CCSF Library: Cinema: Articles

Key Journals and Magazines for Cinema

Journals are often intended for a scholarly audience (scholars, academics, researchers, etc.) Many of these journals go through a peer-review editing process. Peer-reviewed articles go through a rigorous publishing process: they are written by an academic, submitted to the journal, and then circulated to experts in the field for checking before being published.

Magazines are generally intended for a broader, public audience.

American Cinematographer
A magazine published monthly by the American Society of Cinematographers focusing on the art and craft of cinematography for domestic and foreign productions.
Film Comment
An arts and culture magazine now published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, featuring reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world.
Film Quarterly
A journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including documentary and animation.
Sight & Sound
A monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute, championing and appraising the art of cinema from around the world.

Recommended Databases for Cinema

Databases are searchable containers of the source types listed above: books, magazines, journals, and (but not webpages, which you search on the open web). Databases are owned by a few different companies, and the library pays for access to make relevant sources available for your research. The sources in the databases are rarely available for free on the open web.

When doing research in Cinema we recommend the following options:

OneSearch This link opens in a new window
Cross-searches most CCSF Library databases. Some resources are excluded. Learn more about searching in OneSearch.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources in a variety of subject areas including economics, history, sociology, and political science.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Access to more than 8,800 full-text journals and 7,700 peer-reviewed journal on a variety of subjects including those within STEM research, social sciences and the humanities. This is a comprehensive multi-disciplinary database.
Communications and Mass Media (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
From marketing professionals to students studying for advanced degrees in linguistic theory, this collection provides current and accurate information from more than 100 journals focused on all aspects of the communications field. Key subjects covered include: advertising and public relations, literature and writing, linguistics, and many more.