1976 •
Steadicam is used for the first time in a production:
Hal Ashby's
Bound for Glory, however,
John Schlesinger's
Marathon Man, released the same year is the first to be commercially released. •
The Young Teacher is the first feature film released on
VHS.
1978 •
Watership Down is the first animated film to be presented in
Dolby Stereo. •
Jaws is the first feature film released on
LaserDisc.
1980 •
The Shining by
Stanley Kubrick is the first film to use a steadicam in "low mode".
1981 •
Looker is the first film to feature a
CGI human character, Cindy. Also, first use of 3D shaded CGI.
1982 • For
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) computer graphics division develops "Genesis Effect", the first use of fractal-generated landscape in a film. Bill Reeves leads the Genesis Effect programming team, and creates a new graphics technique called Particle Systems.
1983 •
Rock & Rule is the first animated film to use computer graphics. •
The Terry Fox Story was the first
television film ever made for a
cable network.
1984 •
The Last Starfighter uses CGI for all spaceship shots, replacing traditional models. First use of 'integrated CGI' where the effects are supposed to represent real-world objects. •
Invasion of the Body Snatchers becomes the first film to receive a home video release in its original aspect ratio, when
The Criterion Collection releases it as Laserdisc Spine #008.
The practice would go on to become the industry-wide standard for future
home video releases.
1985 • In
Young Sherlock Holmes,
Lucasfilm creates the first
photorealistic CGI character, 'stained glass knight', with 10 seconds of screentime.
1990 •
The Rescuers Down Under is both
Walt Disney Animation Studios' first theatrical sequel and Hollywood's first feature film digitally colored and assembled entirely on computers, using the studio's proprietary
Computer Animation Production System (C.A.P.S.).
1991 •
Beauty and the Beast is the first animated film to have an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. •
The Silence of the Lambs becomes the first and only horror film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
1992 •
Batman Returns is the first film to be released with Dolby Stereo Digital (now known as
Dolby Digital). This came after a limited experimental release of
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country played in three US theatres in 1991.
1993 •
Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees, originally released in 1991, is the first film to be
streamed on the Internet. •
Du fond du coeur is the first feature film to be shot on European 1250 lines (1152 active) HDTV format, at least partially, due to technical problems during shooting.
Du fond du coeur (1994) was more successful in this regard, but, though finalized on 35 mm film, was intended as a TV series rather than for theatrical release. •
Super Mario Bros. is the first live-action film adaptation to be based on a video game.
1994 •
True Lies by
James Cameron is the first film to cost $100 million. Later, such budgets would become much more commonplace. As of January 2024, at least 500 films have been made with a budget of $100 million or more.
1995 •
Toy Story by
John Lasseter is the first feature film to be made entirely using CGI. •
Casper, the first CGI lead character in feature-length film (preceded
Toy Story by six months). •
Party Girl is the first film to debut on the internet on June 3, 1995. • The
LaserDisc version of
Clear and Present Danger featured the first
home theater Dolby Digital sound mix. It was quickly followed by
True Lies,
Stargate,
Forrest Gump, and
Interview with the Vampire among others.
1996 •
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the first animated film to cost at least $100 million. •
The English Patient is the first digitally edited film to win the
Academy Award for Best Editing.
1997 •
Titanic by
James Cameron becomes the first film to cost $200 million and to earn more than $1 billion worldwide. •
Twister by
Jan de Bont, the first film to be commercially available on the
DVD format in the United States.
2000 • First
digital cinema projection in Europe by Philippe Binant with DLP Cinema technology for the release of
Toy Story 2. •
O Brother, Where Art Thou? by the
Coen brothers is the first feature film to be entirely
color corrected by digital means. •
Fantasia 2000 is the first animated feature-length film shown in
IMAX. The success of the release, as well as IMAX corporation's struggle with layoffs and closures, led to the creation of
IMAX DMR process, which
up-converts conventional films to IMAX format. •
Our Lady of the Assassins was shot on progressive digital HDTV, though at a 30 fps framerate. Transferred to 35 mm for release.
2001 •
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is the first feature film to use
motion-capture to create characters. It is also the first hand-drawn and foreign film to win in the category. •
Vidocq: first film shot in digital progressive HDTV at standard 24 fps cinematic framerate.
2002 •
Russian Ark by
Alexander Sokurov is the first feature film to be shot entirely in uncompressed
high definition video. It is also the first feature film to consist of a single unedited take. •
Apollo 13 is the first film to experience
IMAX DMR process, which
up-converts conventional films to IMAX format.
2004 •
Able Edwards, the first movie with all-CGI backgrounds and live actors. •
The Polar Express by
Robert Zemeckis, the first film to entirely use the
motion-capture technique, whereby the physical movements of the actors are digitally recorded and then translated into a computer animation.
2006 •
X-Men: The Last Stand, the first movie to feature
De-aged actors, specifically
Ian McKellen and
Patrick Stewart. •
Ode to Joy, the first European movie to have its premiere simultaneously in theaters and online as VOD through
national Polish television site www.itvp.pl.
2007 • The original 65 mm negative of
Baraka is scanned in
8K resolution, becoming the first film to do so.
2008 •
U2 3D was the first live-action film to be shot, posted, and exhibited entirely in 3-D, the first live-action digital 3-D film, Regarding its production, it was the first 3-D film shot using a
zoom lens, an
aerial camera, and a
multiple-camera setup. Additionally, it was the first 3-D film to feature
composite images with more than two layers, •
The Dark Knight is the first mainstream feature to be partially shot with IMAX 70mm cameras, with 30 minutes of footage.
2009 •
Monsters vs. Aliens by
Conrad Vernon and
Rob Letterman, the first CGI-animated film to be directly produced in the
stereoscopic 3-D format instead of being converted into 3-D after completion. •
Priyanka Chopra becomes the first actor to portray at least twelve characters in a film, when she stars in ''
What's Your Raashee?''. •
Slumdog Millionaire is the first
Academy Award for Best Cinematography winner shot mainly on
digital video. •
Avatar by
James Cameron is the first 3-D film to be the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing the 2-D ones. It is also the first winner of the
Academy Award for Best Cinematography shot entirely on
digital video.
2010 •
Toy Story 3 is the first CGI-animated film to cost at least $200 million. It is also the first animated film to gross over a $1 billion.
2011 •
The Artist is the first film financed entirely outside the
United States and
United Kingdom to win the
Academy Award for Best Picture. •
Searching For Sonny is the first feature film shot entirely on a
DSLR. •
Olive is the first feature film shot entirely on a cell phone.
2012 •
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first wide-release film to be shot using a
high frame rate. Cinematographer
Andrew Lesnie shot the film using 48 frames per second, twice the usual 24 frames per second. However, few cinemas were capable of showing the high frame rate version of the film - at most 1,000 screens out of the 39,056 showing it in the United States - and most showed it in the ordinary frame rate. The reason for this increased frame rate was to make the 3-D easier to watch, remove camera blur, and increase clarity. •
Brave by
Mark Andrews and
Brenda Chapman, is the first film to make use of the
Dolby Atmos surround sound format. •
Frankenweenie becomes the first
black-and-white film and the first
stop-motion animated film to be released in
IMAX.
2013 •
Skyfall is the first film to gross over £100 million in the
United Kingdom. •
The Wolf of Wall Street by
Martin Scorsese, becomes the first major American movie to be delivered to theaters in digital formats only. •
Stalingrad is the first Russian film to be released in
IMAX. •
Hooked Up by Pablo Larcuen is the first commercially released film to be shot on a smartphone, in this case an
iPhone 4s.
2014 •
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the first mainstream feature to be released in
IMAX with Laser.
2015 •
Hits becomes the first feature-length film to be released on
BitTorrent with a pay-what-you-want model.
2016 • On February 14, the first films are released on the
Ultra HD Blu-ray format, with
The Amazing Spider-Man 2,
Salt,
Hancock,
Chappie,
Pineapple Express, and
The Smurfs 2 being the first to be released, among others.
2017 •
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the first film to be shot in
8K resolution. It was shot with the Red Weapon 8K camera.
2018 •
Avengers: Infinity War is the first Hollywood feature film to be entirely shot with
Arri Alexa IMAX cameras equipped with Panavision Sphero 65 &
Ultra Panavision 70 lenses.
2019 •
The Lion King by
Jon Favreau, is the first photorealistic animated film.
2020 •
Parasite by
Bong Joon-ho, becomes the first film not in the English language to win the
Academy Award for Best Picture at the
92nd Academy Awards ceremony. •
The Midnight Sky by
George Clooney, the first feature film to utilize
Industrial Light & Magic's
StageCraft virtual production technology. •
Nomadland by
Chloé Zhao, the first Academy Award-winning film to be released theatrically, direct-to-streaming, and VOD at the same time.
2021 •
The Suicide Squad is the first non-Marvel Studios film ever released to be shot entirely with IMAX-certified digital cameras. Although
Top Gun: Maverick and
Dune had both accomplished the same feat and had finished filming earlier,
The Suicide Squad was released first, on August 5, after the releases of the other two were delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The film was shot with the Red Ranger Monstro 8K & Komodo 6K cameras. The film was also the first feature film to use the Red Komodo camera. •
The Tomorrow War is the first streaming original film to cost at least $200 million to produce. The film was originally set for theatrical release by
Paramount Pictures, but the film's distribution rights were ultimately acquired by
Amazon due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Four months later,
Red Notice was also released under similar circumstances and cost, on
Netflix. As of early 2022,
The Gray Man is set to become the first streaming original to cost at least $200 million that was originally intended as a streaming original, and released in July 2022.
2022 •
CODA becomes both the first film distributed by a
streaming service and the first film debuted at the
Sundance Film Festival to win Best Picture at the
94th Academy Awards ceremony.
2023 •
Oppenheimer by
Christopher Nolan is the first film to shoot sections in IMAX black and white
analog photography. •
The Creator by
Gareth Edwards is the first large-budget major studio film to be shot on the
prosumer Sony FX3 camera, the low cost of which is a rarity for a blockbuster film. ==2026–present==