Wikipedia:Naming conventions (films)
This guideline documents an English Wikipedia 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. |
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 Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization). Film titles, like the titles of books and other works of art, are always italicized.
General
[edit]In general, article titles should use the official title of the film as indicated by its billing block, MPAA certificate, press releases, copyright agencies, the Library of Congress, the BFI catalog, the AFI catalog, etc.
- Marketing stylizations – Be aware that it is common for film titles to be rendered differently in promotional materials.
- Onscreen titles – Be aware that it is also common for films to use a slightly modified title onscreen.
- Examples: Dune (2021 film), Iron Man 3, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
- Retroactive changes – Use the title used at the time of the film's release, disregarding retroactive changes.
- Common names – Sometimes, it is acceptable to use an alternative common name that is more concise or recognizable.
- Examples: Dr. Strangelove, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ocean's 8
- Branding subtitles – Subtitles and possessives used for brand recognition may be omitted for concision, unless they are being used for natural disambiguation.
- International titles – Use the title used in the film's country of origin, not international ones.
- Examples: Zootopia, Mad Max 2, Ford v Ferrari
- Formatting irregularities – Take note of small formatting quirks that may be overlooked by some sources.
- En dashes – Per MOS:CONFORMTITLE, convert hyphens to en dashes where applicable.
- Special characters – Per MOS:TMRULES, ignore special characters and normalize them as regular text. This does not apply to numbers or common symbols.
- Examples: Alien 3, WALL-E, Romeo + Juliet
Disambiguation
[edit]From other topics
[edit]If a film does not share its title with any other topic on Wikipedia, name the article after the film's title. If a film shares its title with one or more non-film topics on Wikipedia, compare all topics and determine whether 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 disambiguation. If the film is not the primary topic, name its article after the film's title with the disambiguation "(film)".[a] Use "(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:
- 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 (1984 film) is a 1984 film based on the novel and disambiguated from the primary topic.
Between films of the same name
[edit]If a film shares its title with one or more other film topics on Wikipedia, compare all film and non-film topics and determine whether one is the primary topic. 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
[edit]- Airplane! – Requires no disambiguation as the sole candidate for the title.
- The Sound of Music (film) – The stage musical is considered to be the primary topic, so the film is disambiguated.
- Jaws (film) – Jaws is a disambiguation page because there is no primary topic.
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film), All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 film), and All Quiet on the Western Front (2022 film) – The novel is regarded as the primary topic, so all films are disambiguated.
- Miracle on 34th Street (the 1947 film), Miracle on 34th Street (1973 film) and Miracle on 34th Street (1994 film) – The original film is regarded as the primary topic, so the other two adaptations are disambiguated.
- Titanic (1943 film), Titanic (1953 film), and Titanic (1997 film) – None of the films are the primary topic, so they are all disambiguated.
When more than one film needs to be disambiguated, partial disambiguation such as Titanic (film) should be made and redirected back to the main disambiguation page or an appropriate section of it. This aids navigation, and helps editors to avoid creating new articles under the ambiguous title by accident. While the general guideline at Wikipedia:Disambiguation allows for incomplete disambiguation, the film-naming conventions guideline prefers disambiguating all secondary-topic films from each other. Policy at WP:PRECISION permits such Wikipedia project-specific naming criteria with the following related examples:
- Leeds North West is precise enough to be unambiguous, but Wikipedia:Naming conventions (UK Parliament constituencies) specify the addition of the qualifier in Leeds North West (UK Parliament constituency) with a redirect from Leeds North West.
- M-185 is precise enough to be unambiguous, but Wikipedia:Naming conventions (U.S. state and territory highways) specify adding the qualifier M-185 (Michigan highway) with a redirect from M-185.
For multiple films of the same name that are produced in the same year, include additional information such as contrasting descriptive adjectives, such as Heidi (2005 live-action film) and Heidi (2005 animated film) or Skin (2018 feature film) and Skin (2018 short film); the country of origin (adjective), like Noise (2007 Australian film) and Noise (2007 American film); or production companies, such as Aladdin (1992 Disney film) and Aladdin (1992 Golden Films film).
Film series
[edit]For articles on a series of films, the title of the article should be Series name (film series)
, such as The Chronicles of Narnia (film series); if the series has no official name, choose one commonly used by reliable sources, such as Bourne (film series). When trilogies are often referred to as such by reliable sources, their articles may be titled Series name trilogy
(e.g., Three Colours trilogy), or Series name trilogy (film series)
if further disambiguation is required.
Media franchise
[edit]When the content presented in a film or film series spans other media formats such as radio, TV, video game, or print, then an associated overview page (an article describing and summarizing the items of the franchise) should usually occupy the primary article title (e.g. Star Trek, Harry Potter), but may be disambiguated as Series name (franchise)
when required. Example: Alien (franchise).