This document summarizes the history of film from 1800s to 1920s. It discusses early innovators like Edison who developed technologies like the kinetoscope. The Lumieres brothers produced short films in the 1890s in France. Georges Melies directed influential fantasy films. Nickelodeons emerged as the first movie theaters. German filmmakers like Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau also made important silent films. Hollywood studios like Fox, MGM and Warner Bros. were formed and the Motion Picture Patents Company sought to control the new industry.