The Aquarium Theatre (now Pavilion No. 4) hosted the first public film screening in Russia on May 4, 1896, and in 1914 the first Russian state film factory was established. Having undergone a series of transformations and renamings, in 1934 it was named Lenfilm. The film studio is located at 10 Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, on the Petrogradskaya Side of St. Petersburg. On a territory of 4 hectares in 10 buildings (40 thousand m²) there are 5 pavilions, a workshop for decorative and technical structures, filming preparation, editing, filming equipment, lighting and sound equipment, a plastic make-up studio, a storage room for costumes and props.

Lenfilm has produced about 1,500 feature films, documentaries, and television films that have become world classics: Chapayev, Wild Dog Dingo, My Friend Ivan Lapshin, Torpedo Bombers, Heart of a Dog, Deputy of the Baltic, Peter the Great, The Rumyantsev Case, The Lady with the Dog, Hamlet, King Lear, Wedding in Malinovka, Amphibian Man, Cinderella, Peculiarities of the National Hunt, Chief of Chukotka, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, In Love of His Own Will, Friends and Years, Monologue, The Italian.

The film studio has a cultural and exhibition centre, which includes an exhibition space in the Under the Columns hall, a café, a souvenir kiosk and a completely modernised historic Lenfilm cinema hall, where film screenings and film festivals are held.