Movies & TV Facts for Kids
Behind-the-scenes facts from film and TV
Hans Zimmer is one of the world's most prolific film composers, having scored over 150 films including The Lion King, Gladiator, Inception, and Dunkirk. His music is heard by millions of people every day.
Drive-in cinemas — where audiences watch films from their cars — were hugely popular in America during the 1950s and 1960s, with over 4,000 screens at their peak. Today only a few hundred remain worldwide.
Tom Hanks is one of only two actors to win back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Actor, winning for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994). Spencer Tracy achieved the same feat in 1937 and 1938.
Subtitles display translated dialogue at the bottom of the screen so audiences can enjoy foreign language films. Parasite (2019), a South Korean film with English subtitles, made history by winning the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Indiana Jones' iconic fedora hat and bullwhip became two of the most recognisable costumes in cinema history. Harrison Ford reportedly based much of the character's mannerisms on his own clumsy, accident-prone personality.
Film editing involves choosing which takes to use and how to join them together to tell a story. The Soviet director Eisenstein pioneered the montage technique in the 1920s, showing that cutting between unrelated images creates new meaning.
Batman first appeared on screen in a 1943 black-and-white serial, while Superman's first film appearance came in 1948. Both DC Comics characters have since starred in dozens of films and remain two of cinema's most bankable heroes.
Films are classified into genres such as horror, comedy, drama, action, and romance. Many films blend two or more genres together, such as a romantic comedy (rom-com) or a comedy-horror.
A film's costume designer uses clothing to tell audiences about each character's personality, background, and status without a single word being spoken. The costumes for The Lord of the Rings took two years to design and make.
The James Bond film series, beginning with Dr. No in 1962, is one of the longest-running and highest-grossing franchises in cinema history. Six different actors have played the iconic British spy.