How to Cite a Film in an Essay

Films are a valuable resource for writing about culture, cinematography and popular trends in story lines and characters. The Modern Language Association, MLA, citation style uses a streamlined method of in-text citation followed by a bibliographic entry at the end of the paper for all sources utilized in the paper. Films will be cited very similarly to books and articles, with some minor changes in the central information.

Instructions

    • 1

      Note the name of the film, the director, the lead actors in the film, the distributor and the year the film was released. All of this information is required to format the citation.

    • 2

      Cite the film title in parenthesis at the end of a sentence in an in-text citation. For example, "Many film directors, such as Rob Marshall, require actors to sing and dance to gain the role they desire (Nine)". Make sure to underline the film's title.

    • 3

      Create a bibliographic entry for the film. List the film first, underlined and followed by a period.

      Next list the director's name preceded by the abbreviation "Dir." to denote the director's status, followed by a period.

      List the performers' names preceded by the abbreviation "Perf.". Use a comma between each actor's name and end the actors list with a period.

      Finally state the name of the production company followed by a comma and the year the film was released, closing with a period.

      For example:

      Troy. Dir. Wolfgang Petersen. Perf. Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Peter O'Toole, and Diane Kruger. Warner Bros., 2004.

      Once again, the title of the film should be underlined, a format we cannot show you in this article.

EduJourney © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved