Editing Cinema of Poland (section)

===Early history===
{{multiple image
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| image1            = Ślizgawka w Łazienkach - zanimowane kadry.gif
| caption1          = Animation made from preserved frames of ''[[Ślizgawka w Łazienkach]]''
| image2            = Cabman's Adventure 1902.jpg
| caption2          = Preserved frame from ''Przygoda dorożkarza'' - cabman notices that someone replaced his horse with a donkey
| image3            = Łódź Muzeum Kinematografii piwnice P5029858.JPG
| caption3          = Museum of cinematography in [[Łódź]]
| image4            = Pola Negri Ball.jpg
| caption4          = [[Pola Negri]], Polish [[femme fatale]] of [[silent film|silent cinema]]
| image5            = Eugeniusz-bodo 795791.jpg
| caption5          = [[Eugeniusz Bodo]], the "King of Polish actors" of the 1930s
| image6            = Andrzej Wajda OFF Plus Camera 2012 (cropped).jpg
| caption6          = [[Andrzej Wajda]], famous Polish director who received an [[Academy Honorary Award|Honorary Oscar]] in 2000
}}
The first [[Movie theater|cinema]] was founded in [[Łódź]] in 1899, several years after the invention of the [[Cinematograph]]. Initially dubbed ''Living Pictures Theatre'', it gained much popularity and by the end of the next decade there were cinemas in almost every major town in Poland. Arguably the first Polish filmmaker was [[Kazimierz Prószyński]], who filmed various short documentaries in [[Warsaw]]. His [[pleograph]] [[film camera]] had been patented before the [[Lumière brothers]]' invention and he is credited as the author of the earliest surviving Polish documentary titled ''[[Ślizgawka w Łazienkach]]'' (''Skating-rink in the [[Royal Baths]]'', also known as ''On skating-rink''<ref>{{Citation |author = Władysław Jewsiewicki |title = Kazimierz Prószyński |date = 1974 |access-date = 2023-11-22 |place = Warszawa |pages = 49–50 |publisher = Fundacja HINT |url = http://hint.org.pl/hid=680DB |language = pl}}</ref>), made between 1894 and 1896, as well as the first short [[narrative film]]s ''Powrót birbanta'' (''Rake's return home'') and ''Przygoda dorożkarza'' (''Cabman's Adventure''), both created in 1902. Another pioneer of cinema was [[Bolesław Matuszewski]], who became one of the first filmmakers working for the Lumière company - and the official "cinematographer" of the Russian tsars in 1897.

The earliest surviving [[short film]] is ''[[Pruska kultura]]'' (''Prussian Culture'') and the earliest surviving [[feature film]] is ''Antoś pierwszy raz w Warszawie'' (''Antoś for the First Time in Warsaw''). Both of them were made in 1908, the first one by an unknown director and the second one by [[Antoni Fertner]]. The date of ''Antoś''' [[première]], October 22, 1908, is considered the founding date of the Polish [[film industry]]. Soon Polish artists started experimenting with other genres of cinema: in 1910 [[Władysław Starewicz]] made one of the first [[animated cartoon]]s in the world - and the first to use the [[stop motion]] technique, the ''Piękna Lukanida'' (''Beautiful Lukanida''). By the start of [[World War I]] the cinema in Poland was already in full swing, with numerous adaptations of major works of [[Polish literature]] screened (notably the ''[[Dzieje grzechu]]'', ''Meir Ezofowicz'' and ''[[Nad Niemnem]]'').

During World War I the Polish cinema crossed borders. Films made in Warsaw or [[Vilnius]] were often rebranded with German-language [[intertitle]]s and shown in [[Berlin]]. That was how a young actress [[Pola Negri]] (born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec) gained fame in Germany and eventually became one of the European super-stars of [[silent film]].

The first woman to direct a film in Poland and the only female film director of the Polish silent film era was [[Nina Niovilla]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Stachówna |first=Grażyna |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54398332 |title=The New Polish Cinema |date=2003 |publisher=Flick Books |others=Janina Falkowska, [[Marek Haltof]] (eds.) |isbn=1-86236-002-2 |location=Trowbridge |pages=99 |chapter=A Wormwood Wreath: Polish Women's Cinema |oclc=54398332}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Haltof |first=Marek |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1056624930 |title=Polish Cinema: A History |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-78533-973-8 |edition=Second, updated |location=Oxford |pages=22–23 |oclc=1056624930 |author-link=Marek Haltof}}</ref> She debuted in 1918 in Berlin,<ref name=":1" /> and then directed her first Polish film<ref name=":1" /> titled ''Tamara'' (also known under the title ''Obrońcy Lwowa'') in 1919.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

During World War II, Polish filmmakers in Great Britain created the anti-Nazi color film ''Calling Mr. Smith''<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lux.org.uk/work/calling-mr-smith1 |title=Calling Mr. Smith - LUX |access-date=2018-01-30 |archive-date=2018-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180425234317/https://lux.org.uk/work/calling-mr-smith1 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cAXbMp/rqGRLe9 |title=L'œuvre Calling Mr Smith - Centre Pompidou |access-date=2018-01-30 |archive-date=2018-01-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131024033/https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cAXbMp/rqGRLe9 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://artincinema.com/franciszka-and-stefan-themerson-calling-mr-smith-1943/ |title=Franciszka and Stefan Themerson: Calling Mr. Smith (1943) |access-date=2018-01-30 |archive-date=2018-01-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131024247/http://artincinema.com/franciszka-and-stefan-themerson-calling-mr-smith-1943/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> (1943) about Nazi crimes in occupied Europe and about Nazi propaganda. It was one of the first anti-Nazi films in history being both an avant-garde and a documentary film.