1888 in film

• George Eastman files for a patent for his photographic film.
• Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge who proposes a scheme for sound film (February 27, West Orange, New Jersey).
• Étienne-Jules Marey starts work on his chronophotographe camera with 90 mm wide roll paper film.
• Charles-Émile Reynaud patents his Théâtre Optique which uses a kind of perforated film to create an animated show,

• Roundhay Garden Scene, Accordion Player and Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge, filmed by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince in Leeds, United Kingdom, using paper "stripping" film and paper negative film.
• Horse and Rider Jumping Over An Obstacle[1] (Pferd und Reiter Springen über ein Hindernis) and other sequences, shot by Ottomar Anschütz in Germany.

• January 3
  • George B. Seitz, American director, writer, actor and producer (died 1944)
  • James Bridie, Scottish writer (died 1951)
• January 17 – Edvard Persson, Swedish actor (died 1957)
• January 23 – Franklin Pangborn, American actor (died 1958)
• March 4 – Rafaela Ottiano, Italian-born American actress (died 1942)
• March 5 – Jules Furthman, American writer, director and producer (died 1966)
• March 10 – Barry Fitzgerald, Irish actor (died 1961)
• March 30 – Anna Q. Nilsson, Swedish-born American actress (died 1974)
• April 11 – Donald Calthrop, English actor (died 1940)
• April 27 – Florence La Badie, American actress (died 1917)
• May 17 – Claude Mérelle, French actress (died 1976)
• May 25 – Miles Malleson, English actor and writer (died 1969)
• July 4 – Henry Armetta, Italian-born American actor (died 1945)
• July 16 – Percy Kilbride, American actor (died 1964)
• August 14 – Robert Woolsey, American actor (died 1938)
• August 17 – Monty Woolley, American actor (died 1963)
• September 12 – Maurice Chevalier, French actor and singer (died 1972)
• September 25 – Hanna Ralph, German actress (died 1978)
• September 26 – Wally Patch, English actor and writer (died 1970)
• October 1 – John E. Blakeley, English producer, director and writer (died 1958)
• October 9 – Hank Patterson, American actor (died 1975)
• October 18 – Paul Vermoyal, French actor (died 1925)
• October 25 – Lester Cuneo, American actor and producer (died 1925)
• November 3 – Maurice Vinot, French actor (died 1916)
• November 18 – Frances Marion, American writer, director, producer and actress (died 1973)
• November 23 – Harpo Marx, American actor and writer (died 1964)
• November 24 – Cathleen Nesbitt, English actress (died 1982)
• November 25 – Amund Rydland, Norwegian actor (died 1967)
• November 26 – Francisco Canaro, Uruguayan-born Argentine composer, producer and actor (died 1964)
• December 6 – Will Hay, English actor, writer and director (died 1949)
• December 18 – Gladys Cooper, English actress (died 1971)
• December 22 – J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank, English producer and writer (died 1972)
• December 27
  • Thea von Harbou, German actress, writer and director (died 1954)
  • Svend Melsing, Danish actor and playwright (died 1946)
• December 28 – F. W. Murnau, German director, writer and producer (died 1931)

Media related to 1888 in film at Wikimedia Commons

• 1888 at The Internet Movie Database