Film Studies  

This guide provides a general introduction to library and information resources available in Oxford for all those studying, teaching and researching Film Studies.

Jean Painlevé, French scientist and filmmaker, 1902-1989
Photograph © Les Documents
Cinématographiques 2006

Film Studies is a growing discipline in Oxford, with film collections currently housed across a number of different libraries in the Humanities, Area Studies and Social Sciences. The film collections are primarily organised by country.

Use SOLO, the library catalogue which covers the majority of the Library collections of the Univesity of Oxford, to search our collections for films, books, journals and other resources.

SOLO encompasses:
• the library catalogue;
• ORA (Oxford Research Archive);
• Oxford University e-Journals list;
• OxLIP+, Oxford University’s extensive collection of online databases.

All films are catalogued on the library catalogue and can be searched for by title or by director (as an author). Information about video formats and DVD regional codes is also provided on the library catalogue, and it is important to check this before playing films on your machine. Further help with using SOLO to find film-related material is available in the Using SOLO to Find Film Studies Material guide.

Please note that films may only be borrowed for educational purposes, and that commercial copyright regulations strictly forbid the copying of DVDs and videos.

The Bodleian Libraries has recently acquired a subscription to the new Cinema & Media Studies module of Oxford Bibliographies Online (accessed via OxLIP+). Oxford Bibliographies Online provides short essays and detailed bibliographies on individual topics, which act as a guide to further resources in that subject area. The Cinema & Media Studies module currently covers over 50 individual topics, incluidng a number of national cinemas (eg French, British, German, Japanese and so on) and a number of individual directors and films. The module will be expanded with regular updates.

As of the end of March 2012, approximately 170 new DVDs have been bought for the Taylor Library in 2011-2012, and nearly 140 for the English Faculty Library. Examples of areas of recent acquisition include Bulgarian cinema - over 20 films by direcors such as Rangel Vulchanov, Georgi Djulgerov, Eduard Zakhariev and Ivan Nitchev - and a range of Japanese films, including works by Yasujiro Ozu ('student comedies' from 1929-1932), Kenji Mizoguchi, Hideo Gosha and Shohei Imamura, as well as more recent films by directors such as Kinji Fukasaku and Takashi Miike. Please see SOLO for full details of our holdings on all these directors.

If you have a specific enquiry relating to film resources, or would like to book an individual appointment for advice about researching Film Studies, please contact:

Helen Scott
Film Studies Subject Consultant, Bodleian Libraries

Tel: 01865 (2)78155
Email: helen.scott@bodleian.ox.ac.uk