary Grant his big break, choosing him as her co-star in She Done Him Wrong

1933 Testament of Dr Mabuse
Fritz Lang's film The Testament of Dr Mabuse is banned in Germany because of implicit criticism of Nazi thugs

1933 Rank gets into films
J. Arthur Rank founds the Religious Film Society to make films in Britain that will bring people to Christianity

1934 Riefenstahl films Nuremberg rally
German photographer Leni Riefenstahl glorifies Hitler and the Nuremberg rally in her film Triumph of the Will

1934 Shirley Temple is a star
6-year-old Shirley Temple wins instant fame after starring in Stand up and Cheer

1935 Top Hat
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers have one of their greatest successes dancing in their fourth film together, Top Hat

1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
Frank Lloyd directs Charles Laughton and Clark Gable in a dramatic account of the famous mutiny on the Bounty

1935 A Night at the Opera
In A Night at the Opera the Marx Brothers make the first of their films as the famous threesome, Groucho, Harpo and Chico

1936 Modern Times
In Modern Times, the last film featuring the little tramp, Charlie Chaplin sets his character in a mechanistic, impersonal world

1936 Robeson's 'Ol' Man River'
Paul Robeson sings 'Ol' Man River' in the film of Jerome Kern's Showboat

1936 Korda's Things to Come
Alexander Korda's bleakly visionary film Things to Come is based on the H.G. Wells novel of 1933

1937 La Grande Illusion
French film director Jean Renoir makes La Grande Illusion, set in World War I

1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first animated feature film

1938 Alexander Nevsky
Russian film-maker Sergei Eisenstein directs Alexander Nevsky, with music by Prokofiev

1939 Wizard of Oz on screen
Victor Fleming directs 17-year-old Judy Garland in the film of the famous musical The Wizard of Oz

1939 Ninotchka
Ninotchka, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, is another great success for the Swedish film star Greta Garbo

1939 Gone with the Wind on screen
Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh star in Gone with the Wind, based on Margaret Mitchell's novel

1939 Stagecoach
John Ford directs John Wayne in the film Stagecoach

1940 Warsaw Concerto
Richard Addinsell writes the Warsaw Concerto as music for the film Dangerous Moonlight

1940 First of the 'Road' films
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby star together in Road to Singapore, the first of a long series of 'Road' films

1940 Leigh and Olivier marry
British actors Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier marry

1940 Grapes of Wrath on screen
John Ford directs Henry Fonda in the film of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

1940 The Great Dictator
Charlie Chaplin ridicules Hitler in The Great Dictator, the first film in which he speaks coherent dialogue

1941 Garbo's last film
Greta Garbo receives terrible reviews for Two Faced Woman, which turns out to be her last film and the beginning of a long retirement

1941 Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is written, directed and starred in by 26-year-old Orson Welles

1941 Bogart plays Sam Spade
John Huston, for his first film, directs Humphrey Bogart in the third screen adaptation of The Maltese Falcon

1942 The First of the Few
Leslie Howard directs and stars in The First of the Few, about the creator of the Spitfire, with music by William Walton

1942 In Which We Serve
David Lean and Noel Coward create a classic wartime film, In Which We Serve about the crew of a naval destroyer

1942 Visconti's Obsession
Italian director Luchino Visconti's first film, Obsession, brings neorealism to the cinema

1942 Casablanca
Michael Curtiz directs Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca

1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy on screen
James Cagney stars in the screen musical Yankee Doodle Dandy, directed by Michael Curtiz

1942 Hepburn and Tracy on screen
Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy star in the first of many films together, Woman of the Year

1943 Lassie Come Home
11-year-old Elizabeth Taylor co-stars with a collie in Lassie Come Home

1944 National Velvet on screen
12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor co-stars with a horse in the film National Velvet

1944 Olivier's film of Henry V
Laurence Olivier directs and stars in a patriotic film of Henry V with stirring music by William Walton

1945 Les Enfants du Paradis
Jean-Louis Barrault directs and stars in the film Les Enfants du Paradis

1945 Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements
Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, premiered in New York, derives from music written for or inspired by films

1946 Ivan the Terrible
Sergei Eisenstein completes Part 2 of his intended epic film trilogy Ivan the Terrible

1946 The Big Sleep
Howard Hawks directs Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep

1946 Brief Encounter
David Lean directs Trevor Howard and and Celia Johnson in Noel Coward's Brief Encounter

1948 The Red Shoes
British dancer Robert Helpmann choreographs the ballet scenes in the film The Red Shoes, featuring Moira Shearer

1948 Bicycle Thieves
Vittorio de Sica directs the film Bicycle Thieves, a classic of Italian neorealism

1948 Treasure of the Sierra Madre on screen
John Huston directs Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a film based on B. Traven's novel of 1927

1949 Whisky Galore on screen
Ealing Studios produce a film of Compton Mackenzie's 1947 novel Whisky Galore, about an alcoholic windfall on the island of Barra

1949 The Third Man
Carol Reed directs The Third Man, starring Orson Welles and written by Graham Greene

1951 A Streetcar Named Desire on screeen
Elia Kazan directs Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando in the film of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire

1951 The African Queen on screen
John Huston directs Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen, based on a C.S. Forester story

1951 Rashomon
Japanese film director Kurosawa Akira makes an international reputation with Rashomon

1952 Singin' in the Rain
Gene Kelly dances a famous routine with an umbrella in the film Singin' in the Rain

1952 High Noon
Grace Kelly has her first starring role in High Noon, with Gary Cooper

1953 On the Waterfront
Elia Kazan directs Marlon Brando in the film On the Waterfront

1953 From Here to Eternity
Fred Zinneman directs Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr and Frank Sinatra in From Here to Eternity

1953 Roman Holiday
William Wyler directs Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, a beguiling comedy about a princess's romance in Rome

1953 Mr Hulot's Holiday
French actor Jacques Tati directs and stars in the zany comedy Mr Hulot's Holiday

1953 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Within the year Marilyn Monroe stars in Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire

1954 Seven Samurai
Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa directs The Seven Samurai

1954 A Star Is Born
George Cukor directs Judy Garland and James Mason in A Star Is Born

1954 La Strada
Federico Fellini directs La Strada ('The Road'), starring his wife, Giulietta Masina, and Antony Quinn

1955 Smiles of a Summer Night
Swedish director Ingmar Bergman wins international fame with his film Smiles of a Summer Night

1955 East of Eden
Elia Kazan directs James Dean in East of Eden

1955 Rebel Without a Cause
James Dean is type-cast as the young lead in Rebel without a Cause

1955 Pather Panchali
Indian director Satyajit Ray makes his first film, Pather Panchali

1956 And God Created Woman
Brigitte Bardot is directed by her husband Roger Vadim in his first film, And God Created Woman

1957 Bridge on the River Kwai
David Lean directs William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins in The Bridge on the River Kwai

1957 The Seventh Seal
Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal wins the Jury Prize at Cannes

1958 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on screen
Paul Newman stars in the film version of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

1958 Ashes and Diamonds
Polish film director Andrzej Wajda makes Ashes and Diamonds, starring the Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski

1959 North By Northwest
Alfred Hitchcock directs Cary Grant in North by Northwest

1959 Some Like It Hot
Billy Wilder directs Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot

1959 Hiroshima Mon Amour
Hiroshima Mon Amour is French director Alain Resnais' first feature film, with screenplay by Marguerite Duras

1960 Never on Sunday
US film director Jules Dassin makes Never on Sunday, starring the Greek actress Melina Mercouri

1960 Antonioni directs L'Avventura
Italian firm director Michelangelo Antonioni makes L'Avventura, with Monica Vitti in the leading role

1960 La Dolce Vita
Italian film director Federico Fellini makes La Dolce Vita, an episodic study of life along the Via Veneto in Rome

1960 A Bout de Souffle
Jean-Luc Godard directs his first feature film, A Bout de Souffle ('Breathless'), a classic of French New Wave cinema

1960 Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock directs Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins in Psycho

1961 Miller writes Misfits for Monroe
Arthur Miller writes the screenplay for The Misfits for his wife, Marilyn Monroe

1961 Jules et Jim
French film director François Truffaut makes Jules et Jim, starring Jeanne Moreau and Oskar Werner

1962 Connery is 007
Sean Connery creates on screen the role of 007 in the first James Bond film, Dr No

1962 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford star in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

1962 Monroe dies
Marilyn Monroe dies in Los Angeles from an overdose of sleeping pills

1962 Lawrence of Arabia
David Lean directs Peter O'Toole in the title role of the film Lawrence of Arabia

1963 Warhol's Sleep
Andy Warhol moves into films with Sleep, showing a man asleep for six hours

1964 Burton and Taylor marry
British film stars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor marry

1964 Fistful of Dollars
Sergio Leone directs A Fistful of Dollars, the first of his three 'spaghetti westerns' starring Clint Eastwood

1964 Dr Strangelove
Peter Sellers plays three different roles in Stanley Kubrick's film Dr Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

1965 Doctor Zhivago on screen
David Lean directs Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in a film of Pasternak's Dr Zhivago

1965 What's New Pussycat?
Woody Allen makes his screen debut with What's New Pussycat?

1966 Burton and Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Real-life husband and wife Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor star as the married couple in the film of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1966 Caine is Alfie and Harry Palmer
British actor Michael Caine makes his name starring in two outstanding films within the year, Alfie and The Ipcress File

1967 Hoffman in The Graduate
Mike Nicholls directs Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman in the film The Graduate

1967 Belle de Jour
Luis Buñuel directs Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour, a film about a bored housewife who takes a day job as a prostitute

1967 Bonnie and Clyde
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty star in the film Bonnie and Clyde

1968 Oh! What a Lovely War on screen
British actor Richard Attenborough makes his first film as a director, Oh! What a Lovely War

1968 Funny Girl on screen
Barbara Streisand repeats her Broadway performance in the film of Funny Girl

1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke create the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on Clarke's 1951 short story The Sentinel

1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Paul Newman and Robert Redford star in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

1969 Midnight Cowboy
British film director John Schlesinger makes Midnight Cowboy, starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight

1970 M*A*S*H*
US film director Robert Altman launches a successful and long-running theme with his Vietnam black comedy, M*A*S*H

1971 Spielberg's Duel
Duel, about a motorist terrorized by a truck driver, launches Stephen Spielberg's career as a film director in Hollywood

1971 Kubrick's Clockwork Orange
Stanley Kubrick directs Malcolm McDowell in a film of Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange

1972 Last Tango in Paris
Bernardo Bertolucci directs Marlon Brando in the sexually explicit film Last Tango in Paris

1972 Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Spanish director Luis Buñuel satirizes social conventions in his film Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

1972 The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola writes and directs The Godfather, the first of three related films

1973 The Sting
Paul Newman and Robert Redford star in the film The Sting

1973 Sting revives ragtime
The score of the film The Sting revives interest in Scott Joplin and ragtime

1973 The Exorcist
William Friedkin directs a horror movie, The Exorcist, from a novel by William Peter Blatty

1975 Burton and Taylor marry – again
Richard Burton marries Elizabeth Taylor for the second time, five years after divorcing

1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on screen
Milos Forman directs Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, based on a novel by Ken Kesey

1975 Jaws
US director Steven Spielberg has a major success with his second feature film, Jaws

1976 Taxi Driver
14-year-old Jodie Foster stars as a drug-addicted child prostitute in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver

1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Steven Spielberg writes and directs an inflential science fiction movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind

1977 Star Wars
George Lucas writes and directs a science fantasy, Star Wars, launching a narrative that will be expanded in a further five films

1977 Annie Hall
After making several films together, Woody Allen and his partner Diane Keaton have an Oscar-winning success with Annie Hall

1979 Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola directs Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now

1980 Raging Bull
Martin Scorsese directs Robert de Niro in Raging Bull

1981 On Golden Pond
Henry and Jane Fonda, father and daughter, star with Katherine Hepburn in On Golden Pond

1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark launches an ongoing series for director Steven Spielberg and actor Harrison Ford

1981 Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire, directed by Hugh Hudson, dramatizes the rivalry between two British athletes at the 1924 Summer Olympics

1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Steven Spielberg directs E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, in which an alien is stranded on earth and is befriended by a young boy

1982 Tootsie
Dustin Hoffman, in Tootsie, plays a man who becomes a star in the persona of an actress

1982 Gandhi
British director Richard Attenborough creates an epic film, Gandhi, from the life of the pacifist Indian leader

1982 Grace Kelly dies
US fillm actress Grace Kelly is killed in a car accident in Monte Carlo

1984 Amadeus on screen
Milos Forman directs the screen version of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus

1984 Schwarzenegger is the Terminator
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the title role, that of an almost silent killing machine, in The Terminator

1984 The Killing Fields
Roland Joffé directs The Killing Fields, set among the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia

1986 Jean De Florette
Yves Montand and Gérard Depardieu star in Jean De Florette, adapted from a novel by Marcel Pagnol

1987 Cry Freedom
The film Cry Freedom, directed by Richard Attenborough, tells the story of Steve Biko, killed in police custody in South Africa

1988 Rain Man
Barry Levinson directs Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in the film Rain Man

1988 The Last Emperor
Bernardo Bertolucci directs The Last Emperor, a film based on the life of Puyi, the last in China's imperial line

1989 The Remains of the Day
James Ivory directs the film The Remains of the Day, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro

1990 Depardieu in Cyrano de Bergerac
Gérard Depardieu plays the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac, based on the play by Edmond Rostand

1990 Pretty Woman
Julia Roberts and Richard Gere star in Pretty Woman, directed by Garry Marshall

1991 Silence of the Lambs
Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins star in the film The Silence of the Lambs

1991 Raise the Red Lantern
Gong Li plays a concubine of a Chinese warlord in Raise the Red Lantern, directed by Zhang Yimou

1992 Reservoir Dogs
US screenwriter Quentin Tarantino makes his debut as a director with Reservoir Dogs

1993 Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg directs Jurassic Park, in which dinosaurs are cloned (and animated) to terrifying effect

1993 Schindler's List
Steven Spielberg directs a film of Thomas Keneally's novel Schindler's Ark, giving it the title Schindler's List

1993 Farewell My Concubine
Chen Kaige directs Farewell My Concubine, depicting the devastating effect of the Cultural Revolution on some performers of Peking opera

1994 Forrest Gump
Tom Hanks stars in Forrest Gump, based on a novel by Winston Groom

1994 Il Postino
The Italian film Il Postino brings poetry into the life of a postman who delivers mail to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda

1994 Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino directs John Travolta and Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction

1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral
Mike Newell directs the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant

1995 The Usual Suspects
Bryan Singer directs the film The Usual Suspects, an intricate crime drama written by Christopher McQuarrie

1996 Schnabel on Basquiat
American painter Julian Schnabel turns his hand to film-making with Basquiat, a tribute to graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

1996 The English Patient
Anthony Minghella directs The English Patient, a film based on the novel by Michael Ondaatje

1997 Titanic
James Cameron directs Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Wiinslet in the film Titanic, based on the 1912 disaster

1997 The Full Monty
The British film The Full Monty follows six unemployed steel workers in their transformation into male strippers

1998 Saving Private Ryan
Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan, a World War II drama about a US paratrooper

1998 Shakespeare in Love
John Madden directs Shakespeare in Love, a romantic comedy set in Elizabethan London

1999 Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club, a nostalgic documentary by Wim Wenders, triggers a cult for Cuban music

1999 American Beauty
Sam Mendes directs Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening in American Beauty

2000 Gladiator
Russell Crowe stars in Ridley Scott's film Gladiator, a revenge drama set in second-century Rome

2000 Billy Elliott
Billy Elliott, directed by Stephen Daldry, tells of a child's journey from a mining community into a new life in ballet

2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Ang Lee directs Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a martial arts film notable for its magical special effects

2001 Shrek
Shrek, by DreamWorks Animation, is the first winner of a new Oscar category - Best Animated Feature

2001 The Lord of the Rings on screen
Peter Jackson directs the first of his trilogy of films The Lord of the Rings, based on the cult novel by English academic J.R.R. Tolkien

2003 Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo, following the adventures of a clownfish, wins an Oscar for Pixar Animation as the Best Animated Feature

2003 Lost in Translation
Lost in Translation, a film directed by Sofia Coppola, depicts the culture shock of an American couple in modern Japan

2004 The Aviator
Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio as the eccentric aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, in The Aviator

2005 The Chronicles of Narnia
The film series of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia is launched with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

2005 Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, is a sensitive account of a homosexual relationship between two Wyoming cowboys

2006 Helen Mirren in The Queen
British actress Helen Mirren plays Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (for which she later wins an Oscar)

2006 The Departed
Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson in a crime thriller, The Departed

2009
Pina Bausch dies, just two days before shooting is due to begin on Pina, the Wim Wenders documentary later premiered at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival

2009 July
The Fujifilm 3D W1 is the first camera on the market capable of taking stereoscopic images

2012  September 9
An excerpt of an anti-Islamic film made in the USA, Innocence of Muslims, is broadcast in Egypt on a Muslim TV channel

2012  September 11 Film release results in violent protests in Egypt and beyond
Violent protests against the film Innocence of Muslims break out in Egypt and soon spread to other Muslim countries

2012  September 13
US embassies in Yemen and Egypt are attacked, as the protests against Innocence of Muslims spread