1946 in film

• November 21 – William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.

• December 20 – Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, featuring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, and Thomas Mitchell opens in New York.

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)

• Angel on My Shoulder
• Anna and the King of Siam, starring Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell
• Aru yo no Tonosama
• Bad Bascomb, starring Wallace Beery, Margaret O'Brien and Marjorie Main
• The Bandit of Sherwood Forest, starring Cornell Wilde
• The Beast with Five Fingers, starring Robert Alda and Peter Lorre
• Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête), directed by Jean Cocteau, starring Jean Marais and Josette Day
• The Best Years of Our Lives, directed by William Wyler, starring Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews and Harold Russell – winner of 8 Oscars
• Beware, directed by Bud Pollard, starring Louis Jordan
• The Big Sleep, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
• The Blue Dahlia, starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake
• Blue Skies, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire
• Boom in the Moon starring Buster Keaton
• Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Vivien Leigh
• The Captive Heart, the first Prisoner of War film from World War II
• Centennial Summer
• Children of Paradise (U.S. release)
• Cluny Brown, starring Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones
• The Dark Corner, starring Lucille Ball and Mark Stevens
• The Dark Mirror, starring Olivia de Havilland
• Deception
• Decoy, a film noir starring Jean Gillie
• The Diary of a Chambermaid
• Dragonwyck, starring Gene Tierney
• Dressed to Kill, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• Duel in the Sun, starring Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten and Lillian Gish
• Gallant Journey, directed by William A. Wellman
• Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford
• Great Expectations, directed by David Lean, starring John Mills, Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson
• Green for Danger, starring Alastair Sim and Trevor Howard
• The Green Years
• The Harvey Girls, directed by George Sidney, starring Judy Garland and John Hodiak
• Henry V (U.S. release)
• Humoresque, starring Joan Crawford and John Garfield
• I See a Dark Stranger
• It's a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore
• Ivan the Terrible
• The Jolson Story, a biopic of Al Jolson starring Larry Parks
• The Kid from Brooklyn
• The Killers, directed by Robert Siodmak, starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner
• Little Giant, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Make Mine Music
• A Matter of Life and Death, written and directed by Powell and Pressburger, starring David Niven
• The Murderers Are Among Us (Die Mörder sind unter uns), starring Hildegard Knef
• My Darling Clementine, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda and Linda Darnell
• Night and Day
• A Night in Casablanca with the Marx Brothers
• No Regrets for Our Youth (Waga seishun ni kuinashi)
• Nobody Lives Forever
• Notorious, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman
• The Overlanders
• Paisan, directed by Roberto Rossellini
• The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Lana Turner and John Garfield
• The Razor's Edge, starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney
• The Return of Monte Cristo
• Road to Utopia, starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope
• The Seventh Veil (U.S. release)
• She-Wolf of London
• Shoeshine (Sciuscià), directed by Vittorio De Sica
• Shock, directed by Alfred L. Werker, starring Vincent Price and Lynn Bari
• Sister Kenny, starring Rosalind Russell
• Smithy
• Somewhere In The Night, starring John Hodiak
• Song of the South by Walt Disney, combines animation and live action.
• Terror by Night, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Spiral Staircase, starring Dorothy McGuire
• A Stolen Life
• The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, starring Barbara Stanwyck
• The Stranger, directed by and starring Orson Welles, Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson
• Theirs is the Glory
• Three Strangers
• The Time of Their Lives, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• To Each His Own, starring Olivia de Havilland
• Tomorrow is Forever
• Utamaro and His Five Women (Utamaro o meguru gonin no onna)
• The Verdict
• Wake Up and Dream
• Wanted for Murder
• The Wife of Monte Cristo, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
• Without Reservations
• The Yearling, starring Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman

• Daughter of Don Q
• Chick Carter, Detective
• The Crimson Ghost
• Hop Harrigan
• King of the Forest Rangers, starring Larry Thompson
• Lost City of the Jungle
• The Mysterious Mr. M
• The Phantom Rider, starring Robert Kent and Peggy Stewart
• The Scarlet Horseman
• Son of the Guardsman

• Shirley Temple (1932–1946)
• The Three Stooges (1934–1959)
• Popular Science (1935–1950)

• Mickey Mouse (1928–1952)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934–1949)
• Donald Duck (1936–1956)
• Pluto (1937–1951)
• Andy Panda (1939–1949)
• Goofy (1939–1953)
• Bugs Bunny (1940–1962)
• Tom and Jerry (1940–1958)
• The Fox and the Crow (1941–1950)
• Woody Woodpecker (1941–1949)
• Mighty Mouse (1942–1955)
• Droopy (1943–1958)
• Chip and Dale (1943–1956)
• Screwball Squirrel (1944–1946)
• Yosemite Sam (1945–1963)
• George and Junior (1946–1948)

• January 5 – Diane Keaton, actress, producer and director
• January 19 – Dolly Parton, country singer and actress
• January 20 – David Lynch, director
• January 26 – Gene Siskel, film critic, Siskel and Ebert (d. 1999)
• February 7 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (d. 2011)
• February 20 – Brenda Blethyn, English actress
• February 21 – Alan Rickman, English actor (d. 2016)
• March 12 – Liza Minnelli, singer and actress
• March 21 – Timothy Dalton, Welch actor
• April 19 – Tim Curry, English actor and singer
• April 25 – Talia Shire, actress
• May 9 – Candice Bergen, actress
• May 20 – Cher, singer and actress
• July 6 – Sylvester Stallone, actor and director
• July 13 – Cheech Marin, actor and comedian
• July 22 – Danny Glover, actor and director
• August 16 – Lesley Ann Warren, actress and singer
• September 15
  • Tommy Lee Jones, actor
  • Oliver Stone, director and producer
• September 28 – Jeffrey Jones, actor
• October 4 – Susan Sarandon, actress
• October 15 – John Getz, actor
• October 27 – Ivan Reitman, Slovakian-born director and producer
• October 31 – Stephen Rea, Northern Irish actor
• November 6 – Sally Field, actress
• December 14 – Patty Duke, actress
• December 17 – Eugene Levy, Canadian actor
• December 18 – Steven Spielberg, director and producer
• date unknown – Omar Al-Shammaa, Lebanese actor, voice actor

• April 1 – Noah Beery, Sr., American actor
• June 23 – William S. Hart, American actor
• August 10 – Léon Gaumont, French film pioneer
• August 13 – H.G. Wells, British science fiction writer
• August 26 – Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter
• August 28 – Florence Turner, American actress
• September 21 – Olga Engl, Austrian actress
• November 2 – Gabriel Gabrio, French actor
• December 12 – Renée Jeanne Falconetti, French actress
• December 25 – W. C. Fields was an American comedian and actor

• Kirk Douglas
• Burt Lancaster