Louis and Auguste Lumiere, inventers of the cinema as we know it today, around 1894. One funny thing is "Lumiere" means light in french. A funnier thing is what their father told the boys when they showed their invention to him : "This invention will ruin you, because it has no commercial future". Yeah. Note that although the Lumiere's movies were already real pieces of popular art, the first real film director was near-genius Georges Melies.

A few famous movies by the Lumière brothers, all made in 1895:

• La sortie des usines Lumière (Leaving the Lumière Factory). You can see a few workers who are leaving a factory after work. The first documentary.
• L'entrée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station). A train is arriving in a station. The people who saw that movie were afraid of the train. The first thriller.
• L'arroseur arrosé (Sprayer sprayed). A gardener wonders why his watering-can does not work. While he's watching it, the water suddenly runs again and the gardener is all wet. Actually it was a joke by a young boy. The first comedy.