How to cite a film

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B18 / R18.7.1 · Internet & electronic

Example

Another Body, Amazon Prime, at 1:00:25 (Utopia 2023).

More examples

Each of these is checked against the rules on every change to the tool.

Luis Buñuel, Un Chien Andalou, DVD (1929).

What the citation needs

Required

Name of the film — The title as it appears on the source. R8(a): capitalize every word except articles, conjunctions and prepositions of four or fewer letters, unless they begin the title or follow a colon.
Year of release — The year that goes in the date parenthetical at the end of the citation.

When they apply

Produced by — Commercial: the individuals, company, or network that produced the film, set before the year (R18.7.1(a)). Noncommercial: the person or institution that made it, if available, set before the title (R18.7.1(b)).
Access medium — Where the film can be watched: “Blu-ray”, “DVD”, “Amazon Prime”. Without one, the film must be on file (R18.7.1).
Time stamp — A quoted line or scene, as “, at XX:XX” after the title (R18.7.1).
On file with — Where a reader can get an unpublished or hard-to-find source: what follows “on file with” — “author”, or the library or journal holding it (R17.1).

In a brief and in a law review

The Bluebook sets citations two ways: the Bluepages for court documents and legal memoranda, the Whitepages for law review footnotes. Here is the first example above as each one prints it, in its typeface.

Court documents (Bluepages)

Another Body, Amazon Prime, at 1:00:25 (Utopia 2023).

Law review footnotes (Whitepages)

Another Body, Amazon Prime, at 1:00:25 (Utopia 2023).

The words are the same in both; only the typeface changes.

Common mistakes

Each of these is a citation the checker refuses, with what it says is wrong and the corrected form.

Wrong

Another Body, Amazon Prime, 1:00:25 (Utopia 2023).

Why

A time stamp (“1:00:25”) marks a film or recording (R18.7; R18.8), not a book page; set it off as “, at 1:00:25” after the title.

Right

Another Body, Amazon Prime, at 1:00:25 (Utopia 2023).

Wrong

Luis Buñuel, Un Chien Andalou, DVD, (1929).

Right

Luis Buñuel, Un Chien Andalou, DVD (1929).

Governing rules

B18 / R18.7.1

18 — the internet, electronic media & other nonprint resources.
18.7.1 — films.
18.7.1(a) — commercial films.

Build this citation with the generator, check one you have already written, or paste a whole list of footnotes to check them in order.

Related source types

Internet & electronic: