The time in 1968 when no one made any films for an entire year

1968 will be remembered for the Beatles White Album, the Apollo 8 mission, and both Rev. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy being murdered.

However, in the world of movies, it remains one of the strangest years since the dawn of cinema because 1968 was the year that no films were made. At all. Anywhere on the planet.

“It’s true, from the Graduate in 1967 to Paint your wagon in 1969, literally no one made a film,” said eminent film historian Nicole Redford

There are many theories for how the strange state of affairs came about.

“Well, probably the most commonly held belief is that there was just so much going on in 1968 that no one had time to make films.”

“Apollo 8, the civil rights marches, Vietnam, the Paris riots, the Mexico Olympics, the invasion of Czechoslovakia, it was a dizzying time. People would have barely have had time to go to the Pictures, let alone actually make them.”

However, there are more prosaic theories, such as no one being able to access the studios, because they’d lost the keys.

“We do know that the keys to all the studios were kept on one key chain so that everyone knew where to go if they need to get into a studio, but I don’t subscribe to the theory that this key chain was lost.”

“What about the Soviet Union, China, South America, Europe? Certainly the Soviets would never allow the keys to their studios to be kept on the same chain as the US.”

“So, why would losing the Hollywood keychain have such a ruinous effect on global filmmaking?”

Ms Redford subscribes to what is commonly known as the Jungle Book theory.

“I believe, as do many others, that after the Jungle Book was released in 1967, everyone simply believed that the pinnacle of film-making had been reached and there was simply no point in trying to make any more films.”

“Happily, in 1969, we saw the birth of the auteur movement with Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy that led the way to the movie brats of the 70s.”

Whatever the reason, 1968 remains the most peculiar year in the history of films, and has never been repeated.

Although, there were concerns in 2004 when no films were made until May. Happily, the Spongebob Squarepants movie was released, and that got everything back to normal.