Although Americans say Edison invented the cinema, I think it is fair to give credit to the Lumiere brothers for this invention. Louis and Auguste Lumière were born in Besançon, in 1862 and in 1864, but moved to Lyon when they were children to flew from the Prussian menace. They were the sons of a businessman and artist called Antoine Lumière.
Soon after Louis developed a dry-plate photo process, known as 'Etiquette bleue', which brought fortune to the Lumiere family, his father asked his sons to work on the problem of animated images. One year later, in 1895, the "Lumière Cinematograph" was born. On March 19th of that year the first film in history was shot: 'La Sortie des Usines Lumière', at the gates of the Lumière factory in the Monplaisir quarter of Lyon. The street were this film was shot has been renamed 'Rue du Premier Film' (=First Film Street). Since 1982 the Lumière Institute keeps and promotes the works of these pioneers.