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 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 April 21, 2025
Here is the list of new YouTube uploads and index entries:
1896 Hallebardiers de la Reine – new YouTube upload for The Year 1896 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1896 Pennsylvania Limited Express (Limited Express, Penn. R.R.) – new index entry and added to online AM&B Photo Catalogue
1896 Shooting the Chutes – new YouTube upload from my digital archive
1898 Výstavní párkar a lepic plakátù – new YouTube upload for The Year 1898 in Film playlist
1901 Professional Handicap Bicycle Race – new index entry from Paper Print Collection Catalogue
1903 Final – new YouTube upload for The Year 1903 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1913 Rigadin Napoléon – new index entry and YouTube upload from my digital archive
1993 Fires in the Mirror (American Playhouse TV Series) – new index entry from rarefilmm.com
2002 Wu jian dao (Infernal Affairs) – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 2002
Updates to the Film Index as of April 12, 2025
Here is the list of new YouTube uploads and index entries:
1896 Puerta del Sol – new YouTube upload for The Year 1896 in Film playlist (unlisted)
1896 Happy Family – new index entry and added to online AM&B Photo Catalogue
1896 Shooting the Chutes – new YouTube upload from my digital archive
1898 Dostavenícko ve mlýnici – new YouTube upload for The Year 1898 in Film playlist
1903 Procession of Floats and Masqueraders at Nice Carnival – new index entry from Paper Print Collection Catalogue
1903 Shooting the Chutes, Luna Park, Coney Island – new YouTube upload for The Year 1903 in Film playlist
1913 Rigadin fait un riche mariage – new index entry and YouTube upload from my digital archive
1992 The Player – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 1992
1993 Pölynimurikauppiaat (Vacuum-Cleaner Salesmen) – new index entry from rarefilmm.com
2022 Top Gun: Maverick – new index entry from IMDb’s list of films released in 2022
Coming Soon
The Year 1898 in Film – Article and YouTube playlist. Currently adding films from July with 176 films in the playlist so far.
The Year 1903 in Film – Article and YouTube playlist. Currently adding films from July with 101 films in the playlist so far.
Pax æterna (1917) Peace on Earth – Translating Danish intertitles to English. Have completed the first 20 minutes of one hour and 20 minutes.
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 “P”.
- 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. I’m currently working through all the films I have from 1913.
- Adding films from Jon Whitehead’s streaming site rarefilmm.com. I’m currently adding films from years ending in “3” 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 “2”. I add one film 1902, 1912, …until I get to 2022 then start with the year 1903, 1913 and so on ad infinitum.
- Uploading my collection of over 800 movie trailers to Odnoklassniki. So far I’ve uploaded 275.
- 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.