A long-lost film by French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès has been discovered in a garage in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after sitting in a trunk for two decades. The 45-second silent short, titled 'Gugusse and the Automaton' (1897), was identified by specialists at the Library of Congress after the owner, Bill McFarland, donated a collection of nitrate reels that had belonged to his showman great-grandfather.
This discovery is historically significant as it features the first known moving image of a robot in cinematic history. Méliès, a magician turned filmmaker, was a foundational figure in visual effects, yet many of his 500+ works were destroyed or lost over time; the recovery of this film provides a rare glimpse into the origins of science fiction and the early development of film techniques like jump cuts and double exposure.