Gaumont is a French film production company founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont (1864-1946). It is the oldest running film company in the world. Originally dealing in photographic apparatuses, the company began producing short films in 1897 to promote its make of camera-projector. Léon Gaumont's secretary Alice Guy Blaché became the motion picture industry’s first female director. From 1905 to 1914, its studios "Cité Elgé" at La Villette, France, were the largest in the world. The company manufactured its own equipment and mass-produced films until 1907. Then Louis Feuillade became the artistic director of Gaumont. When World War I broke out, he was replaced by Léonce Perret, who continued his career in the United States a few years later.

Among some of the most notable films produced were the serials Judex and Fantomas; the comic Onésime series, starring Ernest Bourbon; the comic Bébé series, starring five-year-old René Dary; and the newsreels of the Gaumont Actualities. Directors such as Abel Gance, Alfred Hitchcock, and the early animator Emile Cohl worked for this studio at one time or another.

Gaumont opened foreign offices and acquired theatre chains Gaumont British, which later notably produced several Hitchcock films such as The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). Along with its giant competitor Pathé Frères, Gaumont dominated the motion-picture industry in Europe until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Gaumont also constructed the Lime Grove Studios.

After significant post-war losses to American productions in market-share/competition, Gaumont experienced the subsequent business reversals of technological change and financial depression, and was eventually merged with Franco-Film Aubert in the early 1930s.

Gaumont is still independent and has been recognized as one of the largest producers (Léon, The Fifth Element) and distributors of films in France.

The company has also produced television shows, including four animated series: Highlander: The Animated Series, Dragon Flyz, and Sky Dancers and the very popular Oggy and the Cockroaches.

Since 2004 the company has a partnership with Sony for producing films and for theatre and DVD distribution worldwide. Together with Pathe they operate their own cinemas across France.

Credits by Wikipedia.com