1897 in film

Events

• January 28 – First Venezuelan-made films are screened at the Baralt Theatre in Maracaibo, two locally-made actuality shorts, Un célebre especialista sacando muelas en el gran Hotel Europa and Muchachos bañándose en la laguna de Maracaibo.
• May 4 – During a film screening at the Charity Bazaar in Paris, a curtain catches on fire from the ether used to fuel the projector lamp. The fire spreads and becomes catastrophic, ultimately resulting in 126 deaths.
• June 20 – Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee procession filmed.
• The American Vitagraph Company is founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in Brooklyn.
• Mitchell and Kenyon go into a film-making partnership at Blackburn in the north of England.
• Enoch J. Rector develops a 63 mm film format called Veriscope, which films The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight on March 17.
• Thomas Henry Blair develops a 48 mm film format called Viventoscope.

  Films released in 1897

• After The Ball, directed by Georges Méliès. First film to create the illusion of female nudity through a skin looking designed costume.
• Baignade dans le torrent, directed by Alice Guy-Blaché.
• La Bandera Argentina, believed for a long time to have been the first Argentine film. Now considered lost.
• Between Calais and Dover directed by Georges Méliès. A fictitious sea crossing.
• The Bewitched Inn, directed by Georges Méliès.
• Buffalo Police on Parade, produced by Edison Studios.
• The Cabinet of Mephistopheles, directed by George Melies.
• Chicago Police Parade, directed by Louis Lumière.
• The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight, a documentary directed by Enoch J. Rector. The first film shot in widescreen. At an hour and 40 minutes, it is the first known feature film ever made.
• Cupid and Psyche, produced by Edison Studios.
• An Hallucinated Alchemist, directed by Georges Méliès. May be the first film to feature stop motion animation in cinema.
• Faust and Marguerite, directed by George Melies.
• The Haunted Castle, directed by George Albert Smith.
• The Haverstraw Tunnel
• Horses Loading for Klondike, directed by James H. White.
• The Hypnotist at Work directed by Georges Méliès
• Kørsel med Grønlandske Hunde, directed by Peter Elfelt; the first Danish movie sequence ever filmed.
• The Last Cartridges directed by. A dramatised war scene.
• Leander Sisters, produced by Edison Studios.
• Leaving Jerusalem by Railway, directed by Alexandre Promio and released by the Lumière brothers. May include the first moving camera shot in cinema.
• Lurline Baths, produced by Edison Studios.
• Making Sausages, directed by George Albert Smith.
• The Milker's Mishap, directed by James H. White; it is unknown whether or not this film has survived.
• New Pillow Fight, produced by Siegmund Lubin.
• Niagara Falls, directed by Louis Lumière.
• Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer, directed by George Albert Smith.
• On the Roofs, directed by Georges Méliès.
• Peeping Tom,a production of the American Mutoscope Company. A comedy.
• Sea Fighting in Greece directed by Georges Méliès. A dramatised naval war scene.
• Seminary Girls, directed by James H. White.
• Spanish Bullfight, directed by Louis Lumière
• The Surrender of Tournavos directed by Georges Méliès. A dramatised war scene.
• Sutro Baths, No. 1, produced by Edison Studios.
• The X-Rays, directed by George Albert Smith. Cited as one of the first examples of special effects by jump cut.
• Salida de la misa de doce de la Iglesia del Pilar de Zaragoza a short silent film by Eduardo Jimeno, a pioneer of the Spanish cinema. Probably the first film made in Spain by a Spaniard.
• A Twentieth Century Surgeon, directed by George Melies.

  Births

• January 3
• *Marion Davies, American actress
• *Pola Negri, Polish-American actress
• January 10 – Lya De Putti, Hungarian actress
• January 30 – Mary Ellis, American singer and actress
• February 10 – Judith Anderson, Australian actress
• February 12 – Vola Vale, American actress
• February 19 – Alma Rubens, American actress
• March 16 – Conrad Nagel, American actor
• March 19 – Betty Compson, American actress
• May 18 – Frank Capra, Italian-American director
• June 16 – Elaine Hammerstein, American actress
• June 19 – Moe Howard, American actor and comedian
• June 23 – Alexandru Giugaru, Romanian actor
• July 10 – John Gilbert, American actor
• August 31 – Fredric March, American actor
• October 6 – Francine Mussey, French actress
• October 28 – Edith Head, American costume designer
• September 3 – Cecil Parker, English actor
• September 23 – Walter Pidgeon, American actor
• November 13 – Gertrude Olmstead, American actress
• November 25 – Ruth Etting, American actress, singer

  Debut

• Marshall P. Wilder