Principal photography for The Lord of the Rings films began in 1999.
The trilogy was filmed concurrently in New Zealand, with principal photography starting on 11 October 1999 and continuing until 22 December 2000. This back-to-back production approach allowed Peter Jackson and his crew to create all three films as one connected project rather than treating each sequel as a separate production.
The first scene filmed was the sequence in which the Hobbits hide beneath a tree from a mounted Ringwraith. Filming used multiple units across New Zealand, including locations near Wellington and Queenstown, and lasted 438 days. The scale was extraordinary: thousands of crew members worked on costumes, miniatures, armour, prosthetics, sets and visual effects.
A common mix-up is confusing the photography start date with the films' release dates. The Fellowship of the Ring premiered in 2001, followed by The Two Towers in 2002 and The Return of the King in 2003. Additional pick-up filming took place from 2001 to 2003, but the main shoot began in 1999.