The Lumière brothers were the earliest filmmakers in history.
The brothers stated that "the cinema is an invention without any future" and declined to sell their camera to other filmmakers such as Georges Méliès. This made many film makers upset. Consequently, their role in the history of film was exceedingly brief. They turned their attentions to colour photography and in 1903 they patented a colour photography process, the "Autochrome Lumière", launched on the market in 1907.
The world's first film poster, for 1895's L'Arroseur arrosé
Although the Lumière brothers were not the first inventors to develop techniques to create motion pictures, they are often credited as one of the first inventors of the technology for Cinema as a mass medium, and are among the first who understood how to use it. By comparison, it is argued that Thomas Edison may have intended his invention for use in private entertainment for rich people, not as a device to produce movies to be seen in public.[8]
Appropriately, "lumière" translates as "light" in English.
To think that it was just over 100 years ago and how far we have come. We can go so much further.