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Essays, interviews, programme notes and archives about early cinema, from the festivals, critics and archives that publish them. Every entry opens on the publisher's own site.
Essay
Programme notes for a screening of The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), often cited among the earliest surviving animated features.
Essay
SFSFF 2026 program essay on Harry Piel's 1927 German Sensationsfilm.
Essay
SFSFF 2026 program essay on Erich von Stroheim's unfinished 1929 Gloria Swanson film, reconstructed by Milestone.
Essay
SFSFF 2026 program essay on Gloria Swanson's 1924 Sidney Olcott picture, made at Paramount's Astoria studio as she auditioned, in effect, for Peter Pan.
Essay
SFSFF 2026 program essay on Maurice Elvey's 1929 British science-fiction film, made in silent and sound versions, with its Art Deco future London and Channel Tunnel plot.
Essay
SFSFF 2026 program essay on William de Mille and Clara Beranger's 1921 adaptation of Zona Gale's novel and Pulitzer play, a small-town satire of marriage and unpaid domestic labor.
Essay
SFSFF 2026 program essay on A.W. Sandberg's 1917 Nordisk circus melodrama and Valdemar Psilander's last released performance, paired at the festival with Asta Nielsen's The Abyss.
Essay
Criterion Current roundup of SFSFF 2026 at the restored Castro Theatre, including Queen Kelly, Hula, and The Crowd.
Essay
Pamela Hutchinson's primer on Erich von Stroheim and Gloria Swanson's unfinished 1929 film, Joseph P. Kennedy's backing, and Milestone's reconstruction.
Essay
Library of Congress nitrate vault staff identify and restore Georges Méliès's long-lost 1897 short Gugusse and the Automaton, often cited as the first on-screen robot.
Essay
Pamela Hutchinson's centenary list for Sight and Sound: The General, Faust, Ménilmontant, Sparrows, Prince Achmed, Mother, and other 1926 landmarks.