Welcome!
Films by the Year began around 2011 as a way to organize my film viewing by watching a film from each decade beginning with the 1890s up to the present decade. I begin with years that end in zero, 1890, 1900, 1910, etc. and once I’ve watched a film from each decade I return to the 1890s and start with films from years that end in one, 1891, 1901, 1911, etc. and so on. In order to do this I began entering the films in a spreadsheet in chronological order by release date. After a while I made the spreadsheet public as a Google sheet and in 2015 I created this website which includes my film index, which has now grown to over 22,000 entries. You will also find film reviews, articles on film history and the complete Lumière and American Mutoscope & Biograph photo catalogues organized by catalogue number. The latter catalogue is still a work in progress. Many of the films in the index and playlists for the film history articles link to my Films by the Year YouTube channel. I also have a few channels on the Russian social media site Odnoklassniki. I invite you to join my Films by the Year Facebook Group where I post about my current projects and uploads to my YouTube channel.
Updates to the Film Index as of January 19, 2026
Here is the list of new YouTube uploads and index entries:
1896 Danse tyrolienne – new YouTube upload for The Year 1896 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1896 Labourage – new YouTube upload for The Year 1896 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1897 Troop “A” of Cleveland, O. – new index entry and added to online AM&B Photo Catalogue
1898 La Vie et la Passion de Jésus-Christ : II. La Fuite en Égypte – new YouTube upload for The Year 1898 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1902 Visions d’art : 2. Aubade à la lune – new index entry and YouTube upload from my digital archive
1903 Move On – new YouTube upload for The Year 1903 in Film playlist
1905 Reuben in the Subway – new index entry from Paper Print Collection Catalogue
1913 Broken Ways (Griffifth) – new index entry and YouTube upload
1944 Opfergang – new index entry from Jon Whitehead’s rarefilmm.com
1959 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) S01E01 Where Is Everybody? new index entry Amazon Prime Video
1961 The Avengers (TV Series) S01E01 Hot Snow – new index entry ok.ru (incomplete)
1961 The Avengers (TV Series) S01E06 Girl on the Trapeze – new index entry ok.ru
1961 The Avengers (TV Series) S01E15 The Frighteners – new index entry ok.ru
1961 The Avengers (TV Series) S01E20 Tunnel of Fear – new index entry ok.ru
1961 The Defenders (TV Series) S01E01 The Quality of Mercy – new index entry ok.ru
1962 The Defenders (TV Series) S01E29 Reunion With Death new index entry and ok.ru upload
1963 The Avengers (TV Series) S02E15 Intercrime – new index entry ok.ru
1963 The Defenders (TV Series) S02E16 Kill or Be Killed (directed by Sydney Pollack) new index entry
1963 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) S04E02 The Thirty-Fathom Grave new index entry Prime Video
1973 Columbo (TV Series) Season 2, E05 Requiem for a Falling Star Prime Video
2003 American Wedding – new index entry
2003 The Singing Detective – new index entry
2013 Endeavor (TV Series) Season 1, E02 Fugue – new index entry Prime Video
2015 Better Call Saul (TV Series) S01E01 Uno – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 2015
2015 Better Call Saul (TV Series) S01E02 Mijo – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 2015
2025 Bowie: The Final Act – new index entry channel4.com (can’t stream outside of the UK – might work with a VPN)
Updates to the Film Index as of January 2, 2026
Here is the list of new YouTube uploads and index entries:
1896 Course en sacs – new YouTube upload for The Year 1896 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1897 71st Regiment, N.G.S.N.Y. – new index entry and added to online AM&B Photo Catalogue
1898 Pope Leo XIII, Resting on His Way to His Summer Villa – new index entry and YouTube upload
1898 La Vie et la Passion de Jésus-Christ : I. L’Adoration des Mages – new YouTube upload for The Year 1898 in Film playlist
1899 Upside Down; or, The Human Flies – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1900 A Railway Collision – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1901 Artistic Creation – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1901 The Cheese Mites; or, Lilliputians in a London Restaurant updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1901 The Haunted Curiosity Shop – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1901 The Magic Sword; or, A Mediaeval Mystery – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1901 An Over-Incubated Baby – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1901 Scrooge; or, Marley’s Ghost – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1901 Undressing Extraordinary; or, The Troubles of a Tired Traveller – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1901 The Waif and the Wizard; or, The Home Made Happy updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1902 The Extraordinary Waiter – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1902 Visions d’art : 1. Amphitrite – new index entry and YouTube upload from my digital archive
1903 Extraordinary Cab Accident – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1903 The Messenger Boy’s Mistake – new YouTube upload for The Year 1903 in Film playlist
1906 The “?” Motorist – updated director in index to R.W. Paul
1909 The Restoration (Griffith) – new index entry from Paper Print Collection Catalogue
1911 Det bødes der for – new index entry Watch
1911 La dannazione di Caino – new index entry YouTube (no English subs but easy to follow). In the course of events the film depicts a horse, which has been plied with alcohol, falling over a cliff though I don’t think they actually sacrificed the horse for the shot. We see the horse and cart going off the road in the mountains from a distance and then I believe they stopped the film, and then filmed the empty cart falling down the side of the mountain and spliced it together. It’s pretty convincing but if you watch it frame by frame the substitution splice is obvious. YouTube
1911 The Failure (Griffith) – new index entry YouTube
1911 De fire Djævle – new index entry – Watch – The first film adaptation of Herman Bang’s 1890 novella Les Quatre Diables, about four young trapeze artists (“the four devils”) and a destructive love entanglement in a circus troupe. Later silent versions include A. W. Sandberg’s De fire Djævle (Germany, 1920) and Murnau’s 4 Devils (USA, 1928).
1912 The Baby and the Stork (Griffith) – new index entry and YouTube upload
1912 Broken Oaths (Alice Guy) – new index entry and YouTube upload
1912 A Comedy of Errors (Alice Guy) – new index entry and YouTube upload (unlisted)
1912 Coronets and Hearts – new index entry ok.ru
1912 Destiny Is Changeless – new index entry and YouTube upload
1912 The Detective’s Dog – new index entry ok.ru
1921 Circus Jim – new index entry – YouTube (no English subs). This film and the following have been conflated by secondary sources such as imdb, claiming that they are alternate titles for the same film. IMDb has since corrected the error but the confusion lingers on as can be seen on the Peliculas Mudos YouTube channel which uploaded Laughter and Tears in 2023 and indicated that Circus Jim is an alternate title.
1921 Laughter and Tears – updated index entry with new YouTube link
1922 Leap Year – updated premiere date and availability in index ok.ru – “A full-page Famous Players-Lasky advertisement that ran in various trade magazines, including the 2 Jul 1921 Motion Picture News, showed that three Arbuckle films were in the studio pipeline. Besides Should a Man Marry, the original title for Leap Year, the other two were Thirty Days and Via Fast Freight. Furthermore, two other farces, Are You a Mason? and The Man from Mexico, were being planned for Arbuckle. Thirty Days was apparently never made, and the others would not retain those titles or be released in the United States, because in Sep 1921, Arbuckle was indicted for manslaughter in the death of actress Virginia Rappe during a drunken party in his hotel room in San Francisco, CA. As the comedian sat in jail awaiting a possible new charge of murder, “exhibitors in some parts of the country [were] cancelling contracts on Arbuckle pictures and withdrawing them during showings,” the 24 Sep 1921 Moving Picture World reported. Although it was later determined that Arbuckle was innocent and Rappe died naturally of peritonitis because of a ruptured bladder, the salaciousness of the testimony at his trial rendered his films unmarketable. The 29 Apr 1922 Moving Picture World announced that Will H. Hayes, president of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors, Inc., officially declared the cancellation of all current and upcoming Fatty Arbuckle films, including Crazy to Marry, Gasoline Gus, Freight Prepaid (ultimately The Fast Freight) (all 1921) and Should a Man Marry, which was released in Europe as Leap Year in 1922 and 1924, but was not screened in the U.S. until many decades later, at festivals and on cable television’s Turner Classic Movies channel.” – afi.com
1925 Wunder der Schöpfung (Our Heavenly Bodies) – updated availability in index ok.ru
1931 Shukujo to hige (The Lady and the Beard) – Ozu – updated availability in index ok.ru
1944 I Love a Soldier – new index entry from Jon Whitehead’s rarefilmm.com
1951 Up Front – updated index with new availability link ok.ru
1960 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 1, E13 The Four of Us Are Dying new index entry ok.ru
1960 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 1, E14 Third from the Sun new index entry ok.ru
1960 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 1, E15 I Shot an Arrow into the Air new index entry ok.ru
1961 The Avengers (TV Series) Season 1, E1 Hot Snow new index entry ok.ru (incomplete)
1961 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 2, E12 Dust new index entry ok.ru
1961 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 2, E13 Back There new index entry ok.ru
1961 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 2, E14 The Whole Truth new index entry ok.ru
1962 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 3, E16 Nothing in the Dark new index entry ok.ru
1962 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 3 E17 One More Pallbearer new index entry Amazon Prime
1963 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 4, E1 In His Image new index entry
1964 The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Season 5, E14 You Drive new index entry
1971 Ransom for a Dead Man (TV Movie) – new index entry Amazon Prime Considered a TV Movie at the time it was broadcast, it is now marketed as the second pilot episode of the Columbo TV series which began in September 1971 with the episode Murder by the Book which was directed by Steven Spielberg.
1972 Columbo (TV Series) Season 1, E6 Short Fuse Amazon Prime
1980 Night of the Juggler – new index entry
1981 Hill Street Blues (TV Series) Season 1, E1 Hill Street Station – added to index
1981 Hill Street Blues (TV Series) Season 1, E2 Presidential Fever – added to index
1981 Hill Street Blues (TV Series) Season 1, E3 Politics as Usual – added to index
1981 Hill Street Blues (TV Series) Season 1, E4 Can World War III Be an Attitude? – added to index
1991 Agatha Christie’s Poirot (TV Series) Season 3, E04 The Plymouth Express – added to index
1991 Agatha Christie’s Poirot (TV Series) Season 3, E05 Wasps’ Nest – added to index
2005 Prison Break (TV Series) S01E01 Pilot – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 2005
2005 Prison Break (TV Series) S01E02 Allen – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 2005
2022 The Northman – new index entry
I made some changes to the Film Index. It always bothered me that when I scrolled to the bottom of the page and used the navigation buttons to go to the next page that I had to scroll back up to the top of the page. That has been fixed. Now it automatically scrolls to the top. I was also able to make the table header sticky so that it doesn’t scroll but after many attempts I wasn’t able to make it work with Firefox. It only works with Chrome as far as I know. The only other browsers I’ve tested are Firefox and Comet.
Coming Soon
The Year 1898 in Film – Article and YouTube playlist. Currently adding films from November with 242 films in the playlist so far.
The Year 1903 in Film – Article and YouTube playlist. Currently adding films from September with 164 films in the playlist so far.
Dommens Dag (1918) – translating Dutch subtitles to English. Finished. Available on YouTube.
Ongoing Projects
- Adding all entries from Kent Niver’s Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress to the film index. There are about 3,000 films listed in the book arranged in alphabetical order. I’m currently working through titles that begin with the letter “R”.
- Creating an online version of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Photo Catalogues. These can be downloaded from Rutgers University but there’s no way to search them. When it’s finished you will able to search by title and find a still from the film along with other information.
- I have an enormous amount of films in digital format that I haven’t added to the index or uploaded to YouTube.
- Adding films from Jon Whitehead’s streaming site rarefilmm.com. I’m currently adding films from years ending in “4” to the film index.
- Adding films from IMDb’s list of films from each year sorted by number of ratings. Currently working on years that end with “5”. I add one film 1905, 1915, …until I get to 2025 then start with the year 1906, 1916 and so on ad infinitum.
- Uploading my collection of over 900 movie trailers to Odnoklassniki. So far I’ve uploaded 591.
- Uploading my entire collection of digitized films to the cloud. Eventually external hard drives fail or might be destroyed in a fire or natural disaster. I started in July, 2023 and have uploaded over 10 TB so far. Currently I’m working through films from the year 2010 and some anthologies of films from the late 19th and early 20th centuries along with DVD extras, trailers, etc.