For this list of lost films, a lost film is defined as one of which no part of a print is known to have survived. For films in which any portion of the footage remains (including trailers), see List of incomplete or partially lost films.
Films may go missing for a number of reasons. One major reason is the widespread use of nitrate film until the early 1950s. This type of film was extremely flammable, resulting in several fires, such as the 1967 MGM Vault fire and the 1937 Fox Pictures' vault fire. Nitrate film was also melted down for its silver content. Films may also become lost because production companies went bankrupt, or because no one thought the movies were worth saving. Occasionally studios would remake a film and destroy the earlier version.
This is necessarily an incomplete list. Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation claims that "half of all American films made before 1950 and over 90% of films made before 1929 are lost forever." Deutsche Kinemathek estimates that 80-90% of silent movies are gone; the film archive's own list contains over 3500 lost films. While others dispute whether the percentage is quite that high, it is impractical to enumerate any but the more notable and those that can be sourced.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, lost and/or films:
“Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realize that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are to be made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)
“Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives—from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango—with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to- date scripts for actors on the tourists’ stage.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“All you people don’t know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for, and he fought for them once, for the only reason that any man ever fights for them. Because of just one plain, simple rule—Love Thy Neighbor. And in this world today, full of hatred, a man who knows that one rule has a great trust.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)