Citing and referencing: Film / Video Recording

Director's Last Name, First Name, director. Title of Film. Date of release. Lead performers' names, version information, film studio or distributor's name.

Ray, Billy, director. Shattered Glass. 2003. Performance by Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard and Chloe Sevigny, Lions Gate Films.

The standard formulation for citing a film is to begin with the director's name. However, films are collaborative works, so how you cite them depends on the focus of your discussion. If you are focusing on the director’s choices, begin your works-cited-list entry with the director’s name. If you are discussing various aspects of the film—such as the story, the actor’s performances, and the director’s choices—begin your entry with the film’s title.

For an in-text citation, use the director or title as above, and you can choose to use a time-stamp if you think it's necessary. 

If contributors are not available, omit that portion of the citation.

Director's Last Name, First Name, director. Title of Film. Date of release. Lead performers' names, version information, film studio or distributor's name, date of version.

Hitchcock, Alfred, director. Vertigo. 1958. Performance by James Stewart, Universal Home Entertainment, 2003.

Singer, Bryan, director. The Usual Suspects. 1995. Performance by Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Polygram, 2008.

Hogan, P.J., director. Muriel's Wedding. 1994. Roadshow Entertainment, 2000.

Scott, Ridley, director. Blade Runner. 1982. Performance by Harrison Ford, director's cut, Warner Bros., 1992.

In case the film version is different from the original (e.g. director's cut), include date of release (e.g. 1958 in the first example above) and date of version (e.g. 2003 in the first example above).

If version information is not available, omit that portion of the citation.

Director's First Name, Last Name, director. Title of Film. Date of release. Lead performers' names, version information, name of service provider, film studio or distributor's name, date of streaming, URL.

Burger, Neil, director. Divergent. Performance by Shailene Woodley, Theo James and Kate Winslet, Netflix, Red Wagon Entertainment, 30 Aug. 2014.

Lee, Ang, director. Eat Drink Man Woman. 1994. Performance by Kuei-Mei Yang, Chien-Lien Wu and Yu-Wen Wang, Kanopy, Umbrella Entertainment, 23 Aug. 2023, www.kanopy.com/en/monash/video/244623.

If URLs are not available, omit that portion of the citation.

Lastname, Firstname, contributor's role. Title of film. Film studio or distributor's name, date of release.

Gellar, Sarah Michelle, performer. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Mutant Enemy, 1997-2003.

Whedon, Joss, creator. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Mutant Enemy, 1997-2003.

If your discussion focuses on one participant, list him/her as the author.

Format

Reviewer Last Name, First Name. Review of Title of Film, directed by First Name Last Name. Title of Journal, volume, issue, year, page range of article. Database, URL.

Example

Kinder, Marsha. Review of High Heels, directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Film Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 3, 1992, 39-44.

Miller, Henry, K. Review of Jeff, Who Lives at Home, written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, Sight and Sound, vol. 22, no. 5, May 2012, 69-70. ProQuest, proquest.com/magazines/reviews-jeff-who-lives-at-home/docview/1011381061/se-2?accountid=12528

Explanation

If the review is published on a website and not in a journal, omit that portion of the citation and insert the website's URL.

​Databases contain many articles from a range of journals. In the example above, the name of the journal is Sight & Sound, and it can be found in the database ProQuest. In most instances, you will access a journal article through an online database, although you can also access them directly through the journal's homepage.

If database and/or URL are not available, omit that portion of the citation.