The art of film has its roots in the theatre, which, in the form of plays, operas and theatrical dance, inspired and entertained the masses for generations. Animation is believed to have its roots in sequential narrative paintings of parables and myths. In the middle ages, however, Greek architect and mathematician Anthemius of Tralles used the camera obscura, an archaic projection device most commonly known as the secret "cheat tool" for perspective work of landscape painters, to project performance, creating some of the earliest known (though unrecorded) actual live action motion pictures.

It is a common belief that cinematic art began in the nineteenth century, as an offshoot of photography (hence the term, "motion picture"). In the 1870s artists began to experiment with sequential photography in order to create animated picture, often using multiple cameras and maximum shutter speeds. The late 1880s and early 1890s saw the rise of the first actual motion picture devices, including Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, which showed recorded sequences but did not feature projection, and William Friese-Greene's seuquentially operating chronophotographic camera, which, able to take ten photographs per second, worked similarly to a roughly executed stop motion but, despite meeting disappointingly low popularity, led to advancements in celluloid film.

But even before Edison or Greene's attempt at the motion picture, the first successful motion picture maker was French inventor Louis LePrince, whose 1887 two second film, the Roundhay Garden Scene, is the oldest film still in existence. It was shot on paper based photo film and with a frame rate of twelve frames per second. However, it would be several more years before the rise of the true filmmaker. The Lumière brothers rose to fame in early to mid 1890s, and are generally seen as some of the very first actual cinematographers.

Invented at an unknown date in the early 1890s, the cinematograph was the earliest film camera. It is also unknown for sure who invented the device, with public speculation between the brothers Lumière (particularly Louis), as the brothers gave the very first ever public film screening using the cinematograph, which both shoots and projects film; and Léon Bouly, who coined the term 'cinématographe' and patented the device in 1892.

Cinematic production and sceening began to spread to new creators throughout Europe and made its way to the United States, where it and its novel creators were received with curiosity and great approval. There was not yet much of a place in society for the motion picture, so it entered the vaudeville scene as an astonishing take on the vignette, and began to feature in shop windows. Motion picture enjoyed an upward surge in popularity from the mid 1890s into the twentieth century, growing in length, complexity, and even in the number of people required; to the point that a fledgling industry was born. It was not until the 1920s and 30s that sound was introduced into films, distinguished from silent "movies" called "talkies". The earliest color was introduced by hand, but such advances as Technicolor came by the middle of the century.

Cinema rapidly grew into a staple of culture, by providing not only the films themselves but actors and artists that systemically become commonplace to a mainstream audience that they may not otherwise reach. One advancement after another, film led into digital video, and changed television, the internet and both public and private communication.