Dear friends of good film,

When Giovanni Battista della Porta showed an astounded audience his trick box, which he called the camera obscura, horrifying those present with the devil he “conjured”, there were still many years and many discoveries to be made before the invention of cinematography.

Along the way, there was the motion picture projector of Austrian general and inventing enthusiast, Franz von Uchtius, Reynaud’s Theatre Optique, Muybridge’s Horse in Motion, Fred Ott’s Sneeze, and the first “kiss” of film portrayed by May Irwin and John C. Rice.

But though the first of its kind, the kiss was still preceded by the Lumiér brothers’ demonstration of their cinematograph and a series of bigger and smaller steps made by other enthusiasts who, in their fight for technological advancement, began to develop the concept of what we today call film.

An important innovator of European cinematography and the artist who used what was then just a curious technical contraption to tell a story, Georges Méliès created the first adventures for film and deserves a chapter of his own.

And let us not forget those innovators and personalities that European and global cinematography can still boast of today. Let us be thankful to them, just as we are to those who each year prepare a wonderful festival called Days of European Film.

Oldrich Lomecký
Mayor of Prague 1