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Film and Media Studies

This guide provides an introduction to resources that support research in film and media studies, primarily through a humanities lens. It includes links and tools for articles, books, films, dissertations, and more!

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Film Archives

Archive of American Television 

the Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television has conducted nearly 700 long-form videotaped interviews with the pioneers of television. These interviews chronicle the birth and growth of American TV History.

Black Film Center/Archive 

The Black Film Center & Archive is the only archival repository in the world that is wholly dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available historically and culturally significant films by and about Black people.

Black Film Archive
Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films. In its current iteration, it showcases Black films made from 1898 to 1989 currently streaming. It is an evolving archive dedicated to making historically and culturally significant films made about Black people accessible through a streaming guide with cultural context. Maya S. Cade is the creator and curator of Black Film Archive and a scholar-in-residence at the Library of Congress.

Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive 

Comprised of approximately 70,000 motion picture negatives, magnetic sound elements, release prints and a growing percentage of moving image materials in digital formats.

iota Library and Study Center 

iota has assembled an extensive media collection uniquely focused on abstraction in film, video, performance and installation art. Along with the collection there is a small Screening Room equipped with a full HD projector donated by Epson. The video library collection and screening room, housed at iota's headquarters in Culver City, CA, is available for study by scholars, students and the general public.

Margaret Herrick Library 

With over 10 million photographs, 300,000 clipping files, 80,000 screenplays 35,000 movie posters and 32,000 books, the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library maintains one of the most extensive collections of movie-related materials ever assembled.

National Film Preservation Board

The arm of the Library of Congress that is responsible for film conservation and preservation issues, the site contains valuable links to other entities around the world dedicated to film preservation.

National Film Registry

Overseen by the National Film Preservation Board, the registry is the list of films that have been deemed most important and have been preserved. Each year, 25 new films are preserved and added to the list.

National Film Preservation Foundation 

A non-profit organization created by an act of Congress, the Foundation has been charged with the task of supporting film archives around the United States.

The Paley Center for Media 

The Paley Center's permanent media collection contains nearly 150,000 television and radio programs and advertisements.

Public Moving Image Archives and Research Centers 

Links from the National Film Preservation Board to websites of film and TV archives.

UCLA Film and Television Archive 

One of the largest collections of media materials in the United States

Vanderbilt TV News Archive 

The world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. We have been recording, preserving and providing access to television news broadcasts of the national networks since August 5, 1968.

Visual Communications 

VC owns and maintains one of the most extensive repositories of 20th century Asian Pacific American culture and history. Our archives hold over 300,000 photographic images, 1,500+ titles in the Media Resource Library, and over 1,000 hours of oral histories and interviews

Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Catalog

AMIA is a non-profit professional association established to advance the field of moving image archiving by fostering cooperation among individuals and organizations concerned with the collection, description, preservation, exhibition and use of moving images

British Pathe

Claiming to be the "world’s first digital news archive," this site allows you to preview selections from the entire 3500 hour British Pathe Film Archive, covering news, sport, social history, and entertainment from 1896 to 1970.

Film/TV documentation collections

Information regarding documentation centers and their services, as well as the nature and availability of their holdings.

The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)

FIAF is a collaborative association of more than 120 of the world’s leading film archives from 65 different countries with the purpose of ensuring the proper preservation and showing of motion pictures.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications

The site for the Chicago’s famous Museum of Broadcast Communications, this site provides information on the Museum’s holdings of more than 85,000 hours of radio and television programs and commercials.

Moving Image Collections

MIC lets you discover, locate, and even (in some cases) view moving images from around the world. MIC’s two databases can be searched from anywhere on the site.

Filmoteca Española

The National Film Archive of Spain.

Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Visuales (INCAA)

A government agency from Argentina in charge of promoting the national film industry.

Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC)

The ICAIC was established by the Cuban government in March 1959, soon after the Cuban Revolution. The function of ICAIC is to promote the Cuban film industry as well as distribute and exhibit films. Its goal is to use film as a powerful mass communication medium to mobilize and educate people.

Filmoteca UNAM

National Mexican Film Archive managed by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).