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Blue tickThis guideline documents an English Misplaced Pages naming convention.
Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.		Shortcuts
Main page: Misplaced Pages:Article titles

Conventions: Each word in a film title takes an initial capital, except for articles ("a", "an", "the"), the word "to" as part of an infinitive, prepositions, or coordinating conjunctions that are four letters or shorter (e.g., "on", "from", "and", "with"), unless they begin or end a title or subtitle. For example: Angels and Virgins, End of the Spear, Failure to Launch, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. See Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (capitalization). Film titles, like the titles of books and other works of art, are always italicized.

Disambiguation

From other topics

If a film does not share its title with any other topic on Misplaced Pages, title the article after the film's title. If a film shares its title with one or more non-film topics on Misplaced Pages, compare all topics and determine which one is the primary topic. (See below for films with the same title.) If the film is the primary topic, name its article after the film's title without any means of disambiguation. If the film is not the primary topic, name its article after the film's title with "(film)" added at the end. For example, "An American in Paris" refers to both the Gershwin musical piece and the musical film. The musical piece is the primary topic, so it is titled An American in Paris, whereas the film is disambiguated by the primary topic by being titled An American in Paris (film). Ensure that readers can access a film with a disambiguated article title by using hatnotes or disambiguation pages. Another example follows:

  • Dune is a geological term for sand formations and the primary topic.
  • Dune (novel) is a 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert and disambiguated from the primary topic.
  • Dune (film) is a 1984 film based on the novel and disambiguated from the primary topic.

Between films of the same name

If a film shares its title with one or more other film topics on Misplaced Pages, compare all film and non-film topics and determine which one is the primary topic. The primary topic for any given title is defined to be the topic which is most widely sought when a reader searches for that term, or if the topic has a significant long-standing association with that term. If one film is the primary topic, name its article after the film's title without any means of disambiguation. For the other films (or all the films, if none of them are the primary topic), add the year of its first verifiable release (including film festival screenings).

Examples
Confusion

When more than one film needs disambiguating, there is some confusion in regards to whether the more notable film should be disambiguated to Title (film), with the other disambiguated to Title (YEAR film). For example, since Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is not determined to be the primary topic for the term "Psycho", should it be disambiguated to Psycho (film) or Psycho (1960 film), with the 1998 remake disambiguated to Psycho (1998 film)? WP:PRIMARYTOPIC and WP:PRECISION suggest Psycho (1960 film), which is best demonstrated by applying the two guidelines in turn to a selection of hypothetical candidates:

  1. Psycho (film)
  2. Psycho (Bloch)
  3. Psycho (Hitchcock)
  4. Psycho (1960 film)
  5. Psycho (1960 Hitchcock film)
  • Applying PRIMARYTOPIC only eliminates Psycho (Bloch) as a title from the set of potential names. In selecting an appropriate disambiguator, we are limited to selecting a title that the Hitchcock classic is the primary topic for i.e. the topic most likely to be sought when searching on the term. In this case, the Hitchcock film is not the primary topic for Psycho (Bloch), since it is most likely that the novel by Robert Bloch is the primary topic for this title i.e. using the author's name as the disambiguation term would lead a reader to believe the article is about the book from just the title. However, the film is the primary topic for the four remaining potential titles, since it is the topic most likely to be sought when searching on any of the other four terms.
  • Applying PRECISION eliminates Psycho (film) and Psycho (1960 Hitchcock film). Titles should be precise enough to unambiguously define the topical scope of the article, but no more precise than that. From the four remaining potential titles, Psycho (film) is not precise enough to disambiguate the 1960 film from the 1998 remake, and Psycho (1960 Hitchcock film) contains redundant disambiguation since the disambiguation term is more descriptive than it needs to be i.e. Hitchcock could be dropped, or 1960 etc.
  • This leaves two perfectly acceptable titles that the Hitchcock film is the primary topic for, which also observe Misplaced Pages's precision guideline: Psycho (Hitchcock) and Psycho (1960 film). The Film project elects to use the (YEAR film) format rather than (DIRECTOR) so that the topic area is explicitly identified; therefore we naturally arrive at the appropriate disambiguation for the title: Psycho (1960 film).
Further disambiguation

In the rare case that multiple films of the same name are produced in the same year, include additional information such as the country of origin, like Noise (2007 Australian film) and Noise (2007 American film); or a descriptive adjective, such as Heidi (2005 live-action film) and Heidi (2005 animated film).

Film series

For articles on a series of films, the title of the article should be Series name (film series) or Series subject (film series). When trilogies are often referred to as such by reliable sources, their articles may be titled Series name trilogy, or Series name trilogy (film series) if further disambiguation is required. If there are two film series with the same name, use (YEAR film series) as the disambiguation term, where YEAR is the year of the first film of the series.

Film franchise

When the content originating in a film or film series is presented in other media, then an associated overview page (an article describing and summarising the items of the franchise) may be disambiguated (if necessary) as Series name (franchise).

Foreign-language films

See also: Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (use English) and Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style § National varieties of English

Use the title more commonly recognized by English readers; normally this means the title under which it has been released in cinemas or on video in the English-speaking world. Normally, this will be an English language title that is recognized across the English-speaking world; however, sometimes different English-speaking countries use different titles, in which case use the most common title, and give the native and alternate English title(s) afterward.

Note: in the following paragraphs, the phrase 'the English-speaking world' refers to countries in which the majority of the population speaks English as their first language; it thus includes the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, as well as several smaller countries. It does not include countries such as India in which English is a common second language, but in which films are rarely produced in English.

Examples

If the film was released under the same English title across the English-speaking world, use this as the title of the article, and refer to the film by that title throughout the article. However, the first time it is used, follow it immediately with the original title in brackets, bolded, and with a link to the appropriate native language article.

  • The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish: Diarios de motocicleta)

If the English title means something different from the native title, use the English title, but in the first or second sentences of the article, explain the different meaning of the original title, putting it in bold too.

  • Betty Blue is a 1986 French film. Its original French title is 37°2 le matin, which means "37.2 °C in the Morning".

If the film was released in the English-speaking world under its native title, use that throughout the article, but include an English translation in brackets after the first use. Do not put the English title in bold, as this is not an 'official' title. If the native title contains characters not in the Latin alphabet, such as syllabaries or Chinese characters, treat the romanization as the common title and include the native alphabet and any other transliterations.

If the film has been released under different titles within the English speaking world – if for example, some English-speaking countries prefer to use the native title, or if different translations are used in different countries – use the most common title throughout, and explain the other titles in the first or second sentence, putting each of them in bold.

Rationale

Titles of articles should be the most commonly used title for the following reasons:

  • We want to maximize the likelihood of being listed in external search engines, thereby attracting more people to Misplaced Pages. Using "The Seventh Seal" rather than "Det sjunde inseglet" makes the page easier to find with a search engine, since search engines often give greater weight to the title than to the body of the page. Since "The Seventh Seal" is the most common form of the title, it will be searched on more often, and having that exact string in our page title will often mean our page shows up higher in other search engines.
  • We want to maximize the incidence that people who make a link guessing the article title, guess correctly: people guessing a different title may think there is no article yet, which may cause duplication.
  • Using the full native title requires people to know that title, and spell it correctly. This would potentially be more difficult in the case of foreign languages.

Some users dislike the "redirected from" announcement at the top of the page that occurs when a user enters a foreign title and is redirected to the English translation. The reasoning for doing this would be to make the meaning of the title comprehensible by the majority under the currently viewed language, and the benefit being that if someone reads or hears about "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain", and wonders what film might be meant by that, the "(Redirected from Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)" at the top of the page describing the film in question puts the reader at ease that this was the intended film: the "redirect" message indicates that the system hasn't been playing tricks, and that this was the page to which you were supposed to be led.

Articles about filmmaking

Articles which relate to general concepts related to film technology, terminology, and industry should use (filmmaking) if disambiguation is necessary.

Examples: Above the line (filmmaking), Option (filmmaking), Wrap (filmmaking)

See also

Categories: