1909 in film

The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.

• Carl Laemmle founds the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP).^[1]
• Selig Polyscope Company establish the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles in Edendale, Los Angeles.
• The New York Motion Picture Company is founded and also open a film studio in Edendale. The studio is later used by Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and then Mascot Pictures, which become part of Republic Pictures.
• February 4 – The Paris Film Congress begins, an attempt by leading European producers to form a cartel similar to that of the Motion Picture Patents Company in the United States.
• February 26 – Kinemacolor is shown to the public for the first time in the Palace Theatre in London.^[2]
• March 16 – Charles Urban forms the Natural Color Kinematograph Company.
• May 12 – Mr. Flip is released, the first film to feature someone being hit in the face with a pie.
• May 23 – The first news cinema, The Daily Bioscope, opens in London.
• June 17 – In the Sultan's Power, directed by Francis Boggs, is the first film ever completely made in Los Angeles, California.
• October 25 – IMP release their first film, Hiawatha, based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.^[3]
• November 5 - A Nature Movie by Arthur C. Pillsbury using film to explore the wonders of Yosemite. This first showing was for John Muir, a friend and associate of Pillsbury. Included was footage of the Hetch Hetchy. This film was then shown for the 1910 season at the Pillsbury Studio in Yosemite, advertised using postcards.^[4]
• December 2 – Matsunosuke Onoe, who will become the first superstar of Japanese cinema, appears in his first film, Goban Tadanobu.
• December 20 – James Joyce opens the Volta Cinematograph, the first cinema in Dublin.^[5]

Films produced in the United States unless stated otherwise

• The Airship Destroyer, sci-fi trick film directed by Walter R. Booth – (UK)
• At the Altar, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company

• A Corner in Wheat, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company
• The Country Doctor, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mary Pickford
• The Cowboy Millionaire, western directed by Francis Boggs and Otis Turner, starring Tom Mix
• The Cricket on the Hearth, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Owen Moore; based on the 1845 novella by Charles Dickens
• The Curtain Pole, comedy directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mack Sennett and Florence Lawrence

• The Diabolic Tenant (Le Locataire diabolique), trick film directed by and starring Georges Méliès for Star Film^[6] – (France)
• A Drunkard's Reformation, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company

• Edgar Allen Poe, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Herbert Yost

• The Golden Louis, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company

• The Hessian Renegades, war film directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Owen Moore

• Lady Helen's Escapade, comedy directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Florence Lawrence
• The Life of Moses, epic directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios
• The Lonely Villa, crime drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford

• A Midsummer Night's Dream, comedy directed by Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios; based on the 16th-century play by William Shakespeare
• Moscow Clad in Snow (Moscou sous la neige), documentary directed by Joseph-Louis Mundwiller for Pathé-Frères – (France)
• Mr. Flip, comedy directed by Broncho Billy Anderson for Essanay Studios, starring Ben Turpin

• Nero, or the Fall of Rome (Nerone, o la caduta di Roma), historical epic directed by Luigi Maggi and Arturo Ambrosio for Ambrosio Film – (Italy)

• Oliver Twist, drama directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios; based on the 1838 novel by Charles Dickens^[7]

• Princess Nicotine; or, the Smoke Fairy, trick film directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios

• The Red Man's View, western directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Owen Moore
• Resurrection, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Florence Lawrence; based on the 1899 novel by Leo Tolstoy

• Slippery Jim (Pickpock ne craint pas les entraves), trick film directed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathe-Freres – (France)
• The Spider and the Butterfly (Le papillon fantastique) (incomplete), trick film directed by and starring Georges Méliès for Star Film – (France)

• Theodore Roosevelt in Africa, documentary directed by Cherry Kearton
• Those Awful Hats, comedy directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mack Sennett
• A Trap for Santa Claus, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Henry B. Walthall

• The Voice of the Violin, drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company

• Whimsical Illusions (Les Illusions fantaisistes), trick film directed by and starring Georges Méliès for Star Film – (France)

• January 1 – Dana Andrews, actor (died 1992)
• January 3 – Victor Borge, musician, actor (died 2000)
• January 8 - Willy Millowitsch, actor (died 1999)
• January 15 – Gene Krupa, musician, actor (died 1973)
• January 22 – Ann Sothern, actress (died 2001)
• January 24 – Ann Todd, actress (died 1993)
• January 29 – Alan Marshal, actor (died 1961)
• February 2 – Frank Albertson, actor (died 1964)
• February 6 – Aino Talvi, Estonian actress (d. 1992)
• February 9
  • Carmen Miranda, singer, actress (died 1955)
  • Heather Angel, actress (died 1986)
• February 11
  • Max Baer – boxer, actor (died 1959)
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz – director, screenwriter, producer (died 1993)
• February 16
  • Hugh Beaumont, actor, director, writer (died 1982)
  • Jeffrey Lynn, actor (died 1995)
• March 19 – Louis Hayward, actor (died 1995)
• March 26 – Chips Rafferty, actor (died 1971)
• April 4 – Bobby Connelly, child actor (died 1922)
• April 22– Ralph Byrd, actor (died 1952)
• April 29 – Tom Ewell, actor (died 1994)
• May 4 – Howard Da Silva, actor, director (died 1986)
• May 15 – James Mason, actor (died 1984)
• May 16 – Margaret Sullavan, actress (died 1960)
• May 24 – Victoria Hopper, Canadian-born British actress and singer (died 2007)
• May 30 – Benny Goodman, musician, actor (died 1986)
• June 7 – Jessica Tandy, actress (died 1994)
• June 8 – Robert Carson, actor (died 1979)
• June 14 – Burl Ives, actor (died 1995)
• June 20 – Errol Flynn, actor (died 1959)
• June 26- Wolfgang Reitherman, director, producer, animator (died 1985)
• July 1 – Madge Evans, actress (died 1981)
• July 11
  • Irene Hervey, actress (died 1998)
  • John 'Dusty' King, actor, singer (died 1987)
• July 12 – Curly Joe DeRita, actor (died 1993)
• July 23 – Helen Martin, American actress (died 2000)
• July 24 - Sydney Bromley, English character actor (died 1987)
• August 25
  • Ruby Keeler, singer, actress (died 1993)
  • Michael Rennie, actor (died 1971)
• August 26 – Jim Davis, American actor (died 1981)
• September 7 – Elia Kazan, director (died 2003)
• September 27 - Amerigo Tot, Hungarian actor (died 1984)
• October 6 – Robert Carson, screenwriter (died 1983)
• October 20 – Carla Laemmle, actress (died 2014)
• October 29 – Douglass Montgomery, actor (died 1966)
• November 11 – Robert Ryan, actor (died 1973)
• November 26 – Frances Dee, actress (died 2004)
• December 9 – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., actor (died 2000)
• December 12 – Karen Morley, actress (died 2003)
• December 20 – Diane Ellis, actress (died 1930)
• December 22 - Patricia Hayes, English character actress (died 1998)

• January 27 – Benoît-Constant Coquelin, actor, Cyrano de Bergerac (born 1841)
• September 4 – Clyde Fitch, author & playwright whose works have been adapted into films. (born 1865)

• Fatty Arbuckle – Ben's Kid (as Roscoe Arbuckle)
• Ethel Clayton – Justified (short)
• Dolores Costello (as a child) – A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Helene Costello (as a child) – Les Misérables (Part I) (short)
• Marie Dressler – Marie Dressler (short)
• Francis Ford – The Stolen Wireless
• Annette Kellerman – The Bride of Lammermoor: A Tragedy of Bonnie Scotland
• James Kirkwood – The Heart of an Outlaw (short)
• Florence La Badie – The Politician's Love Story
• Tom Mix – The Cowboy Millionaire
• Mary Pickford – Mrs. Jones Entertains
• Billy Quirk – The Heart of an Outlaw
• William A. Russell – Tag Day (short)
• William Stowell – The Cowboy Millionaire
• Blanche Sweet – A Man with Three Wives
• Rose Tapley – The Way of the Cross (short)
• Clara Kimball Young – Washington Under the American Flag (short)

• List of 1909 films at IMDb
• List of 1909 deaths at IMDb
• List of 1909 births at IMDb