IN 1895 the Lumiere Brothers made the first motion pictures, which amazed the world.

In 1896, a foreign movie was screened at Xu Garden in Shanghai, the first film screening in China.

In 1905, "Ding Jun Shan" (Ding Jun Mountain), a Peking opera film was shot, marking the birth of the film industry of China.

In 1908, a Spanish businessman built the first cinema -Hongkew Motion Picture Theatre - in what is now the Hongkou District in Shanghai.

In 1913, renowned director Zhen Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan produced the first Chinese movie "Nan Fu Nan Qi" ("The Difficult Couple").

In the early 1920's, Shanghai witnessed the first exchange between US film technicians and their Chinese counterparts. Technicians from the US trained the then fledgling local moviemakers.

In 1921, the first film newspaper "Ying Xi Cong Lun" was established in Shanghai.

In 1931, Star Studio produced "Ge Nu Hong Mu Dan" ("The Songstress, Red Peony"), the first "talking" movie, featuring film queen Hu Die. Star Studio was based in Shanghai, and was the largest film production studio in China.

In 1933, the film tabloid, Star Daily, organized a contest for the title of "film queen", and Hu Die won the title with 21,334 votes.

In the early 1930s, the left-wing movement influenced the film industry in Shanghai.

In 1933, the first left-wing film - "Kuang Liu" ("Torrents") was made by Star Studio, and was regarded as a breakthrough for the studio's artistic style.

A group of 31 directors and actors/actresses organized the China Film Culture Association, turning their attention to the life of the under privileged and urging all directors and actors/actresses to "build a new film world" reflecting the poor masses' pursuit of a bright future.

The 1940s saw a series of high quality movies flourish which told about the painful life of ordinary people and their struggles for better lives as they faced the impending civil war between the Communist Party of China and the corrupt Kuomintang regime. The most famous of these films include "Spring River Flows Eastward", "Crow and Sparrow" and "Light of a Million Homes".

After liberation and during the 1950s, a number of films concerning Japanese invasion and the civil war were shot.

From 1966-1977, the notorious "cultural revolution" severely damaged the film industry in China.

After the "Gang of Four" were defeated, professionals in the film industry immediately shared their creativity and painful retrospectives on the "cultural revolution" with movie viewers.

During the 1980s, the film industry boomed again, and young directors in particular renewed their intense probing into society and humanity. In the first half of the decade, the fifth generation of film makers surfaced and attracted public attention.

During the 1990s, the Chinese film industry continued to develop rapidly.

In 1995, the Chinese Government allowed foreign movies to be screened all over the country.

In the latter half of the 1990s, the sixth generation of film makers emerged with works like Zhang Yuan's "East Palace and West Palace", Wang Xiaoshuai's "Beijing Bicycle" and Jia Zhangke's "Xiao Wu".

To date, more than 7,000 movies have been produced by Chinese film makers.