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Welcome!films by the year

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 21,000 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 channel 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 May 10, 2025

Here is the list of new YouTube uploads and index entries:

1896 Sortie d’usine, [II] – new YouTube upload for The Year 1896 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1896 Pussy’s Bath – new index entry and added to online AM&B Photo Catalogue
1898 The Fake Beggar – new YouTube upload for The Year 1898 in Film playlist
1903 Cancelling Machine, U.S.P.O. – new YouTube upload for The Year 1903 in Film playlist
1903 Le Faux cul-de-jatte – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 1903
1910 The Proposal – new index entry from Paper Print Collection Catalogue
1913 Zuzu, the Band Leader – new YouTube upload from my digital archive
1993 Protozoa (Short) – new index entry from rarefilmm.com

Updates to the Film Index as of May 7, 2025

Here is the list of new YouTube uploads and index entries:

1893 Kopemetatel – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 1893
1896 Déchargement d’un navire – new YouTube upload for The Year 1896 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1896 Aquarium – new index entry and added to online AM&B Photo Catalogue
1897 Projectile from Ten Inch Disappearing Gun Striking Water, Sandy Hook – new index entry from Paper Print Collection Catalogue
1898 Cuban Ambush – new YouTube upload for The Year 1898 in Film playlist
1903 Buying Stamps from Rural Wagon, U.S.P.O. – new YouTube upload for The Year 1903 in Film playlist
1913 A Window on Washington Park – new YouTube upload from my digital archive
1993 Buford’s Beach Bunnies – new index entry from rarefilmm.com

Coming Soon

The Year 1898 in Film –  Article and YouTube playlist. Currently adding films from July with 182 films in the playlist so far.

The Year 1903 in Film – Article and YouTube playlist. Currently adding films from July with 107 films in the playlist so far.

Pax æterna (1917) Peace on Earth – Translating Danish intertitles to English. Have completed the first 60 minutes of one hour and 20 minutes.

Ongoing Projects

  1. 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 “P”.
  2. 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.
  3. I have an enormous amount of films in digital format that I haven’t added to the index or uploaded to YouTube. I’m currently working through all the films I have from 1913.
  4. Adding films from Jon Whitehead’s streaming site rarefilmm.com. I’m currently adding films from years ending in “3” to the film index.
  5.  Adding films from IMDb’s list of films from each year sorted by number of ratings. Currently working on years that end with “3”. I add one film 1903, 1913, …until I get to 2023 then start with the year 1904, 1914 and so on ad infinitum.
  6. Uploading my collection of over 800 movie trailers to Odnoklassniki. So far I’ve uploaded 294.
  7. 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 9 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.