Skip to main content

Fast Facts

Authoritative filmographic database
Includes nearly 60,000 U.S. film entries
Supports American film scholarship and research

Intended For

Overview

Produced in collaboration with the American Film Institute, the AFI Catalog is the premier resource for studying American motion pictures. It is the most comprehensive and detailed national filmography in the world. The Catalog includes the entire print version, which comprises fifteen volumes documenting all films produced in the United States from 1893 to 1970, as well as new digital content and important updates for all records through 2015. Also included are complete records for AFI Awards winners for the years 2000 to 2015. The Catalog offers authoritative plot summaries and insider production notes, as well as subject and song indexing for each film record.

AFI Catalog now includes new content and functionality:

  • Quick Search on Home Page
  • AFIs Top Ten Films of 2000-2007
  • Webmaster to answer your questions
  • 搜索history
  • Editorial guidelines
  • Extensive updates to existing records

The film experts at AFI are continually updating and revising their more than 48,000 records so as to reflect the very latest in scholarship and research. Each of the twice annual releases includes not only new film records, but revised and updated records.

The Catalog is an esteemed and highly reputable research tool for students of film. It is a unique filmographic resource - a standard in libraries throughout the world. The reputation for quality, comprehensiveness, accuracy, and level of detail is unmatched. Only AFI Catalog guarantees the authority of its content.

The process of creating a catalog volume is a painstaking one of locating and viewing films and researching studio records and contemporary and modern resources to produce thousands of unbiased entries on films ranging from well-known studio blockbusters to obscure, once-lost period films. The catalog is an unmatched tool for film research and preservation activities-recording the development of the moving image as a unique means of artistic and cultural expression in the 20th century.

Fields Indexed:

  • Keywords will search all fields
  • Film Title browse a list (also searches alternative, foreign titles)
  • Character Names browse a list (can search non-inverted names)
  • Cast and Crew browse a list
  • Production browse a list (see chart)
  • Based On browse a list of source information (see chart)
  • Release browse a list (see chart)
  • Release Year
  • Subject browse a list
  • Genre browse a list
  • Songs browse a list

每个索引列表包含了许多的selectio水平n (for example, the Cast and Crew list contains 11 different types of jobs indexed).

Authoritative.AFI目录了by the film experts at the famous American Film Institute, the premier film research and educational facility in the United States.

Detailed coverage.Coverage begins with the very earliest American films and thoroughly covers this early era. It is the premier resource on early American films.

Plot Summaries.The AFI Catalog is noted for its thorough and extensive plot summaries. For major movies, such as Casablancaand Gone with the Wind, the plot summaries are often over 1,700 words in length.

Production Notes.The AFI Catalog is also noted for its detailed production notes, which offer inside information on casting preferences, debuts, delays, script re-writes and other important information. For major movies, these notes are often over 1,400 words in length.

Scholarly.Rich index content enables students to track down in-depth information on films. All fields are fully searchable by keyword and allow users to search for films by 11 different fields. Most fields also allow you to select from an extensive list. For the Cast and Crew field, you may select from 11 different types of jobs. Records also include references to content in periodicals to allow students to extend their research.

Support & Training

ProQuest offers best-in-class customer service, technical support, and training so you can hit the ground running with your ProQuest products and leverage everything they can do.

Access Support Center

Product Literature

Case Studies & Whitepapers

Library Marketing Tools

Related Products

FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals / FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Plus

This essential tool for film studies, created by the International Federation of Film Archives, indexes more than 300,000 articles from 300 of the world's foremost academic and popular film journals, dating from 1972 onward.

Learn More

Film Index International

Produced in collaboration with the British Film Institute, this first release of Film Index International contains the BFI's most up to date film and person index, with records from 1900 to the present. Offering both film and person searches, as well as a new quick search function, Film Index International has useful functionality, such as a search history, the ability to save and e-mail selected records, a combine saved searches function, usage statistics and a number of other new features.

Learn More

Screen Studies Collection

The Screen Studies Collection offers a comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed and expansive filmographies. This collection includes the following specialist indexes and filmographies: American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog, Film Index International (FII), and FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database.

Learn More

Blog

Be ‘E Ready’ with Books, Periodicals, Video, Music Scores and More

Learn how ProQuest is helping libraries grow their collections and reinvent the way they serve their communities.

Learn More