Why is a feature film so called?

The term evolved from the days when the cinema-goer would watch a series of short subjects before the main film. The term 'feature' was an inheritance of the Vaudeville programme. When the feature film was first marketed, it meant a special film, that could be featured between advertising shorts. A feature film was one

that cost more to make, buy, rent, and sometimes more to watch. That usually meant longer films and after 1909, 'feature' was the term used for any multi-reel film. In 1909, a feature film was 1,000-ft long or a little less, running 15-20 minutes at its slowest speed.

Based on length, the first dramatic feature film was the 70-minute film The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) from Australia. The first European feature was the 90-minute film L'Enfant prodigue (France, 1907), although that was basically an unmodified record of a stage play; Europe's first feature adapted directly for the screen, Les Misérables, came from France in 1909. The first Russian feature was Defence of Sevastopol in 1911. The first UK features were the documentary With Our King and Queen Through India (1912), filmed in Kinemacolor, and Oliver Twist (1912). The first American features were a different production of Oliver Twist (1912), From the Manger to the Cross (1912), and Richard III (1912), the latter starring actor Frederick Warde. The first Asian feature was Japan's The Life Story of Tasuke Shiobara (1912), the first Indian feature was Raja Harishchandra (1913), the first South American feature was Brazil's O Crime dos Banhados (1913), and the first African feature was South Africa's Die Voortrekkers (1916).

By 1915 over 600 features were produced annually in America. The most prolific year of U.S. feature production was 1921, with 682 releases; the lowest number of releases was in 1963, with 213. Between 1922 and 1970, the U.S. and Japan alternated as leaders in the quantity of feature film production. Since 1971, the country with the highest feature output has been India, which produces a thousand films in more than twelve Indian languages each year.

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