Even before auteur theory, the director was considered the most important influence on a film. In Germany, an early film theorist, Walter Julius Bloem, explained that since filmmaking is an art geared toward popular culture, a film's immediate influence, the director, is viewed as the artist, whereas an earlier contributor, like the screenwriter, is viewed as an apprentice.

Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large. Film theory is not to be confused with …

Alien Theory (Ancient Aliens), ... Erich von Däniken, auteur de cette série, présente dans ce pilote sa théorie sur les extraterrestres. ... Wikipedia® est une marque déposée de la Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., organisation de bienfaisance régie par le paragraphe 501(c)(3) ...