1909 in film

The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.

Events

 * Carl Laemmle founds the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP).
 * 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.
 * March 16 – Charles Urban forms the Natural Color Kinematograph Company.
 * May 12 – Mr. Flip is released and is 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 is the first film ever completely made in Los Angeles, California. It is filmed by director Francis Boggs.
 * October 25 – IMP release their first film, Hiawatha, based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
 * 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's. 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.
 * 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.

J. Stuart Blackton

 * Oliver Twist
 * The Judgment of Solomon
 * The Life of Moses
 * The Life of Napoleon
 * A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton
 * Les Misérables, directed by J. Stuart Blackton. A proto-feature film, or many short-films (in this case 4) that when combined can be seen as one feature film.
 * Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy

D. W. Griffith

 * At the Altar
 * A Corner in Wheat
 * The Country Doctor, starring Mary Pickford
 * The Curtain Pole, directed by D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett (uncredited)
 * The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period
 * The Drive for a Life
 * A Drunkard's Reformation
 * Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven
 * Fools of Fate
 * The Golden Louis
 * The Hessian Renegades
 * Lady Helen's Escapade
 * The Lonely Villa
 * The Red Man's View
 * Resurrection
 * The Sealed Room, starring Mary Pickford
 * The Suicide Club, directed by D. W. Griffith (U.S.)
 * Those Awful Hats
 * A Trap for Santa Claus

Georges Méliès

 * The Count's Wooing
 * The Diabolical Tenant (aka The Diabolical Lodger), directed by George Melies (French)
 * The Doctor's Secret, directed by George Melies (French)
 * Fortune Favors the Brave, directed by George Melies (French)
 * Le papillon fantastique

Others

 * The Adventures of Lieutenant Rose
 * The Airship Destroyer (originally titled Der Luftkrieg Der Zukunft, also titled "The Aerial Torpedo", "The Battle of the Clouds" {UK} and "The Battle in the Clouds" {US}), directed by Walter R. Booth
 * The Ancient Roman (made in Italy)
 * Ballad of a Witch, directed by Luigi Maggi (made in Italy)
 * The Bewitched Manor House (French/ Pathe)
 * Bluebeard, directed by J. Searle Dawley for Thomas Edison, starred Charles Ogle
 * The Bogey Woman (French/ Pathe)
 * The Butcher's Dream (French)
 * Capturing the North Pole, features Baron Munchausen (British/ Urban-Eclipse Films)
 * The Cat That Was Changed Into a Woman, directed by Louis Feuillade (French)
 * The Convict Guardian's Nightmare (French)
 * The Cowboy Millionaire, directed by Francis Boggs and Otis Turner
 * Dance of Fire (Pathe)
 * Dante's Inferno, directed by Giuseppe de Liguoro, starring Salvatore Papa (Italian); ran 59 minutes
 * The Defeat of Satan (French/ Pathe)
 * The Devil (Edison Co.) adaptation of the play starring George Arliss
 * Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, directed by August Blom, starring Alwin Neuss and Oda Alstrup; made in Denmark for Nordisk Films
 * Don Juan Tenorio, directed by Enrique Rosas (made in Mexico)
 * Doomed (French/ Pathe)
 * The Egyptian Mystery (Edison)
 * Electric Transformations, directed by Percy Stow (British/ Clarendon)
 * Entrevista de los Presidentes Díaz-Taft (Mexico), a documentary directed by the Alva Brothers
 * Faust, directed by J. Searle Dawley and Edwin S. Porter for Thomas Edison
 * The Ferryman's Sweetheart (Gaumont)
 * The Fitzsimmons-Bill Lang Fight
 * The Forbidden Fruit (Pathe)
 * Gertie the Dinosaur, animated cartoon by Winsor McKay
 * Goddess of the Sea
 * The Grey Lady (aka The Grey Dame), directed by Viggo Larsen, starring Viggo Larsen as Sherlock Holmes (Denmark)
 * Hansel and Gretel
 * The Haunted Hotel (French/ Pathe)
 * The Haunted Man, introduced the "doppelganger" theme, similar to The Student of Prague (Germany/ Duskes Film)
 * Her Dolly's Revenge (French/ Lux)
 * Hiawatha, directed by William V. Ranous based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the first film produced by Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures.
 * The Hunchback, directed by Van Dyke Brooke for Vitagraph; unauthorized remake of the 1906 film Esmeralda
 * The Imp of the Bottle (Thomas Edison), based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson
 * The Invisible Thief, directed by Segundo de Chomon and Ferdinand Zecca (French); first adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel The Invisible Man
 * Les Joyeux Microbes, directed by Émile Cohl
 * The Last Look (Pathe)
 * Lucrece Borgia (French)
 * Lunatics in Power (Thomas Edison Co.), based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe called The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether
 * Macbeth, directed by André Calmettes
 * The Man Monkey (Pathe)
 * The Man Who Laughs (French), based on the famous novel by Victor Hugo
 * The Marvelous Pearl (made in Italy)
 * Mephisto and the Maiden, directed by Frank Boggs
 * The Mirror of Life (French/ Pathe)
 * Miss Faust (French/ Pathe)
 * Mr. Flip, directed by Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson
 * A Modern Dr. Jekyll, produced by William Selig
 * The Moonstone, produced by William Selig, based on the novel by Wilkie Collins
 * Mother Goose (Edison Co.)
 * The Mummy of the King Ramses directed by Gerard Bourgeois (French)
 * Mystery of Edwin Drood, directed by Arthur Gilbert (British), based on Charles Dickens' novel
 * Mystery of the Lama Convent, directed by Viggo Larsen (Denmark)
 * Nerone, directed by Luigi Maggi
 * The New Jonah (Pathe)
 * The Nymphs' Bath (French/ Gaumont)
 * The Old Shoemaker (French/ Gaumont), based on The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
 * The Oriental Mystic (Vitagraph, U.S.)
 * Papa Gaspard; or, The Ghost of the Rocks
 * Phaedra (French/ Pathe) featured a sea monster
 * The Phantom Sirens
 * The Pit and the Pendulum, directed by Henri Desfontaines (French/ Warwick), based on the famous story by Edgar Allan Poe
 * The Princess and the Fisherman, directed by Louis Feuillade (French)
 * Revenge of the Ghosts, animated cartoon directed by Emil Cohl (French)
 * Satan's Smithy, directed by Segundo de Chomon (French)
 * Shooting in the Haunted Woods, directed by Louis Feuillade (French)
 * The Spirit of the Lake (fantasy film made in Italy); it was followed by a sequel called The Legend of the Lake in 1911
 * The Suicide Club, directed by Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset (French)
 * The Sword and the King (U.S./ Vitagraph)
 * Talked to Death (Lubin)
 * Teddy Roosevelt in Africa, directed by Cherry Kearton
 * Tis Now the Very Witching Time of Night, produced by Thomas Edison
 * The Ugliest Queen on Earth (French/ Gaumont)
 * Viy (aka The Vij), directed by Vasilii Gonmcharov (Russian)
 * The Wild Ass's Skin (French/ Pathe) based on the story by Balzac
 * The Witch
 * The Witch's Cavern (Selig Polyscope)
 * The Yiddisher Boy

Births

 * 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 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)

Deaths

 * 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)

Film debuts

 * 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)