General Film Publications & Guides

Offered below is an assortment of brochures, booklets, case studies, directories, guidelines, how-to manuals, journals, newsletters, white papers and much more devoted to film preservation issues, practices and projects.

For information specifically related to film preservation and restoration, go to Preservation and Restoration Resources and Projects.

To suggest additional sites for inclusion, please email stgriffin@loc.gov.

Activists' Guide to Archiving Video by WITNESS
Advanced Projection Manual (FIAF)
AFI Archive
Ain't-It-Cool-News.com
All-Movie Guide
American Cinematographer
American Rhetoric.com Great site containing famous speeches in the movies and other settings
Animated News
Animation Consultants International
Animation Magazine
Animation World Network
ArtsJournal
Association of Moving Image Archivists Note: The following are all in pdf format
- AMIA 2015 Conference Presentations
  - Archival Education in Transition: Taking Stock. Presentation: Jeff Stoiber, L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation
  - Advocacy: Personal Advocacy – The Power of One. Presentation: Ray Edmondson, Archive Associates Pty Ltd
  - Competency-Based Frameworks for Moving Image Archiving Education. Presentation: Karen Gracy, Kent State University
  - Item vs. Collection Level Censuses in University Libraries. PowerPoint presentation:
  - The Environmental Impact of Digital Preservation. Presentation: Linda Tadic, Digital Bedrock
  - The Academy Color Encoding System: A Standard for Long-term Archiving of Digital Motion Picture Materials. Presentation: Andy Maltz, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- AMIA Compendium of Moving Image Cataloging Practice [Introduction, Profiles of Participants, and Sample Guidelines] Available to order from the Society of American Archivists
Audiovisual Citation Guidelines, (PDF, 411KB) published by the British Universities Film & Video Council.
Australian Network for Information on Cellulose Acetate
AV Preserve (AudioVisual Preservation Solutions, Inc.)
Avant-Garde Cinema

Big Cartoon Database
BigScreenbiz.com
The Bioscope: Reporting on the World of Early and Silent Cinema
Black Classic Movies.com
blackfilm.com
Blinkbox
David Bordwell
Box Office at Hollywood.com
Box Office Guru
Box Office magazine
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Prophets
Box Office statistics
Bright Lights Film Journal
Broadcasting and Cable
Brushwood Gulch Gazette - Home of the Los Angeles Chapter of the International Laurel & Hardy Society
Louise Brooks Society
Buster Keaton.com
Canadian Archival Resources on the Internet
Canadian Journal of Film Studies
CanadianFilm.com
Cartoon Brew
Cartoon Research (Jerry Beck)
Cineaste
Cinefantastique magazine
CineFiles (a database of reviews, press kits, festival and showcase program notes, newspaper articles, and other documents from the Pacific Film Archives Library's collection)
CineGraph
Cinemontage, Motion Picture Editor's Guild magazine
CineSavant
COLLATE: Collaboratory for Annotation, Indexing and Retrieval of Digitized Historical Archive Material
Collections Care (Library of Congress)
Connecting to Collections,
CoOL (Conservation OnLine)
- Preservation of Motion Picture Film
- Video Preservation
Copyright Society of USA Journal article, 1988 National Film Preservation Act (courtesy Eric Schwartz) (PDF, 2.59MB)
Cost of Inaction Calculator, a tool developed by AVPreserve to determine the cost of digitizing collections, and the cost of not digitizing collections.
Council on Library and Information Resources
- Copyright Issues Relevant to the Creation of a Digital Archive: A Preliminary Assessment
- The Digital Film Restoration Process
- The Digital Library: a Biography
- The Evidence in Hand: the Report of the Task Force on the Artifact in Library Collections
- National Digital Preservation Initiatives: An Overview of Developments in Australia, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom and of Related International Activity
- A Survey of Digital Cultural Heritage Initiatives and Their Sustainability Concerns
Critic Doctor
DGA News magazine
DVD Beaver
DVD Review
DVD Spin Doctor (Glenn Abel)
DVD Talk
The Damfinos: The International Buster Keaton Society
Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily
"The Digital Black Hole" by Jonas Palm, Director, Head of Department of Preservation, Riksarkivet/National Archives, Stockholm, Sweden
Digital Curation Bibliography: Preservation and Stewardship of Scholarly Works, 2012 Supplement.
Digital Moving Image Archives (DMIA) , serves as a guide for independent filmmakers to provide basic information about preserving digital data.
Digital Projection Guide (FIAF)
Digitally Obsessed
Digitization 101 Blog
Disaster Recovery Journal
Domitor
Done Deal (Info on movie script deals, etc.)
DriveinMovie.com
E! Entertainment News
Entertainment Weekly
European Film Gateway
William K. Everson Collection
Fashion in Film Festival
FedFlix
FilmCare.org , a central resource for best practices in film preservation.
Film-Philosophy
Film Comment
Film Collecting Film Center
Film Critics
- Melissa Anderson
- Joe Baltake: The Passionate Moviegoer
- Justin Chang , Variety
- Chicago Reader
- Roger Ebert
- Molly Haskell
- Dave Kehr , blog posts 2008-2013
- Lisa Kennedy
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
- Steven Rea
- Carrie Rickey
- Jonathan Rosenbaum
- Andrew Sarris
- David Sterritt
- Ella Taylor , NPR
- Anne Thompson "Thompson on Hollywood," Indiewire
- Alison Willmore , Buzzfeed
- Stephanie Zacharek
FilmForever: The Home Film Preservation Guide
Film Quarterly
FilmRatings.com
Film Reference Library covers English-language Canadian film and film-related materials plus local, national and international film resources.
Film Score Monthly
Films101: Sticking to the Best Movies
Film-Tech Forum for film handlers, along with cinema projection tips, equipment manual downloads, and projection picture warehouse.
Filmsite (formerly Greatest Films) written and edited by Tim Dirks
For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon
Freelance Video Collective
Golden Silents
Griffithiana database , index to the now-defunct journal of silent cinema and classic animation.
Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers, published by the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA).
Hello, Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd official website
"History of Sub-35mm Film Formats and Cameras" (essay by Jan-Eric Nystrom)
Hollywood Online
The Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Stock Exchange : The Entertainment Stock Market Simulation
Home and Amateur Film blog: Dwight Swanson
Home Theater Forum
Home Theater Review
IFC (Independent Film Channel)
Images, a Journal of Film and Popular Culture
The Independent formerly The Independent Film & Video Monthly.
IndieWire
International Cinematographers Guild Magazine
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Journal of Cinema and Media Studies
Journal of Film Preservation (FIAF)
KFTV (formerly Kemps), film and television production services website based in the UK.
KINEMA
Kinoeye, online journal of European film (published between 2001 and 2004).
Kodak: Motion Picture Resource Guides
- Chronology of Motion Picture Film Stock, 1888-1939
- Glossary of Film/Video Terms
- Motion Picture Lab Directory
Lumiere: Database on admissions of films released in Europe
"Magnetic Tape Storage and Handling" , by John Van Bogart, 1995, published by National Media Laboratory and the Commission on Preservation and Access
Mandy.com , comprehensive guide to independent film/tv production resources.
Media History Digital Library (online copies of Photoplay, Moving Picture World, etc.).
"More Than 100 Years of Film Sizes" (Michael Rogge)
Moving Image Archive News
Movie Magazine International
MovieMaker magazine
Movie Poster Data Base
Movie Poster News Bulletin
Movieplayer.it, online database of Italian and other international cinema and TV.
Movieweb
The Moving Image: Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA)
Moving Image Source , hosted by Museum of the Moving Image.
Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), a working group of ISO/IEC, created to develop standards for coded representation of digital audio and video and related data.
Music for Silent Films, 1894-1929: A Guide (PDF, 73.8MB) by Gillian B. Anderson, Library of Congress, 1988.
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), Library of Congress: Reports and Papers
National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF)
- Film Preservation Guide
- Why Preserve Film?
- Film Decay and How to Slow It
- Annual Reports to U.S. Congress
- IRS 990s and Auditor Reports
National Screen and Sound Archive: Technical Glossary of Common Audiovisual Terms
New Review of Film and Television Studies
Nitrate Film Interest Group of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) photostream of nitrate film stills etc.
NitrateVille
Orphans Film symposium
"Permanence and Care of Color Photographs: Traditional and Digital Color Prints, Color Negatives, Slides, and Motion Pictures," published by Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc.
Mary Pickford Foundation
POV , PBS "documentaries with a point of view."
"Post Focus: Paramount Restores The Godfather," American Cinematographer, May 2008
Premiere , French language version of film magazine no longer published in English.
"Restoration Nation: Motion Picture Archives and American Film Preservation" (PDF, 1.52MB) (dissertation by Caroline Frick).
"Robert A. Harris: Tilting at Hollywood," interview with the noted film restorationist by Stu Kobak.
Rotten Tomatoes Film Reviews
"Safeguarding Sound and Image Collections" course bibliography (PDF, 42KB), published by ICCROM, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property.
Schenectady Museum presents a selection of rare films from its General Electric film collection, including more than 1,500 advertising, training, and educational films from 1915 through 1983.
Screen, international journal of academic film and television studies
Screen Daily/Screen International
Screening the Past , a peer-reviewed journal of screen history, theory & criticism.
Screenwriting Central--Script Magazine
Second Run DVD
Senses of Cinema
Shooting Down Pictures
Sight and Sound
Silent Era
Silent Era Film Journals (archived by The Bioscope)
"Silent Film Resources on the Internet" (Glen Pringle)
Silent Film Stills Archive
Silent on Video (courtesy Silents are Golden Web site)
Silents are Golden
"So Many Films, But Only a Few Are Treasures; Library of Congress Separates Mere Movies From Landmarks," by Randy Kennedy, New York Times, February 5, 2004.
Society of American Archivists, Visual Materials Section
Society for Animation Studies
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Journal (pre-1962) (courtesy Internet Archive)
Sound & Vision magazine
The Story of Movies : The Film Foundation's middle school curriculum for the study and appreciation of cinema
Streaming Media FAQ
Sustainability of Digital Formats Planning for Library of Congress Collections
TV & Media Jobs and Opportunities (primarily in the UK).
TV Guide: Movie Reviews
Television Without Pity
Texas Commission on the Arts: Videotape Identification and Assessment Guide, 2004
Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History , an online resource by Q. David Bowers
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They
- 1,000 Greatest Films
- Film Directors
This Film Is Dangerous (FIAF), anthology of articles and presentations related to nitrate film.
Tips on Archiving Family History, Part 1 , New York Times, June 4, 2013.
Tips on Archiving Family History, Part 2 , New York Times, June 5, 2013.
30 Great Westerns
Toronto International Film Festival
Trailers from Hell
UNESCO Archives Portal
United States Copyright Office, Records Database
United States Copyright Office, Catalog of Copyright Entries for Motion Pictures
- 1912-1939
- 1940-1949
- 1950-1959
- 1960-1969
Variety home page
Velvet Light Trap
Video Format Identification Guide
Washington State Film Preservation Manual : Low-cost & No-cost Suggestions to Care for Your Film
What a Character
Widescreen Review
Wilhelm Imaging Research

Program National Film Preservation Board