The early part of the 1910s saw the global centre of filmmaking shift to Southern California, where independent producers fled the restrictive patent trusts of the East Coast to establish Hollywood. This migration coincided with a radical expansion in storytelling scope, as pioneered by Italian epics like Cabiria (1914) and cemented controversially by D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916).

These films proved that audiences had the stamina for multi-reel narratives, while simultaneously establishing the core language of classical editing, including the close-up, parallel editing, and moving camera shots. The devastation of World War I changed things again. Hollywood took control of the global economic dominance, while European nations forged distinct national styles to reclaim their cultural identity.

Those born during the 1910s—such as Akira Kurosawa (1910), Michelangelo Antonioni (1912), Satyajit Ray (1912), Orson Welles (1915), and Ingmar Bergman (1918) would grow up to become the definitive post-WWII modernists and auteurs.