Georges Méliès (1861–1938) was a French film maker who came to lead his time’s development within the film industry. In his earlier days he worked within his family’s boot manufacturing business but was even then fascinated by stage magicians and their fabulous performances. After a few years in the family business, Méliès managed to collect enough money to buy magician Robert Houdini’s old theatre. He himself became a full-time magician.

Méliès was sitting in the audience on the opening night when the Lumière brothers screened the world’s first film in December 28th 1895. He became so fascinated that he instantly tried to buy all the equipment they had used. But the Lumière brothers refused to sell and Méliès went to London where he got help building his own equipment. In April the following year his own first movie was shown to an audience in Paris.

During the following years, Méliès made over 400 films. A lot of tricks from Méliès’s earlier career as a magician were used within his film making to show the audience what really wasn't there. He was also the first director of his time to abandon film making in one take and cut together different scenes. Apart from this, Méliès was the very first to introduce special effects in film making through cutting, shooting with double films and hand painted colours. His most famous movie The trip to the moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a classic example of this.



After only a few years the technical development came to outrun George Méliès. He was forced to cease with his own film production and a while later also to sell his own studio. In 1923 he went into bankrupcy and had to sell news paper to make a living. By then, almost his entire film collection had been sold to be recycled into soldier boots during World War I. Hence, only a few of his films are preserved for today's audiences       

In the 1930's his contribution to film history was acknowledged by French film enthusiasts. Through this he was awarded a rent free apartment and a retirement fund from the French government for the remainder of his life. Today we honour Georges Méliès through the annual Méliès d'Or award to the best European fantastic film. In 2007, this award was held and arranged in Sweden at the Lund Fantastic Film Festival.