Gaumont Film Company

Gaumont Pictures was founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont. From 1905 to 1914 its studios at La Villette, France, were the largest in the world. The company manufactured its own equipment and mass-produced films until 1907 under Alice Guy, the motion picture industry’s first woman director.

Gaumont opened foreign offices and acquired theatre chains and along with its giant competitor, Pathé Frères, they dominated the motion-picture industry in Europe until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.