Titles Submission Guide

If you need to add a new title to the IMDb please see our guide

The web interface provides a very easy to use and convenient interface to the IMDb additions system. Please click the button labelled "Update" near the bottom of every IMDb name/title page to access that interface. This page describes how to update original titles information directly via e-mail; it also provides an explanation for the formats generated by the web updates system.

We recommend all contributors use the web based update system and avoid the complexities of the direct email interface described below.

Additions

1. mark the start of a block of movie title additions with the keyword:
   

   TITLE

2. for each addition, include on a separate line an entry of the form:
   
   primary title|year|attributes
   where:

   primary title is the title used for connecting different lists of the data base via titles. Make sure your new title is really new and not already in the database with a different spelling or year. If it is and you are positive your version is the correct version, mail in the necessary corrections (see below). We retain the right to refuse to accept new titles that come without sufficient additional data such as director and country, titles that look dubious to us for one reason or another and titles for movies that are not eligible for inclusion in the database (see below).
   The primary title is the original title of a movie in its original language. If the movie is a coproduction that uses several languages, pick the dominant language concerning dialogue, director, cast and principal crew. If no language is dominating the others pick any one. Please add the year of first public screening of the final version (see below) to the title (or (????) if you don't know it).
   Articles usually are put at the end of titles. The exceptions so far are the French 'une/un/des' and the Portuguese 'um/uma'. If two movies have the same title in the same year add (I)/(II) etc. as necessary. Also, TV-movies have a (TV) added, made for video movies a (V), mini-series a (mini) and video games a (VG) and TV- and mini series are surrounded by "". The correct spelling of titles is defined by actual prints, not posters, soundtracks, reference books etc.
   Capitalisation is language dependent. The relevant language is the language of the title unless the title only uses foreign words but is actually for an audience in another language than the words alone suggest (such as English titles 'El Cid' or 'La Femme Nikita'). Currently the following policies are used:

   All capital letters at the start of words, with a few exceptions: English, Portuguese, Hebrew, Indian languages
   All lower-case letters at the start of words, except first word and article at the end plus some exceptions (names etc.): French, Italian, Spanish, Scandinavian languages, Hungarian, Dutch, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese
   Mixed: German

year is the year of first public screening/airing of the final version of a movie, be it a general release or a festival presentation, but not closed screenings for the crew or the media or test screenings of the unfinished product for marketing reasons. If you do not know the year, add ???? instead.

attributes records relevant additional information and in most cases will be empty. Awards are no longer stored here and must go to the separate awards list.

Examples:

TITLE
"Dynasty" (1981)|1981-1989|
Schindler's List (1993)|1993|
Blaue Engel, Der (1930)|1930|
Uma Vida Normal (1994)|1994|
Un amour de Swann (1984)|1984|
Uncommon Valor (1983/I)|1983|
Uncommon Valor (1983/II) (TV)|1983|
Strada, La (1954)|1954|
Enfants du paradis, Les (1945)|1945|
Mastermind (1976)|1976|(completed 1969)
Ugetsu monogatari (1953)|1953|

Mark the end of your data with the word:

END

on a separate line.
3. Mail the data with the subject:

   ADD

   to adds@imdb.com. The mail-server will mail a receipt back to you and place the data in the queue for processing by the list managers in the next update.

Deletions

TITLE
!title|year|attribute|

For example:

TITLE
!Schindler's Lust, The (1994)|1994|

You can add the correct entry at the same time:
TITLE
!Schindler's Lust, The (1994)|1994|
Schindler's List (1993)|1993|


Corrections

To correct a title in the data base use the following keyword:

TITLECORRECT

For each correction, include on a separate line an entry of the
form:


current title|correct title|
For example:
Schindler's List, The (1994)|Schindler's List (1993)|

CORRECT

What kind of titles/films are eligible for addition?

• must be of general public interest and
• should be available to the public or have been available in the past.

• features
• documentaries
• experimental films
• short films, but for the time being no commercials and video clips (these go to the biographical section under 'other works')
• films made for the big screen, TV and video
• TV series and mini series, but for now not individual TV series episodes and TV specials.
• video games

• has been released to cinemas
• has been shown on non local TV
• has been released on video or prints have been made available to the public
• has been accepted and shown on film festivals that don't accept everything independent of its quality
• has been made by a (now) famous artist or person of public interest.
• has become famous for some reason and is widely talked about/referenced in non local media or the 'film community' or is now of general historic interest for some reason.

• is of a strictly private nature (home movies)
• is an amateur production made for local consumption by friends, family members and neighbours, the local school campus etc. (including "local access television")
• has been digitized and put on some internet page for downloading (unless general public interest is assumed for one of the reasons stated above)
• is being offered to the public on the web via home made video tape copies (unless general public interest is assumed for one of the reasons stated above)
• has been made during/for a film class, workshop or any other educational program (unless general public interest is assumed for one of the reasons stated above)
• has been made for a local institution (such as a university, a firm etc.) for internal use (unless general public interest is assumed for one of the reasons stated above)

Frequent Problems

• The new primary title mailed in is actually an alternative title and should be mailed in as such (keyword AKA)
• The new primary title mailed in is a spelling variation of an existing primary title and refers to the same movie. For example often the year (????) is used instead of the correct year, or a year that is one or two years off.
• The title is coming in without any accompanying data that allows it to be properly evaluated without time consuming research. It is likely to be rejected in such a case.
• A new title for every season of a TV series is created although there is only one title per series allowed (the relevant years are put into attributes for individual credits and not in the title itself).
• Capitalisation rules are ignored and articles not put at the end of titles.
• The basic syntax with three fields and two | as delimiters is ignored.
• Data is sent directly to data managers instead of the mail server (adds@imdb.com).