1911 in film

• February: The Motion Picture Story Magazine, the first American film fan magazine, is published. It is followed later in the year by Photoplay.
• April 8: Winsor McCay releases his first film Little Nemo, one of the earliest animated films.
• October 23 (October 10 OS): Svetozar Botorić's The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Leader Karađorđe (Život i dela besmrtnog vožda Karađorđa, Живот и дела бесмртног вожда Карађорђа) premieres in Belgrade and becomes the first feature film made in Serbia and the Balkans.
• October 26: Defence of Sevastopol («Оборона Севастополя») premieres at the Crimean palace of Tsar Nicholas II and becomes the first feature-length film made in the Russian Empire and one of the first in the world. It is also the first known film to use a multiple-camera setup (2 cameras)
• October 27: David Horsley's Nestor Motion Picture Company opens the first motion picture studio in Hollywood.
• November: The Kalem Company of New York pays the estate of author Lew Wallace $25,000 in legal settlement for having adapted Ben Hur (1907 film) from his novel without securing prior rights.

Films produced in the United States unless stated otherwise

• January 5 – Jean-Pierre Aumont, actor (died 2001)
• January 7 – Butterfly McQueen, actress (died 1995)
• January 22 – Mary Hayley Bell, actress, writer and dramatist, wife of Sir John Mills (d 2005)
• January 30 – Hugh Marlowe, actor (died 1982)
• January 31 – Eddie Byrne, actor (died 1981)
• February 6 – Ronald Reagan, actor, United States President (died 2004)
• February 9 – Gypsy Rose Lee, actress and burlesque dancer (died 1970)
• February 14 – Florence Rice, actress (died 1974)
• February 19 – Merle Oberon, actress (died 1979)
• February 20 – Margot Grahame, actress (died 1982)
• March 3 – Jean Harlow, actress (died 1937)
• March 10 – Edward Norris, actor, (died 2002)
• March 18 – Smiley Burnette, actor, musician (died 1967)
• April 23 – Ronald Neame, cinematographer, producer and director (died 2010)
• May 7 – Ishirō Honda, director (died 1993)
• May 11
  • Louise Campbell, actress (died 1997)^[9]
  • Phil Silvers, actor (died 1985)
• May 17 – Maureen O'Sullivan, actress (died 1998)
• May 18 – Sigrid Gurie, actress (died 1969)
• May 23 - Bert Morrison, American actor, singer and jazz player (died 1995)
• May 27 – Vincent Price, actor (died 1993)
• May 30 – Douglas Fowley, actor (died 1998)
• June 1 – Gertrude Michael, actress (died 1964)
• June 3 – Ellen Corby, actress (died 1999)
• June 20 – Gail Patrick (died 1980)
• June 29 – Bernard Hermann, composer (died 1975)
• July 6 – Laverne Andrews, American singer, actress, member of Andrews Sisters (died 1967)
• July 14 – Terry-Thomas, British actor (died 1990)
• July 16 – Ginger Rogers, American actress, dancer (died 1995)
• July 18 – Hume Cronyn, Canadian actor (died 2003)
• July 19 – Loda Halama, Polish dancer and actress (died 1996)
• July 28 – Ann Doran, American actress (died 2000)
• August 2 – Ann Dvorak, American actress (died 1979)
• August 3 – Alex McCrindle, British actor (died 1990)
• August 5 – Robert Taylor, actor (died 1969)
• August 6 – Lucille Ball, actress (died 1989)
• August 7 – Nicholas Ray, director (died 1979)
• August 12 – Cantinflas, actor (died 1993)
• August 19 – Constance Worth, actress (died 1963)
• September 2 – Erwin Hillier, cinematographer (died 2005)
• September 10 – Renée Simonot, actress and voice artist (died 2021)
• October 13 – Ashok Kumar, actor, India (died 2001)
• October 20 – Will Rogers, Jr., actor (died 1993)
• October 27 – Leif Erickson, actor (died 1986)
• October 30 – Ruth Hussey, actress (died 2005)
• October 31 – Sheila Bromley, actress, (died 2003)
• November 5
  • Roy Rogers, singer, actor (died 1998)
  • Baby Marie Osborne, child actress (died 2010)
• November 10 – Harry Andrews, actor (died 1989)
• December 8 – Lee J. Cobb, actor (died 1976)
• December 9 – Broderick Crawford, actor (died 1986)
• December 23 – James Gregory, actor (died 2002)
• December 29 – Claire Dodd, actress (died 1973)
• December 30 – Jeanette Nolan, actress (died 1998)

• January 18 – Arthur Marvin, cinematographer, (born 1859)
• May 29 – W. S. Gilbert, producer of musicals, half of the team of Gilbert and Sullivan, (born 1836)
• July 18 – Genevieve Lantelme, actress, (born 1883)
• August 11 – Verner Clarges, actor, (born 1846)
• October 27 – Francis Boggs, director, (born 1870)
• November 2 – Kyrle Bellew, actor, (born 1855)
• December 22 – Wright Lorimer, stage actor, screenwriter, (born 1874)
• Unknown – Woodville Latham, producer and exhibitor whose desire to shoot an entire boxing match on a single reel of film led to the invention of the Latham loop (born 1837)

• Lionel Barrymore – The Battle (*debatable; film debut much earlier)
• Francis X. Bushman – His Friend's Wife (short)
• Paul Kelly – Jimmie's Job (short)
• Edgar Kennedy – Brown of Harvard
• Ann Little – The Indian Maiden's Lesson (short)
• Harold Lockwood – The White Red Man (short)
• Anna Q. Nilsson – Molly Pitcher (short)
• Anita Stewart – A Tale of Two Cities as Anna Stewart
• Lenore Ulric – The First Man (1911 short)
• Lois Weber – director, actress, A Heroine of '76 (short); writer, On the Brink (short)