1891 in film

• William K. L. Dickson, an assistant to Thomas Edison, supervises the construction of the first movie studio, the "Black Maria", in West Orange, New Jersey which produces many of the early Kinetoscope short films of the 1890s later seen in penny arcades the following year after the studio is completed.
• March – William K. L. Dickson successfully develops a working prototype of the Kinetoscope which moves horizontally.
• May 20 – First public display of Thomas Edison's prototype horizontal kinetoscope: Dickson Greeting is shown at Edison's Laboratory for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs in West Orange, New Jersey.
• August 24 – Thomas Edison files for a patent for the motion picture camera (which he receives in 1897).

• Dickson Greeting, starring and directed by William K. L. Dickson.
• Duncan and Another, Blacksmith Shop, directed by William K. L. Dickson and William Heise and starring James C. Duncan.
• Duncan Smoking, directed by William K. L. Dickson and William Heise and starring James C. Duncan.
• Duncan or Devonald with Muslin Cloud, directed by William K. L. Dickson and William Heise and starring Fred C. Devonald and James C. Duncan.
• Men Boxing, directed by William K. L. Dickson and William Heise.
• Monkey and Another, Boxing, directed by William K. L. Dickson and William Heise.
• Newark Athlete, directed by William K. L. Dickson.
• Je vous aime, starring and directed by Georges Demenÿ.
• La vague, directed by Étienne-Jules Marey.
• Two Fencers, directed by Étienne-Jules Marey.

• January 15 – Arne Weel (died 1975)
• February 7 – Ann Little, American actress (died 1984)
• February 9 – Ronald Colman, English actor (died 1958)
• March 6
  • Victor Kilian, American actor (died 1979)
  • Lidia Quaranta, Italian actress (died 1928)
• March 8 – Sam Jaffe, American actor (died 1984)
• March 11 – Gertrud Wolle, German actress (died 1952)
• March 31 – Victor Varconi, Hungarian-born American actor (died 1976)
• April 2 – Jack Buchanan, Scottish director, writer, and actor (died 1957)
• April 10 – Tim McCoy, American cowboy actor, soldier (died 1978)
• April 15 – Wallace Reid, American actor (died 1923)
• April 23 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (died 1953)
• May 13 – Fritz Rasp, German actor (died 1976)
• June 24 – Philippe Richard, French actor (died 1973)
• July 18 – Gene Lockhart, Canadian actor (died 1957)
• July 23 – Harry Cohn, American co-founder of CBS Sales Association (Columbia Pictures) (died 1958)
• July 28 – Joe E. Brown, American actor and comedian (died 1973)
• August 4 – Margit Makay, Hungarian actress (died 1989)
• November 10 – Philip Sainton, French-British composer (died 1967)
• November 18 – Vasil Gendov, Bulgarian actor, director and screenwriter (died 1970)

Media related to 1891 in film at Wikimedia Commons

• 1891 at the Internet Movie Database