jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pIn this article, we present a full three-dimensional numerical study of thin liquid films falling on a vertical surface, by solving the full three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations with a hybrid front-tracking/level-set method for tracking the interface. General falling film flow applications span across many types of process industries but also occur in a multitude of natural and environmental applications such as ice sheets, glaciology and even volcanic lava flows. In this study, we propose three configurations of falling films. Two of them, with small and moderate Reynolds number, are set to mimic pulsed and forced falling film types inside a minimum periodic domain, able to cover entirely the temporal evolution of a single wave. The latest example, corresponding to a high Reynolds number, is initialised with a flat interface without any specific perturbations. For the first time, this study highlights the natural transition from a non-deformed interface to its first streamwise disturbance (two-dimensional wavy flow), and then a second spanwise wave disturbance (three-dimensional wavy flow).</jats:p>