Newsreel in the context of Dziga Vertov

A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment theatrical program. The term feature film originally referred to the main, full-length film in a cinema program that included a short film and often a newsreel. Matinée programs, especially in the United States and Canada, in general, also included cartoons, at least one weekly serial and, typically, a second feature-length film on weekends. Feature films are also released on and produced by streaming platforms.

The first narrative feature film was the 70-minute The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Other early feature films include Les Misérables (1909), L'Inferno, Defence of Sevastopol, The Adventures of Pinocchio (1911), Oliver Twist (American version), Oliver Twist (British version), Richard III, From the Manger to the Cross, Cleopatra (1912), Raja Harishchandra (1913, First Indian Feature Film), Quo Vadis? (1913), Cabiria (1914) and The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Universal Newsreel (sometimes known as Universal-International Newsreel or just U-I Newsreel) was a series of 7- to 10-minute newsreels that were released twice a week between 1929 and 1967 by Universal Studios. A Universal publicity official, Sam B. Jacobson, was involved in originating and producing the newsreels. Nearly all of them were filmed in black-and-white, and many were narrated by Ed Herlihy. From January 1919 to July 1929, Universal released International Newsreel, produced by Hearst's International News Service—this series later became Hearst Metrotone News released first by Fox Film Corporation 1929–1934 and then by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer beginning in 1934.

In 1974, the films' owner, MCA, made the decision to donate all its edited newsreels and outtakes collection to the National Archives, without copyright restrictions. The decision effectively released the films into the public domain, although some stories may contain other underlying intellectual property or proprietary use rights. Because royalties no longer have to be paid in order to broadcast them, Universal Newsreels have become a popular source of file footage. The History Channel made them a key part of the TV series Year-By-Year. Also, C-SPAN and CNN regularly use the films for video of events that took place before those networks were founded. Nevertheless, much of the footage was lost in the 1978 National Archives vault fire which destroyed about 12.6 million feet of 35mm black and white negatives, or about 70% of the MCA-U donation. Most of the nitrate film was irreplaceable single-copy outtakes from WWII that had never been seen by the public.

A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, generally advancing weekly, until the series is completed. Usually, each serial involves a single set of characters, protagonistic and antagonistic, involved in a single story. The film is edited into chapters, after the fashion of serial fiction, and the episodes should not be shown out of order, as individual chapters, or as part of a random collection of short subjects.

Each chapter was screened at a movie theater for one week, and typically ended with a cliffhanger, in which characters found themselves in perilous situations with little apparent chance of escape. Viewers had to return each week to see the cliffhangers resolved and to follow the continuing story. Movie serials were especially popular with children, and for many youths in the first half of the 20th century a typical Saturday matinee at the movies included at least one chapter of a serial, along with animated cartoons, newsreels, and two feature films.

Edward Joseph Herlihy (August 14, 1909 – January 30, 1999) was an American newsreel narrator for Universal-International. He was also a long-time radio and television announcer for NBC, hosting The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour in the 1940s and 1950, and was briefly interim announcer on The Tonight Show in 1962. He was also the voice of Kraft Foods radio and television commercials from the 1940s through the early 1980s. When he died in 1999, his obituary in The New York Times said he was "A Voice of Cheer and Cheese".

Hearst Metrotone News (renamed News of the Day in 1936) was a newsreel series that ran from 1914 to 1967 produced by the Hearst Corporation, founded by William Randolph Hearst.

A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will adopt the position promoted by the propagator and eventually take action towards making those ideas widely accepted. Propaganda films are popular mediums of propaganda due to their ability to easily reach a large audience in a short amount of time. They are also able to come in a variety of film types such as documentary, non-fiction, and newsreel, making it even easier to provide subjective content that may be deliberately misleading.

Propaganda is the ability "to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures". However, in the 20th century, a "new" propaganda emerged, which revolved around political organizations and their need to communicate messages that would "sway relevant groups of people in order to accommodate their agendas". First developed by the Lumiere brothers in 1896, film provided a unique means of accessing large audiences at once. Film was the first universal mass medium in that it could simultaneously influence viewers as individuals and members of a crowd, which led to it quickly becoming a tool for governments and non-state organizations to project a desired ideological message. As Nancy Snow stated in her book, Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control Since 9-11, propaganda "begins where critical thinking ends."

Newsreel footage of the May 6, 1937 Hindenburg disaster, where the zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg crashed and burned down, was filmed by several companies.

The film is frequently shown with narration, by WLS (AM) announcer Herbert Morrison, who was narrating a field recording on to an acetate disc, and was present to watch the zeppelin's arrival. Morrison's commentary was recorded by engineer Charles Nehlsen, but not broadcast until the next day on May 7, 1937, one of the first times that recordings of a news event were ever broadcast. In 2002, the audio recording was selected for preservation into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. It has since been combined with the separately filmed newsreel footage. Most of the original newsreels have their own narration, and many composite edits have been made for documentaries dubbed with Morrison's commentary.