- Poland, 1 January: Filmmaker Aleksander Ford is shooting Majdanek, a documentary on the Nazi extermination camp which has just been liberated by the Soviet army.
- New York, 12 January: Release of Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat, with William Bendix, Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak and Walter Slezak in the cast.
- Paris, 15 January: After the release of Pierre Billon's Vautrin (Vautrin the Thief), with Michel Simon, a newspaper published the following: "The cinema has condemned us to seeing the base, disgusting, revolting face that Michel Simon gives to Vautrin." Denounced by Le Pilori as a Jew, his photo is on view at the anti-Semitic exhibition at the Berlitz Palace.
- Rome, 17 January: With the liberation of the capital, Roberto Rossellini has started filming Roma Città Aperta (Rome, Open City), starring Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi.
- Moscow, 24 January: Release of director Mark Donskoi's Radouga, which portrays life in a Ukranian village subjected to atrocities by the German troops during the Occupation.
- Mexico, 20 January:
 The same day that the Mexican director Emilio Fernandez commenced shooting The Pearl, based on John Steinbeck's novella, his latest film María Candelaria has opened to acclaim. Both the exquisite Dolores Del Rio, showing few signs of age at 38 (she had been a star of Hollywood silents), in the title role as an Indian peasant girl, and Pedro Armendáriz as her poverty-stricken fiance, are excellent. Particularly impressive is Gabriel Figueroa's photography of the Mexican settings. This violent and flamboyant melodrama tells of how María's mother had been stoned to death by the members of a primitive community after she had posed nude for an artist. When her lover is jailed for stealing quinine for her malaria, María poses, head only, for the same artist to obtain funds. The locals make assumptions and history repeats itself. Although often verbose and solemn, the film has surprising flashes of humor embedded in its sad tale. The two great stars of the Mexican cinema had already worked together under Emilio Fernández last year in Flor silvestre.
- Paris, 31 January: Death of Jean Giraudoux -- author, playwright, scriptwriter and the former Commissioner of Information.
- Los Angeles, 4 February: Little 11-year-old Elizabeth Taylor is making National Velvet for MGM's Clarence Brown.
- Los Angeles, 6 February: Jean Renoir has married Dido Freire. One of the witnesses was Charles Laughton, who stars in Renoir's latest film about the French Resistance, This Land Is Mine.
- New York, 10 February: Paramount releases Mitchell Liesen's Lady in the Dark, starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland, with Warner Baxter, Jon Hall, Barry Sullivan and Mischa Auer.
- Hollywood, 2 March:
 This year the Academy Awards ceremony has been held in new surroundings, Grauman's Chinese Theater, with Jack Benny presiding as master of ceremonies. The proceedings are carried live by radio across the United States and to troops fighting in Europe and the Pacific. The Best Actress Oscar® has been won by Jennifer Jones for her performance in The Song of Bernadette while Paul Lukas scooped the Best Actor Oscar® for Watch on the Rhine. Jack Warner elbowed producer Hal Wallis aside to pick up the Best Picture award for Casablanca, which also garnered the awards for both Best Director (Michael Curtiz) and Best Screenplay.
- California, 14 April: Marlene Dietrich has undertaken a tour of the American bases in Italy and North Africa.
- Los Angeles, 2 May: Release of Going My Way, a musical comedy about the conflict between a priest (Barry Fitzgerald) and his young replacement (Bing Crosby). Leo McCarey wrote the screenplay, produced and directed this audience pleaser.
- New York, 4 May: Premiere at the Capitol Theater of George Cukor's Gaslight, starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman.
- Italy, 3 June: Partisans have managed to free director Luchino Visconti from the prison in San Gregorio where he had been transferred for acts of resistance. His political connections have made him a popular target for the fascist regime.
- Hollywood, 7 June:
 Having very recently aimed his darts at motherhood in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, the director-writer Preston Sturges has turned his satiric eye toward flag-waving patriotism in Hail the Conquering Hero. It hilariously tells how asthmatic mild-mannered Woodrow, beautifully played by Eddie Bracken, is unwillingly set up as a war hero in his hometown, a situation created and maintained by the sentimental army sergeant (William Demarest). The fast-paced comedy, which also takes cracks at parochial politics, small-town America and apple-pie family life, is attracting large audiences, perhaps wearied by too much serious military screen heroism.
- Los Angeles, 16 June:
 RKO's Days of Glory, another Hollwyood tub-thumper for our Soviet allies, has launched the film career of handsome 28-year-old newcomer Gregory Peck. He co-stars with Tamara Toumanova, the wife of the picture's writer and producer Casey Robinson, as an uncommonly good-looking pair of partisans, prettily lobbing Molotov cocktails at German tanks. Born in La Jolla, California in 1916, former medical student Peck began his acting career in 1939 with New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, modeling shirts in his spare time. He made his Broadway debut in Emlyn Williams' The Morning Star, following which he was tested, and turned down by David O. Selznick. But after scoring a big stage hit in a dual role in The Willow and I, his chisled good looks caught the attention of RKO. Days of Glory has had a cool reception, but Peck is a hot property.
- Hollywood, 29 June: Otto Preminger has finished filming Laura with Gene Tierney in the title role and Dana Andrews. Laura's portrait in the film is in fact a photograph done over with oil paint.
- Hollywood, 1 July: Leon Schlesinger, the producer of "Merry Melodies" and "Looney Tunes," has decided to retire. He has sold his studio to Warner Brothers.
- Paris, 18 July: According to an article headlined "The Cinema with Clean Hands," just published in L'Ecran français, there will be no place in the French cinema of tomorrow for those who collaborated with the enemy. The first edition of the clandestine newspaper was published in December 1943. Managed by René Blech, the editorial board is comprised of Pierre Blanchar, the president of the Committee, Louis Daquin, Jean Delannoy, André Luguet and André Zwobada. Only this edition has been printed bearing the name L'Ecran français; the others were incorporated in Les Lettres française, put out by the Film Trade Unions (C.G.T.), and Opera, supported by the Resistance Committee of the Cinematographic Industry.
- New York, 20 July: UA releases Since You Went Away from Selznick International and directed by John Cromwell. While husband Tim is away during World War II, Anne Hilton (Claudette Colbert) copes with problems on the homefront. Taking in a lodger, Colonel Smollett (Monty Woolley), to help make ends meet and dealing with shortages and rationing are minor inconveniences compared to the love affair conducted by daughter Jane (Jennifer Jones) and the Colonel's grandson (Robert Walker). Supporting players include Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Hattie McDaniel, Agnes Moorehead and Albert Basserman.
- Los Angeles, 1 August: Darryl F. Zanuck releases Fox's prestige picture for the year, Wilson, directed by Henry King. Alexander Knox shines in the title role, ably supported by Charles Coburn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell, Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price.
- Paris, 22 August: Henri Langlois, under the ægis of the French Cinémathèque, has just screened David O. Selznick's Gone With the Wind before the theaters have even had time to reopen. It is the first American film to be shown in Paris since the Liberation.
- Los Angeles, 22 August: Release of William Dieterle's Kismet from Metro. Ronald Colman and Marlene Dietrich (slathered in gold paint) star in this non-musical version of the story of ancient Bagdad, supported by James Craig, Edward Arnold and Harry Davenport.
- Paris, 25 August: The actor Charles Dauphin, a colonel with the Leclerc division, took part in the liberation of Paris. Having served in London and in the US, he arrived in France with the Allied forces on 14 July.
- Paris, 25 August:
 The Committee for the Liberation of the Cinema remains active in the resistance movement and is thwarting the Germans wherever possible. With L'Ecran français, its clandestine underground newspaper plus the thousands of leaflets it distributes over the city, the Committee has thus managed to sabotage many of Vichy's directives. And just six days ago, the patriotic militia arm of the Committee took over occupation of a group of buildings held by the Germans, including the premises of IDHEC (the Institute of Cinematic Studies), the General Administration of the Cinema, laboratories and studios at Buttes-Chaumont, as well as companies set up and managed by the Germans: the production company Continental Film, the distribution company Tobis and the commercial channels of Sogec. This series of insurrections has the support of various cinematographic groups that comprise this Committee which has not ceased its acts of resistance since its creation early this year. Its aims are to defend the interests of the workers, to fight against deportation and to assist resistants, escaped prisoners and the families of victims. In response to orders given by the Committee, numerous professionals in the industry have continued to be active, but the skirmishes at Batignolles have given rise, tragically, to casualties.
- Hollywood, 6 September:
 When George Raft, a notoriously poor judge of scripts, turned down the male lead in Billy Wilder's latest picture, Double Indemnity, the director knew he had a hit on his hands. And instead, easy-going Fred MacMurray proves perfect in the part of the idly philandering insurance salesman ensnared by femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck in a plot to kill her husband, take the money and run. Stanwyck plays the cold-blooded killer in a blonde wig and ankle bangles because Wilder wanted to make her look "al sleazy as possible." The result is a tautly orchestrated film-noir melodrama, that both Wilder and thriller writer Raymond Chandler adapted from James M. Cain's novel, in which the oppressive tension mounts as the homicidal couple's nemesis -- MacMurray's cigar-chomping boss Edward G. Robinson -- uncovers the truth of their "perfect murder."
- Los Angeles, 22 September: RKO Radio releases Clifford Odets' None But the Lonely Heart, starring Cary Grant as Cockney ne'er-do-well Ernie Mott, and Ethel Barrymore as his long-suffering mother.
- New York, 23 September: Warner Bros. have finally released Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by Frank Capra before he offered his services to the US Government to supervise the production of the "Why We Fight" series of propaganda films that explain America's war commitment.
- Paris, 24 September: Fred Astaire is giving a show for the Allied forces at the Olympia Theatre. It is the first time the famous dancer and actor has appeared on stage in France, but unfortunately, the show is not open to the public.
- Paris, 27 September: The actor Roger Duchesne has been arrested in the 18th arrondissement, where he has been in hiding since the Liberation. He is accused of having worked for the Gestapo.
- Stockholm, 2 October: Release of Hets (Torment), by Alf Sjöberg, who is considered to be Sweden's leading filmmaker, with Stig Jarrell, Alf Kjellin and Mai Zetterling. Ingmar Bergman wrote the impressive screeplay.
- Paris, 4 October: Marlene Dietrich has arrived in the capital to take part in a show at the Olympia for the Allied forces.
- New York, 10 October:
 Fritz Lang has returned to a favorite theme, the ruinous effect of a man's lust for a woman, in the The Woman in the Window. This powerful film noir traces the descent of a middle-aged professor (Edward G. Robinson) from his uneventful life into a nightmare world of deception and murder, after he meets a woman (Joan Bennett) whose portrait in a store window has hypnotized him. The performances of the leads could not have been better, and the strong supporting cast includes Raymond Massey and Dan Duryea. Certain critics have attacked the surprise, "Production Code" ending, but it offers a Freudian explanation, implying a deeper and darker side to surface respectability.
 - New York, 11 October: Howard Hawks, producer-director of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, has found a stunning new leading lady for the film's star Humphrey Bogart. Last autumn, Hawks' wife spotted the 18-year-old model Betty Perske on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. Within a month Hawks had signed her to a seven-year contract. Under her new name Lauren Bacall, she makes a sensational debut opposite Bogart as the insolently independent young drifter who teaches him how to whistle in the sexiest possible way -- "You just put your lips together and blow." The couple's crackling on-screen chemistry has sparked an off-screen romance, provoking the fury of the 45-year-old Bogart's present wife, Mayo Methot. However, Hawks was delighted, sitting up at night with screenwriter Jules Furthman to work the intimacy between Bogey and Bacall into the script. Bacall's husky voice, carefully coached by Hawks, lowered eyelids and tawny, tumbling hair have wowed Warners, who have dubbed her offbeat beauty "The Look." Money alone cannot create such magic.
- New York, 10 October:
 Femmes fatales are all the rage at the moment, and beautiful Gene Tierney is the mystery dame in the title role of Fox's Laura. She's the enigmatic career girl, supposedly dead, whose life-size portrait begins to obsess dogged detective Dana Andrews. Director Rouben Mamoulian prepared the project, but after only a few days shooting he was replaced by Otto Preminger, the film's producer. Preminger fought with studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck throughout the production, but the final product looks like it will be a critical and commercil hit. Clifton Webb gives an outstanding performance, making his talking picture debut as the epicene columnist and murder suspect Waldo Lydecker. "I'm not kind, I'm vicious," says Waldo. "It's the secret of my charm."
- New York, 11 October: Actress Odette Joyeux, who was arrested at home yesterday following a denunciation for collaboration, has been released. The charges proved groundless.
- New York, 16 October: Release of Spies on the Thames (a.k.a. Ministry of Fear), by Fritz Lang, adapted from a Graham Greene novel. The film stars Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds and Dan Duryea.
- Paris, 24 October: Charles Vanel's appearance in Paris has put an end to the rumors about his disappearance.
 - New York, 28 November: A remarkable new Technicolor musical has opened here. Undoubtedly the most stylish color picture yet released by the giant MGM studio, Meet Me in St. Louis is based on the stories by Sally Benson, first published in the New Yorker, about her life in St. Louis at the turn of the century. Producer Arthur Freed was quick to recognize the potential of this charming family chronicle, especially as a vehicle for MGM's leading young musical star, Judy Garland, and the studio's gifted new director, Vincente Minnelli. Sparing no expense, MGM has assembled a fine cast, including Mary Astor and Leon Ames as the parents, and newcomer Lucille Bremer as Judy's elder sister, along with an outstanding production team headed by cameraman George Folsey, art directors Lemuel Ayers and Jack Martin Smith, and a delightful score by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. The songs and dances, choreographed by Charles Waters, are seamlessly integrated ito the story, while Minnelli, known as a fine director of actors, proves to be a remarkable color stylist as well. Most memorable of all is the acting of little Margaret O'Brien and, of course, Judy Garland, whose sensitive singing and acting are sheer delight.
- London, 30 November:
 While Hitler's V-2 rockets fall on London, the renaissance of British cinema during the war years has been confirmed by the release of Laurence Olivier's Henry V, a brilliant adaptation of Shakespeare's war play. Olivier has fought his own private war to get the film to the screen, and critics are unanimous in their praise. Olivier stars and directs in one of the first British Technicolor productions, filmed in County Wicklow in the neutral Republic of Ireland, where there are none of the signs of war that still disfigure the English landscape. Henry V reaches a stirring climax in the Battle of Agincourt sequence, whose sweeping style owes much to Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky. Olivier did all his own stunt work, and at one point he was hobbling around with a crutch under his right arm, his left arm in a sling and a plaster bandage around his face. The final cost of Henry V has come in a around £500,000, a record for a British picture, and it was completed only with the financial help of J. Arthur Rank, who came to the rescue of producer Filippo Del Giudice when he looked to be running out of cash. The brilliant color photography is from Robert Krasker and the stirring score has been composed by William Walton. With its bold combination of stylized and naturalistic sequences, and superb supporting cast of distinguished Shakespeareans, this is a film fit to greet the end of the war.
Use this link to listen to Olivier's Battle of Agincourt speech. (1.4 MB, MP3 format)
- Paris, 6 December: After a long four-year break, the activities of the Cercle du Cinéma, organized by Henri Langlois, have started up again. A screening will take place at 8:15 p.m. in the Studio de l'Etoile, with a program of films by Méliès, Emile Cohl, René Clair, Luis Buñuel and Jean Vigo.
- New York, 15 December: Release of Delmer Daves' Hollywood Canteen. The galaxy of Warners' stars performing for the troops includes The Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Eddie Cantor, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, John Garfield, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers singing "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds," Roy Rogers (and Trigger) performing Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In", S. Z. Sakall, Zachary Scott, Alexis Smith, Barbara Stanwyck, Craig Stevens, Jane Wyman and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.
- Madrid, 20 December: Due to financial problems encountered by the producers, Abel Gance has had to stop work on the film he started two weeks ago, starring the famous matador Manolete.
- Germany, 31 December: In a country ruined by the war, producers, nevertheless, managed to turn out 75 full-length films during the past year.
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10 February - Tenterfield, N.S.W., Australia,