Here at Movieweb, we’re all about movies, and as the medium continues to push boundaries, whether technological or even in overcoming taboos, it’s important to remember that the concept of a feature film has a relatively short history in the grand scheme of things. Since The Story of the Kelly Gang, the first feature length movie, hit Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne in 1906, movies have been gradually evolving into what we have come to expect today. Let’s take a look back at some important milestones in cinematic history and the ground-breaking teams behind them as we explore 10 history-making movie firsts.
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10 First Animated Feature: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
RKO Radio Pictures
1937 was the year that changed the world of animation forever; it was the year the first ever feature length animated picture hit the big screen. The movie in question was Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Years in the making, the end result was such an impressive feat, with its stunning animation, well-developed characters, and beautiful soundtrack, that it was awarded an Honorary Academy Award “as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field”. Mr. Disney received a full-size Oscar statuette and seven miniature ones, presented to him by 10-year-old child actress Shirley Temple. The movie remains just as entertaining to watch today as it did all those decades ago, whilst Disney has continued to push the limits of what is expected in the world of animation.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
9 First Same-Sex Kiss: Manslaughter (1922)
Paramount Pictures
It’s sad to think that with a small minority, movies featuring same-sex relationships are still thought of as controversial or taboo in this day and age, especially seeing as it is believed that the first same-sex kiss in a movie dates back 100 years to 1922, with the release of the black and white, silent movie, Manslaughter. Unfortunately, despite being ground-breaking in that sense, the overall movie isn’t highly regarded by film historians and critics, with many citing it among director Cecil B. DeMille’s lesser efforts, falling victim to, like many other movies of the silent era, having to rely on pantomimically acted, overwrought melodrama to convey emotions and progress the plot.
8 First Film to Show a Flushing Toilet : Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock’s twisted horror Psycho broke ground in many ways, and while the actual shot of a flushing toilet certainly won’t be what most will remember after leaving a viewing of the movie, it is, in fact a reflection of Hitchcock’s entire approach to the film. Prior to Psycho, most movie-makers would shy away from following characters into the bathroom, and even alluding to such “distasteful” activities was avoided. Hitchcock took the rule book, ripped it up, and made one of the most shocking and uncompromising movies of the era, which still packs a punch to this day.
7 First Hollywood Film to Use 2D CGI: Westworld (1973)
MGM
Long before the much talked-about HBO series aired, Westworld was a successful popular movie released in 1973 starring Yul Brynner. With a highly ambitious premise based on Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name, it is set in an interactive amusement park containing life-like androids that unexpectedly begin to malfunction and wreak havoc. Universally praised by critics, the movie was a huge success, but one part, in particular, was especially important. When viewing the world from the point of view of one of the deadly androids, its vision appears to be pixelized and the coloring has been altered using digital image processing. Admittedly, by today’s standards, it looks like a filter that could be applied using any number of basic apps, but, at the time, it was a huge project that took months to achieve and marked the first time any kind of CGI has been use in a feature movie.
6 First Film to Gross $1 Billion: Titanic (1997)
20th Century StudiosParamount Home EntertainmentParamount Pictures
Titanic director James Cameron is no stranger to success; he’d already scored big with Aliens and The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but nobody was prepared for just how monumentally successful his 1997 movie Titanic would prove to be. Based on the real-life tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic, the sheer scale of death and destruction was certainly impactful. More than that, it felt even more personal as we spend nearly three hours with the two lead characters, Rose and Jack, following their forbidden romance and rooting for them throughout before the iceberg is even struck. After allowing the audience to develop this intimate bond with these two characters, we’re left devastated as — spoiler alert — it does not end well.
Audiences couldn’t get enough of the epic romantic drama / action disaster movie, and this was reflected in the box office numbers, which continued to soar. The movie was smashing records across the board, including becoming the first movie to gross more than $1 billion at the box office, ending on around $1.8 billion after its initial theatrical run. It remained the highest-grossing movie for 12 years straight until it was overtaken by Avatar, which was directed yet again by Cameron. Titanic has now gone on to gross over $2 billion and remains one of the highest-grossing movies to this day.
5 First Movie to be Entirely CGI: Toy Story (1995)
Walt Disney Pictures
CGI technology had been seeing steady advancements throughout the 1980s, with Pixar among the forerunners in this technology, working on a number of 3D animated shorts and advertisements. By the 90s, Disney had seen the future was looking to incorporate this technology into its feature films. Beauty and the Beast had beautifully combined traditional 2D animation with elements of CGI to enhance certain scenes and backgrounds. The next logical step was to create an entire feature film using CGI. After teaming up with Pixar Studios, the world was treated to the jaw-dropping beauty of Toy Story. Ahead of its time, top-notch animation was combined with a fantastically original premise, a solid voice cast, and beautiful music from Randy Newman to create one of the most beloved animated movies of all time and the first to be entirely computer generated, a technique that has since become the norm in animated movies.
4 First Computer Animated Motion Capture Film: The Polar Express (2004)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Tom Hanks not only starred in Toy Story, the first movie to be entirely computer generated, but also in Robert Zemeckis’ The Polar Express, an animated movie that took it one step further and used motion capture film. This meant that actors would be filmed with motion capture equipment in a black box, and the footage would then be animated. Unlike with Toy Story, the technology, still in its infancy, and the resulting movie, were not unanimously applauded, with many finding the animated characters to be too cartoony to be considered lifelike, but also too lifelike to be considered a cartoon, and overall just kind of creepy (per Tyla).
3 First X-Rated Movie to Win an Oscar: Midnight Cowboy (1970)
United Artists
The first and only X-rated movie to win an Oscar is 1969’s Midnight Cowboy. Featuring tour de force performances from both Dustin Hoffman and John Voight, the movie takes a deep and personal look in the developing friendship between a sex worker (Voight) and a con man (Hoffman) as they attempt to navigate America’s seedy underbelly. The film received universal praise for it acting, story, and cinematography, yet the film was given an X-rating after a psychologist warned of its “homosexual frame of reference” and its “possible influence upon youngsters.” The movie went on to win many awards including the Best Picture Oscar. It has since been reappraised and lowered to an R-rating.
2 First Interracial Kiss: Island in the Sun (1957)
20 Century Fox
Island in the Sun was deliberately created to start important conversations surrounding race relations and our views on interracial relationships in the 1950s. Starring some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, and Joan Collins, it follows the complex relationships of four couples, of Black, white and mixed races, as they play out against the pronounced social inequality dividing the ruling British elite and the slave-descended native population of a small (fictitious) West Indian island. While the movie was a commercial success, it still had its detractors and stirred up a fair bit of controversy including purported threats from the Ku Klux Klan, protests outside several cinemas and it being banned completely in Memphis, Tennessee.
1 First Non-English-Language Movie to Win Best Picture: Parasite (2019)
CJ Entertainment
Although it’s a “movie first” that was long overdue, what better movie to be the first non-English-language movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture than the South Korean, darkly comic social satire, Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho. This thought-provoking piece of art transcends cultures and languages. Since its release there seems to be a rise in interest in international cinema and television. Let’s hope these kinds of success continue to break down pre-existing barriers and open the doors to the wealth of international talent out there.
