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How to Cite a Movie in APA

Movies are a great source of information for many different types of papers. In this guide, you will learn how to write citations for various types of movies using APA 7th edition format.

Guide Overview

In this guide, you will find the following information:

Citing a movie

Citing a movie in another language, troubleshooting.

It doesn’t matter how you watched the movie (e.g., DVD, on a streaming service, in the theater, etc.), you cite all movies the same way as shown below.

APA movie citation structure:

Director Last Name, F.M. (Director). (Release Year). Title of motion picture [Film]. Studio.

Note:  If you cannot locate certain bibliographic data from the film’s cover, consult IMDB.com or a similar website.

APA movie citation example:

Ayoade, R. (Director). (2011). Submarine [Film]. Film4 Productions.

In-text citations for movies

Parenthetical citation: (Ayoade, 2011)

Narrative citations: Ayoade (2011)

Note: If no director cannot be identified, someone in a similar role can be credited in the director’s place as the author. 

When a film is in another language, simply include the translation in brackets after its original title. If the film’s title is in a language that does not use the Roman alphabet, transliterate the title.

Last name, F. M. (Director). (Year of release). Original title in sentence case  [Translated in title case] [Film]. Studio.

Derbez, E. (Director). (2013). No se aceptan devoluciones [Instructions not included] [Film]. Pantelion Films.

Structure: (Last name, date, timestamp [hour: minute: second])

Parenthetical citation: (Derbez, 2013, 1:15:38)

Narrative citations: Derbez (2013, 1:15:38)

Solution #1: Specifying editions of a movie

While you do not need to specify how you watched a movie, it is sometimes necessary to include the version or edition of the film in brackets next to the word “Film.”

Structure & Example:

Director Last Name, F. M. (Director). (Release Year). Title of motion picture [Film; Edition description]. Studio.

Lucas, G. (Director). (1983). Star wars episode V: The empire strikes back [Film; widescreen 2-disc special edition]. 20th Century Fox.

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Parenthetical Citations
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all APA Examples

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To cite a movie or film in APA style, it is important that you know some basic information such as the director’s name, the year, the full movie title, and the production company’s name. The templates for in-text citations and a reference list entry of a movie or film and their examples are given below:

In-text citation template and example:

Director Surname (Year)

Joon-ho (2006)

Parenthetical:

(Director Surname, Year)

(Joon-ho, 2006)

Reference list entry template and example:

Surname name, F. M. (Director). (Year). Movie title [Film]. Production Company.

Joon-ho, B. (Director). (2006). The host [Film]. Chungeorahm Film Sego Entertainment.

To cite a movie in APA style on your reference page, it is important that you know the name of the director, release date of the movie, title of the movie, and name of the production company.

In the in-text citation, use the movie director’s surname along with the release date. If you are including a direct quote, you should also include the time stamp for the beginning of the quotation. Templates and examples for the in-text citation of a movie are given below.

Director’s Surname (release date)

Stephenson (1999)

(Director’s Surname, release date)

(Stephenson, 1999)

With a Direct Quote:

“Quote” (Director’s Surname, release date, time stamp)

“I can work harder” (Stephenson, 1999, 1:05:42).

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• MLA Style Manual

How to Cite a Movie Using MLA Style

Last Updated: February 17, 2020

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. This article has been viewed 388,417 times.

You might need to use Modern Language Association (MLA) style guidelines if you're writing a paper for your middle, high school, or college-level class. You may also be a graduate student or researcher who uses MLA citations all the time! If you're writing a paper about movies, or you want to include a movie in a research paper on some other topic, you'll need to cite it properly. Making a correctly formatted Works Cited and adding in-text citations to your essays shows your audience that you're not plagiarizing.

Citation Templates

Making the Works Cited

• For now, your citation should just look like: “ Notting Hill .”
• If the title is a translation, include the original title in brackets. For example, “ The Chorus [Les Choristes] .”

• Your citation should now look something like this: “ Notting Hill . Dir. Roger Michell.”

• These citations look like this: “Michell, Roger, dir. Notting Hill .”

• The citation should now look like: “ Notting Hill . Dir. Roger Michell. Perf. Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, and Richard McCabe.”
• If your paper is about a particular actor, you can begin the citation with their name. This formatting looks like this: “Roberts, Julia, perf. Notting Hill . Dir. Roger Michell.”

• Almost there! Your citation should now look something like this: “ Notting Hill . Dir. Roger Michell. Perf. Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, and Richard McCabe. Universal Pictures, 1999.”

• If you watched the film online, you can skip to step 8.
• For VHS, type out “videocassette” in your citation. It'll look like this: “ Notting Hill . Dir. Roger Michell. Perf. Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, and Richard McCabe. Universal Pictures, 1999. Videocassette.”
• If you watched the movie at the theater, you can just type out “Film” for a complete citation! It'll look like this: “ Notting Hill . Dir. Roger Michell. Perf. Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, and Richard McCabe. Universal Pictures, 1999. Film.”

• If you watched Notting Hill on Blu-Ray, for example, your citation will look like this: “ Notting Hill . Dir. Roger Michell. Perf. Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, and Richard McCabe. 1999. Universal Pictures, 2013. Blu-Ray.”

• This citation will look something like this: “ Notting Hill . Dir. Roger Michell. Perf. Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, and Richard McCabe. Universal Pictures, 1999. Netflix . Web. 18 July 2017.”

• Your Works Cited should be on a separate page at the end of the paper, and it should be titled Works Cited. You don't need to put quotation marks around the words Works Cited, or italicize them.
• Make the whole document double-spaced, but don't add extra spaces between citations.

Doing In Text Citations

• For example, “ Notting Hill is a perfect illustration of a typical late 1990s rom-com ( Notting Hill ).”

• “Michell went for a personal touch in his directing for this film (Michell, Notting Hill ).”

• So, for example, “Roberts's classic wide smile made appearances throughout the movie (Roberts, Notting Hill ).”

• Add the timestamp like this: “Roberts lays her heart out on the floor in front of Grant at the end of the film (Roberts, Notting Hill , 02:01:33-02:03:10).”

Expert Q&A

• MLA citation requirements for movies and television are a little more flexible than those for other sources, which is why you're allowed to sometimes start with director or performers' names. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://www.american.edu/library/documents/upload/Film-Video-Citation-Guide.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/
• ↑ http://libguides.bates.edu/mla

About This Article

Citing a movie using Modern Language Association style is relatively simple once you know how. If you’re discussing the movie in general, write the title in italics and parenthesis at the end of the sentence when you mention it. If you’re discussing a director or actor in the movie, include their surname in the parenthesis before the title. If you’re referencing a specific shot, you should also include a timestamp at the end. In your works cited section, start with the title in italics, then write “Dir.” followed by the director’s full name. Then, include any relevant actors by writing “perf.” followed by their names. After that, write the movie’s distributor, like Universal Pictures, and the release date. Finally, write the format you watched the movie in, like VHS, DVD, or Netflix. If you saw it in the cinema, write “film” instead. For more tips from our Educational co-author, including how to organize your works cited list, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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