Research Guides: Imaginary Cities: FMA 0869: Find Articles

Best Bet Databases for Film and Media Arts

Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text contains articles from magazine for film, television and cinema reviews. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
MLA International Bibliography is a database of citations to critical documents on folklore, language, linguistics, and literature, including articles from journals, monographs, collections & reference works.
Screen Studies Collection (formerly Film Indexes Online) This link opens in a new window
With access to both the catalogs of the British Film Institute (BFI) and American Film Institute (AFI), this is a nice alternative to IMDB for finding factual details about films. Newly rebranded the Screen Studies Collection, it also searches FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals content.

Search Tips

When you search these databases for articles, you can try several strategies.

Search for the title of a specific film.
Search for the name of a filmmaker or actor.
Search for a geographic region (e.g. "asia" or "united states" or "paris"), a film genre (e.g. "comedy" or "horror"), or a time period (e.g., "post-war" or "fifties" or "1940s").
Search for concepts related to how the film is made (e.g., "lighting," "music or soundtrack or score," etc.)
Search for concepts related to your topic. For example, you might search for "immigrants or immigration or migrants or migration," or "women or gender," or "trauma or PTSD or war"
Search for different combinations of everything above!

Temple University

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