Film Databases and Research Guides

University of California Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive: A great resource for full-text reviews and original source material with a searchable database.

Internet Movie Database: A searchable database for film titles, directors, and other talent with links to reviews and trivia.

Early Visual Media: Essays, images, and research guides for pre-cinematic/ proto-cinematic visual technologies and culture.

UC Berkeley Library, Film Bibliographies and Filmographies: Bibliographies by director, genre, individual films, and national cinemas, as well as bibliographies on cinematic representations of race, ethnicity, and gender.

Yale University Film Studies, Film Analysis Tutorial: A self-guided, well-illustrated tutorial on the basic vocabulary and methods of film studies and film techniques.

Yale University Film Studies Research Guide: Though this is keyed to the holdings at the Yale library, this guide is a great resource for finding materials related to film studies, and for staying on top of new film-related publications. 

Digital History, Hollywood’s America: Contains trailers for historically significant American films, primary documents related to Hollywood; chronologies of American film history, research guides, and bibliographies.

Specialist Online Resources

UbuWeb: Film & Video: Offer quick online access to the work of many great avant-garde and experimental filmmakers.  The quality of the films vary.

Internet Archive, Movie Archive:Watch various government and industrial documentaries, animation, home movies, and a number of ephemeral films on this online database.

Library of Congress, Edison Motion Pictures: Downloadable films made by Edison’s studio drawn from the Library of Congress’s Paper Print Collection.  Site also offers a history of Edison’s work.

The Auteurs:A for-profit cinephilic blog, discussion forum, and, most impressive, online film library with high-quality video streaming, and a “free film of the month.” Subscribers get online access to a number of new releases from film festivals and newly restored prints.

Luxonline: A web resources for exploring British-based artists’ film and video.

SnagFilms: A great source for contemporary documentary films.