Film has, from its earliest days, been a vehicle for the fantastic. Visionary artists of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries who saw limitless potential in a new medium and technology embraced the fragile cellulose and nitrate emulsions and created incredible worlds for their audiences to enjoy.

Sadly, the majority of this seminal work is forever lost, the images on that perishable medium crumbled away to dust long before preservation was possible. Still more rots in storage bins to this day despite the best efforts of a few preservationists. Only a fraction of that earliest work has been – or will be – saved for posterity, and for the education and enjoyment of our children and grandchildren.

If you have the opportunity to support one or more of the preservation efforts, please do so. In the meantime, enjoy these tributes to the first forays into science fiction filmmaking.

And if you know of and/or would like to contribute something for a film not yet included in our pages, please contact us.