- France, 4 January: Marcel Carné has started work on Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows), with Jean Gabin, Michel Simon and Michèle Morgan. After UFA's refusal to produce the film, the subject had to be modified and transferred to France.
 - Paris, 25 January:
 Among the mourners who accompanied Georges Méliès to his final resting place at Père Lachaise cemetery were the two young founders of the French Cinématèque, George Franju and Henri Langlois. There were also many other admirers of Méliès, most of whom have only recently rediscovered this pioneer of cinematographic art. This fervent group had paid homage to the modest and forgotten magician in his old age after he had been found in a little toy shop at the Gare Montparnasse. Méliès died at the age of 78 on 21 January. Ironically, the day before, Émile Cohl died tragically at an old people's home at Villejuif, a candle having set his beard on fire. Thus, by an astonishing accident, he was reunited in death, after an interval of only a few hours, with another early enchanter of the cinema, two sprites with white beards and sparkling eyes.
- New York, 1 February: Release of Mad About Music, directed by Norman Taurog, starring Deanna Durbin, and featuring Herbert Marshall, Gail Patrick, Arthur Treacher and William Frawley.
- Paris, 9 February: Inauguration of the Olympia movie theater on the boulevard des Capucines. The façade has been transformed by 25,000 lights and 1,500 metres of neon lighting.
- Paris, 9 February:
 The Parisian public are at last able to enjoy La Marseillaise, the great film about the French Revolution that Jean Renoir has promised for a year. The originality of the screenplay lies in the events of 10 August 1792, and not those of 1789. There must have been a tremendous temptation to deal with the leading figures of the epoch. Instead, Renoir has preferred to cast his eye over the ordinary people who made up the Marseilles Batallion, the group of volunteers who marched to Paris. Pierre Renoir plays Louis XVI and Lise Delamare is Marie-Antoinette, but the real heroes of the popular fresco are a peasant, a customs official, a mason and a house painter. The collective production, financed by the French trade unions, is "the film of the union of the French nation against a minority of exploiters, the film of the rights of man and of the citizen." In commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Revolution, Renoir is celebrating, at the same time, the Popular Front. One should ask, however, if this idea has arrived too late, as the enthusiasm for the Popular Front is not what it was in 1936. Originally, the idea was to finance the film by issuing public subscriptions at two francs apiece; however, it fell short of the total required. In addition, financial support was lost when Léon Blum's government fell last year. Nevertheless, Renoir's film is a triumph.
- Hollywood, 11 February:
 The producer David O. Selznick has brought Tom Sawyer back to the silver screen in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, starring Tommy Kelly in the title role. There is, perhaps, a little more slapstick in this handsome production than Mark Twain would have liked, but the cave sequence with the evil-eyed Victor Jory as Injun Joe captures the chilling mood of the original. Photographed in Technicolor by James Wong Howe and designed by Lyle Wheeler and William Cameron Menzies, the film presents a highly romanticized view of life in the American South from the producer who is about to embark on his production of Gone With the Wind. Norman Taurog directed.
- Paris, 16 February: After having impressed the public and critics on its release last December, The Puritan, Jeff Musso's first film, has become the second recipient of the Prix Louis Delluc. Adapted from a story by the Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty, it tells of Francis Ferriter, a journalist who belongs to a secret society dedicated to ceansing the country of moral impurities. When a fellow member refuses to denounce his own son's affair with Molly, a woman of easy virtue, Ferriter murders her, only realizing much later that he was motivated by his own sexual desire. There is a superb performance by Jean-Louis Barrault in the title role, leading a fine cast that includes Viviane Romance as Molly and Pierre Fresnay as the probing and perceptive police chief. The re-creation of the atmosphere of Dublin also, quite obviously, influenced the panel of judges in their choice.
- Hollywood, 24 February: MGM has bought the rights for the famous children's book, The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.
- New York, 3 March: Release of Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby, with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
- Hollywood, 10 March:
 Her bitter contractual battle with Warner Bros. behind her, Bette Davis has hit her stride in Jezebel, directed by William Wyler. She delivers a magnetic performance as tempestuous Southern belle Julie Marston, "half-angel, half-siren, all woman!" as the posters shriek, who goes a tad too far in attempting to arouse fiance Henry Fonda's jealousy. Davis' extraordinary conviction ensures that the red dress she wears to scandalize New Orleans society loses none of its impact in a black-and-white picture. George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp and Fay Bainter manage to shine in Davis' shadow. This role is Bette's consolation for being denied the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.
 - Hollywood, 10 March: Luise Rainer was content to stay at home on the evening of the 10th annual Academy Awards ceremony held at the Biltmore in front of over 1,000 guests. After all, although she had been nominated for her performance in The Good Earth, she had already won the Best Actress Oscar® last year for The Great Ziegfeld. And on top of that, her rivals this time around were Greta Garbo (Camille), Barbara Stanwyck (Stella Dallas), Janet Gaynor (A Star Is Born) and Irene Dunne (The Awful Truth). However, at 8:35 p.m., the names of the winners were given to the press, and Rainer was telephoned at home and told she had won. Quickly changing into an evening dress, she dashed downtown to receive her second statuette. She therefore becomes the first star to win two Oscars® in succession. The evening's other big winners were Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous), director Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth) and The Life of Emile Zola, voted the Best Picture.
- Marseilles, 15 March: Marcel Pagnol is supervising the construction of his new studios, which are to include three sound stages, at the same time as finishing filming The Schpountz. He has no doubts about his future success, and is convinced that "Marseilles will become the French Hollywood."
- New York, 7 April: Release of The Adventures of Marco Polo, with Gary Cooper in the title role, and Basil Rathbone. Archie Mayo directs.
- Paris, 13 April: The Marivaux cinema is now screening Christian-Jacque's film, Les Disparus de Saint-Agil (Boys School), starring vonstroheim, Michel Simon, Armande Bernard, Robert Le Vigan and three young actors, Serge Grave, Jean Claudio and Marcel Mouloudji.
- Paris, 15 April:
 The curious title of Marcel Pagnol's new film playing at the Olympia, The Schpountz, was borrowed from Slavonic slang that means a simple or screwy person, and was originally suggested by Pagnol's photography Willy Faktorovitch. In this case it refers to Fernandel as a movie-mad grocer, who becomes the victim of a practical joke played on him by a cynical film crew touring his district of Provençe. He arrives at the studio in Paris on their false promises, but reveals himself as a successful comedian. Apparently, this ironic, very amusing, self-mocking and acerbic satire was based on a true story. Fernandel in the title role is wonderfully "schpountzy" and is encircled by a rich gathering of characters, among them the Pagnol favorites Charpin and Orane Demazis, the Panisse and Fanny of his trilogy.
 - Berlin, 20 April: For those who could not attend the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the event has been stunningly captured on film by Leni Riefenstahl, chronicler of the Nazi rallies at Nuremberg in Triumph of the Will. Her Olympia, backed by all the resources of the State, is a virtually delirious celebration of the postures of German physical vitality, divided into two parts: the Fest der Vöker (Festival of the Nations) is an evocation of Ancient Greece utilzing a combination of "strength through joy" and Isadora Duncan; the Fest der Schönheit (Festival of Beauty) celebrates the games itself, emphasizing athletic shape rather than the details of competition. However, this hymn to glistening muscle has been marred by the demand of Nazi ideology that the minimum of attention be paid to the highlight of the Olympics, the triumphs of black American sprinter Jesse Owens.
- Paris, 6 May: Abel Gance, director of Napoléon, has never concealed his preference for screenplays of vast historic frescoes. Unfortunately for him, there are not many producers capable of financing his unbounded ambitions. However, it seems as though this state of affairs may be on the verge of change. Following an announcement today in the press, Gance is preparing to make three large films for the Sud company. The trio will highlight three significant historical figures: Christopher Columbus, the Genoese who discovered America; Ignatius Loyola, the Spanish theologian who founded the Jesuit order; and finally the Cid Campeador, the 11th-century Castilian knight, already the hero of a great many literary works, of which Corneille's play is the most famous. According to the director, the films will be a huge "Latin Gesture."
- Hollywood, 12 May:
 Already this looks like Errol Flynn's year. Warner Brothers' swashbuckling star has stepped into the shoes of Douglas Fairbanks in The Adventures of Robin Hood, a high, wide and handsome story of Sherwood Forest shot in glorious three-strip Technicolor and directed with immense panache by Michael Curtiz, who took over the director's chair from William Keighley after filming began. The legendary medieval outlaw was originally supposed to be played by James Cagney, but the project was shelved after one of the feisty star's disputes with the studio. However, after Flynn's triumph in the 1935 Captain Blood, it was only a matter of time before Jack Warner dusted off the property for his athletic new star. Flynn is backed by a superb supporting cast, including Olivia De Havilland as a meltingly lovely Maid Marian, Alan Hale as a rumbustious Little John, and aquiline Basil Rathbone as the silkily villainous Sir Guy of Gisbourne, perishing at the sharp end of Flynn's sword after an epic battle to the death. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's stirring score spurs the action along, and Carl Julius Weyl's magnificent sets provide the perfect backdrop to a $2 million extravaganza that can boast of sufficient stunts for at least six adventure yarns.
- Paris, 13 May: Release of L'Etrange Monsieur Victor (The Strange Mr. Victor), by Jean Grémillon, with Raimu, Madeleine Renaud, Pierre Blanchar and Viviane Romance.
- Paris, 18 May:
 Marcel Carné's third feature, Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows), is now showing at the Marivaux. This story, adapted by Jacques Prévert from the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, tells of an army deserter (Jean Gabin), who is driven to murder by evil forces and flees to Le Havre. It is there that he meets and falls in love with Nelly (Michèle Morgan), but their plan to escape together is foiled by her guardian (Michel Simon). In the end, he is shot and killed by a gangster (Pierre Brasseur) whom he had humilated. When Gabin tells the 18-year-old Morgan, in trench coat and beret, that she has beautiful eyes, nobody in the audience could disagree. The doomed and poetic atmosphere of the film is created by muted lighting and the somber, fog-bound sets designed by Alexander Trauner. All the characters give the impression of living in suspense, in a world where corruption has triumphed. Perhaps it is this quality that has annoyed some of the critics. Both those on the left and right have reproached Quai des brumes for being totally pessimistic. In his column in the Communist newspaper L'Humanité, Georges Sadoul referred to "the politics of deadly nightshade running downstream." Jean Renoir felt antipathy toward the film, seeing it as "Fascist propaganda," and believing that the immoral characters were "fascist at heart," who would happily shake the hand of a dictator. Prévert, who considers himself violently anti-fascist, was incensed by his friend's remarks.
- Paris, 23 May: Saint-Lazare station was thronging with crowds of well-wishers as Danielle Darrieux, back from America, stepped off the train with her husband, the director Henri Decoin. She announced that she is looking forward to returning to work in France after making The Rage of Paris for Universal in the US.
- New York, 3 June: Release of Three Comrades. Adapted from the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, with Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone and Robert Young. Scott Fitzgerald is credited as co-scriptwriter and Frank Borzage directed.
- Moscow, 18 June: The director Mark Donskoy has just released Destvo Gorgoga (The Childhood of Maxim Gorky), the first of a trilogy, based on Gorky's autobiography. This poetic film about childhood and the realities of Russian peasant life is produced by Soyuzdetfilm studios.
- Paris, 23 June: Over 150,000 people have seen the Walt Disney cartoon feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which had been screening for seven weeks at the Marignan Theater.
- Hollywood, 23 June: According to the press, Norma Shearer has been chosen to play the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind
- New York, 28 June: Release of John Cromwell's Algiers, with Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie and Hedy Lamarr.
- Paris, 1 July:
 The young French film star Danielle Darrieux, known simply as "D.D.", has recently returned from Hollywood, which she set out to conquer last autumn. Accompanied by her husband, director Henri Decoin, she intends to resume her career in Europe. Her return coincides with the French release of her first American film, The Rage of Paris, a fast-moving comedy that co-stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and has been smoothly tailored by Universal to introduce the charming star to the American public. Director Henry Koster heads the same team who shot another "D.D." -- Deanna Durbin -- to stardom.
 - Paris, 15 July: This month sees the establishment of the Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF). The driving force behind this new organization has been Henri Langlois, a film archivist who founded the Cinémathèque Française along with George Franju in 1936. Langlois believes most passionately that the true key to safeguarding the heritage of the world cinema lies in establishing close links between national film libraries. Outside France there are film archives in Britain, the United States and Germany. FIAF's headquarters will be in Paris, but its first Congress will be held in New York.
- Washington, 20 July: The Justice Department has begun instituting proceedings against eight influential studios and 25 of their branches for violation of the anti-monopoly laws.
- Paris, 1 August: Abel Gance has obtained a patent for the Pictographe, in association with cameraman Roger Hubert and the engineer Pierre Angénieux. The device improves the quality of shots requiring depth of field.
- Paris, 10 August: Julien Duvivier is back after shooting The Great Waltz in Hollywood with Fernand Gravey: "A huge whatsit with music. I hope everyone will be satisfied with it," he said.
- Washington, 15 August: Senator Sullivan declared in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which has been in action since 10 August, that he believes "Hollywood is becoming a breeding ground for communist propaganda."
- Venice, 20 August: A dark cloud hangs over this year's awards, where the jury's political affinities were obvious. The Mussolini was shared by Leni Riefenstahl for Olympia and Goffredo Alessandrini for Luciano Serra, Pilot. However, nobody contested the crowning of Marcel Carné for Quai des brumes, nor Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard's best acting awards in W. S. Van Dyke's Marie Antoinette and Anthony Asquith's Pygmalion, respectively, while Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was deemed a worthy winner of the art award.
- Hollywood, 25 August: David O. Selznick has signed an agreement with MGM whereby the studio will loan out Clark Gable to Selznick for Gone With the Wind in exchange for the film's distribution rights and 50 percent of its profits.
- New York, 26 August: Premiere of Spawn of the North, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring George Raft, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, supported by Akim Tamiroff and John Barrymore. The Paramount special effects crew has managed to integrate location sequences filmed in Alaska and the Sierra Nevada with those shot on the back lot. The result is very impressive, but Tamiroff steals the show with his portrayal of Red Skane, the Russian fish pirate.
- New York, 1 September: Premiere of Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You, starring Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold and an unusual mixture of Capra odd-balls: Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington, Samuel S. Hinds, Donald Meek, H. B. Warner, Halliwell Hobbes, Dub Taylor, Mary Forbes, Lillian Yarbo and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson. Kaufman and Hart's Pulitzer Prize-winning play is brought to the screen with a distinctly Capra-esque treatment.
- London, 1 September: Release of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.
- Paris, 8 September:
 Filmgoers have been flocking to see Marcel Pagnol's new film, La Femme du boulanger (The Baker's Wife). Inspired by an episode in the Jean Giono novel Jean le Bleu, the film received its first public showings in Marseilles in a theater rented by Pagnol and renamed Le César for the occasion. Thanks mainly to its star, Raimu, this acutely observed drama dealing with infidelity has been an instant popular and critical success. Having played the irascible César in Pagnol's Marseilles trilogy, Raimu is cast as a baker bewitched, bothered and bewildered when his young wife (Ginette Leclerc) leaves him for the handsome shepherd Charles Moulin.
- New York, 8 September: Premiere of Boys Town, starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, and directed by Norman Taurog.
- Paris, 19 September: Marcel Carné has started shooting Hôtel du Nord in the Billancourt studios. The film's sets, designed by Alexander Trauner, are already being talked about.
 - Paris, 19 September: It was while on the train headed to Venice, where they would attend the Mostra film festival, that Emile Vuillermoz and René Jean, two journalists, had the idea for an international film festival to be held in France. When put to Jean Zay, the Minister of Education and Arts, he was very interested. And in fact, the transformation of the Mostra of Venice into a highly politicized event has necessitated the creation of another film festival. That is why the Americans and the British have let it be known that they would encourage the setting up of an international festival in France. Already, many towns have put forward their candidacy, notably Vichy, Biarritz and Algiers. Nevertheless, it looks as if the town of Cannes has won this race. Its sunny Mediterranean climate and its refined atmosphere would be an excellent shop-window for France and her cinema.
- China, 30 September: The Cinema Group of Yenan has been set up. It is to be managed by the great actor-director Mu-jih Yuan under the political supervision of the Eighth Communist Army.
- Paris, 5 October: Release of Marc Allégret's new project Entrée des artistes (The Curtain Rises), starring Louis Jouvet and Odette Joyeux.
- New York, 14 October: The Roxy Theater is holding the premiere of Suez, directed by Allan Dwan, with Tyrone Power in the role of Ferdinand de Lesseps, Loretta Young and the French actress Annabella. Persistent rumors are going around about a romance between the handsome young leading man and Annabella.
- Great Britain, 31 October: Four hundred movie theaters are simultaneously screening Sacha Guitry's Le Roman d'un tricheur (The Story of a Cheat), which was released in Paris two years ago. This is the first French movie to enjoy such widespread distribution in Great Britain.
- New York, 11 November: Release of If I Were King, starring Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee, and directed by Frank Lloyd.
- New York, 24 November: Release of Michael Curtiz' Angels with Dirty Faces, starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan and the Dead End Kids.
- Moscow, 1 December:
 After years of failure and fruitless projects, Sergei Eisenstein has finally succeeded in creating his first sound film. The action of Alexander Nevsky takes place in 1242, when Holy Russia was invaded by the armies of Teutonic knights. Prince Alexander Nevski (Nicolai Cherkassov) forms a people's army to drive the brutal invaders from their land. Eisenstein, combining aesthetic demands with a popular theme, has placed his ideas about musical counterpoint and sound at the service of a patriotic epic. The result offers stirring images and a "symphonic structure" (with the dramatic music of Prokoviev), particularly during the Battle of the Ice.
 - New York, 2 December: Audiences at Radio City Music Hall give thumbs up to Leslie Howard's production of the Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion. Howard is perfectly cast as the unworldly philologist Professor Henry Higgins with the delightful Wendy Hiller co-starring as the Cockney flower girl he turns into a lady. Shaw's original screenplay was adpated by Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Lewis and W. P. Lipscomb. Three men have had a hand in the direction of Pygmalion, Howard, Anthony Asquith and the volatile Central European, Gabriel Pascal, whom Shaw has entrusted with the filming of his plays. Shaw had previously rejected various Hollywood suitors, including Sam Goldwyn, to whom he personally delivered the tart observation, "The trouble, Mr. Goldwyn, is that you are only interested in art, and I am only interested in money." Little love was lost between Howard and Pascal during filming, but none of this can be discerned in the final product. Indeed, after completing the film, Howard and Pascal announced their plan for Howard to play two real-life British heroes, Nelson and also Lawrence of Arabia. Howard's co-star Wendy Hiller has been on stage since the age of 18, and in 1935 scored a personal triumph in London and New York in the Depression drama titled Love on the Dole.
- Paris, 7 December: The César Theater is currently showing Werther, Max Ophüls' new film, based on the work by Goethe, with Pierre Richard-Willm and Annie Vernay. It was photographed in black and white, but the exterior shots are being projected in blue.
- Paris, 16 December:
 "Atmosphere, atmosphere... I've had a gutsful of atmosphere!" So says Arletty in Marcel Carné's "atmospheric" new film Hôtel du Nord. Although this time Carné has used a screenplay penned by Henri Jeanson and Jean Aurenche instead of Jacques Prévert, the dialogue is as eloquent and incisive as in Quai des brumes. The writers have given the director ample opportunity to create a poetic bittersweet drama, and the splendid cast the chance to shine. Adapted from the populist novel by Eugéne Dabit, the film focuses on the residents of a rundown hotel on the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris. They include a young couple (Jean-Pierre Aumont and Annabella) who make a suicide pact, and a cynical murderer on the run (Louis Jouvet) with his lively mistress (Arletty). In order to create the atmosphere required, Carné got his art director Alexander Trauner to construct the hotel and the Quai in the studio. The subtly-lit and perfectly designed sets are well photographed by Armand Thirard, except when a bus, passing a scaled-down hotel façade, reaches up to the second-story windows.
 - Paris, 21 December: Jean Renoir's new project entitled La Bête humaine (The Human Beast) came about because Jean Gabin wanted to work with Renoir again, and because of the star's love of locomotives. Like Nana, which Renoir directed for his wife Catherine Hessling 12 years ago, The Human Beast originated from Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series of novels, though the style of the film is vastly different. While Nana was close to German Expressionism, this recent film is full of the fatalistic mood of French realism. Renoir's beautifully crafted screenplay has been updated to contemporary France and remains faithful to the 1890 novel. It provides opportunities for the powerul, brooding presence of Gabin and the enchanting Simone Simon, and allows Gabin to actually drive a train from Paris to Le Havre.
- Paris, 23 December: A bit in advance of the customary award date, the jury for the Prix Louis Dulluc, currently in its third year, has named Marcel Carné's Quai des brumes as the winner of its award. Carné's film was chosen from a prestigious selection of pictures that include: Les Disparus de Saint-Agil, l'Etrange Monsieur Victor, Entrée des artistes, Hôtel du Nord and La Bête humaine. Meanwhile, Alerte en Mediterranée from director Leo Joannon has won the Grand French prize.
- Hollywood, 26 December:
 MGM has chosen Sweethearts for its first three-strip Technicolor picture. Starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, the film is based on Victor Herbert's 1913 operetta and not only introduces the singing lovebirds in color, but also places them into a contemporary setting for the first time. MacDonald has bright red hair and green eyes, and is dressed throughout by Adrian in pale pink shades. In the title number, the fair-haired Eddy wears a bright uniform, and she is in a gold sequined gown. Of course, the stars' voices make the film as much of a joy to the ears as to the eyes.
- New York, 30 December: 20th Century-Fox releases Kentucky, directed by David Butler, and starring Loretta Young and Richard Greene in a Romeo and Juliet story set amidst horseracing in bluegrass country. Walter Brennan gives a particularly strong performance as Young's father, Peter Goodwin.
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16 February - New York City, 
22 May - New York, NY,