Émile Reynaud (1877)
- Created the Praxinoscope, an early device for viewing animated images.
William Friese-Greene (1889)
- Produced and showed some of the earliest successful short narrative films using celluloid, including an experimental "talking" movie.
Thomas Edison (1890s)
- Developed the Kinetoscope, a peephole projection device. However, the Kinetoscope presented short films for individual viewers at a time.
Auguste and Louis Lumière (1895)
- Presented projected "Cinématographe" screenings that used multiple techniques from earlier developments and is widely regarded as the beginning of projected cinematic silent films.
As silent films advanced and gained popularity, numerous key figures became instrumental in shaping the genre and developing various cinematic techniques, storytelling, and performance styles.