Experimental filmmakers are individual artists in the 20th century such as Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Joseph Cornell, Kenneth Anger and Tony Conrad who used film as a visual art form rather than a storytelling or as a form of commercial media. Developed on both sides of the Atlantic at such artist-run organizations as Anthology Film Archives, The Millennium Film Workshop, the Collective for Living Cinema and The Film Makers Cooperative in New York, the British Film Institute in London and the National Film Board of Canada. Many of the artists involved in this movement remained outside of the mainstream commercial cinema and entertainment industry and became teachers at universities such as the State University of New York.

See also: video artist, performance artist and media artist.