Movies
Welcome
This page aims to be a guide to movie (and television) resources at the library - and covers both our audiovisual resources and our book collections in this area. Have a browse!
Staff picks : Film & television on DVD
If you're seeing this message for an extended period, javascript is not enabled in your browser. Head over to the libraries' News Blog to view our latest staff film & television reviews.
More recent items
Check out the monthly lists of our latest DVDs, and the reviews on the AV Recent Picks page in MyLibrary.
New film and television books
If you're seeing this message for an extended period, javascript is not enabled in your browser. Head over to the libraries' News Blog to view our latest film and television books.
Magazine roundup
Want to check out what's in the latest issue of your favourite movie magazine? Here are some links to either the magazine's website, or (where available), the fulltext of the magazine through our online databases. Enjoy!
(Note: to read articles online, you must have logged into EBSCO during the past month on the computer you are using.)
What's on in Wellington?
Local Cinemas
- Deluxe Cinemas (The Embassy) |
- Empire (Island Bay) |
- Lighthouse Cinemas |
- Paramount Cinema |
- Penthouse Cinema |
- Reading Cinemas
Cinema guides
- Tonight Guide
Session times for Embassy, Paramount, Rialto and Penthouse. - Wellington Film Society
Join the society or buy a sampler to see old and new gems from throughout the world. - What's On in Wellington
- Wellington Film Guide
Session times and reviews for current and upcoming releases. - Noremote.co.nz
Session times for films in all Wellington (and Christchurch) theatres.
Catalogue Quicksearches for DVDs
By audience:
By genre:
Finding books:
| Subject area: | Dewey no.: |
|---|---|
| The film section | Mainly 791.43 - 791.438 |
| Directors | 791.43023 (also try the Biography section) |
| Actors | 791.43092 (also try the Biography section) |
| Film scripts | 791.437 |
| Script writing | 808.23 |
| Film editing software (eg Adobe Premier, iMovie, QuickTime) | 778.559, 778.5992, 006.6869 |
Tips:
If you're after something specific such as information on a particular person or film, try a subject or keyword search in our catalogue.
Check the large book section and reference books if you can't find anything in the normal-size sequence.
'Select: Sound & Vision' collection!
Get the latest CDs & DVDs faster! The 'Select' collection - available at Karori and Kilbirnie libraries as well as Central - is designed to make it easier to borrow heavily used and reserved items within our AV Collection. The items in this collection have a reduced loan period of 3 days, meaning you can access the most popular CDs and DVDs faster for the same price and find them on the shelf more often.
You can find more information on our News page.
Online movie resources
Databases
- All Movie Guide
Huge database featuring reviews, actor biographies, cast/credits info, genre keyword searching amongst other features. - ForeignFilms
Database & news. - Internet Movie Database
Similar to allmovie.com, but arguably more extensive. Movie news, biographies, user-ratings, plot summaries, photo galleries and more. - Movie Review Query Engine
Easy to use movie review database. Links to full text reviews of over 39,000 films.
Blogs
- Daily Film Dose
New movie reviews every day, as well as plenty of interesting features. - The A.V Club
A one stop shop, 'The AV Club' is an online entertainment paper, published by 'The Onion', though it is not satirical in content. It includes reviews of films, music, comics, DVDs, vide games & books. - The DVD Journal
A great site, 'The DVD Journal' is now unfortunately defunct. Begun in 1997, it provided over 10 years worth of great reviews and features, focusing not just on the movies themselves, but also the technical aspects of the DVD releases and re-issues. - The Pinocchio Theory
Not just a 'review' site, Steven Shaviro's blog incorporates the world of film with his interests in philosophers Giles Deleuze & A.N Whitehead, pop music & comic books. - 'Sit Down Man, You're a Bloody Tragedy'
Similar to 'The Pinocchio Theory' this site by Owen Hartley incorporates the world of film with his interests in modernistic architecture, Soviet culture & political theory. - Self Styled Siren
A literate, but never pretentious, film blog that has plenty of smart things to say about old movies - all the way back to the silent era - & film preservation. With plenty of great stories on actors, actresses and the old Studio system.
Local Festivals
- Fringe Film Festival July.
- OutTakes Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Late May/early June.
- Wellington Film Festival July-August.
International Festivals
- Film Festivals
A portal site for festivals and film news. - Cannes
- The Film Festival Server
- Sundance
New Zealand Film
- Lonely Geek NZ cinema guide
Links to industry sites. - Lord of the Rings location guide
- The Film Archive
Includes Events Calendar. - New Zealand Film Commission
- Pipers NZ film links
- Spada
Screen Production and Development Association - Zeroland (NZ film section)
NZ News, Reviews, Media
- Screen Hub
Daily online film and television industry news & vacancies. - Lumiere
NZ site with film criticism, reviews and forum. - New Zealand Herald
Daily reviews, competitions, entertainment news. - Karate Party
Wellington-based film review site.
International News, Reviews, Media
- Agony Booth - "An ongoing inquisition into some of the worst movies humanity has to offer."
- Cinescape - Magazine site.
- Cinema review - Archived reviews of cinema and video/DVD releases. Provides short synopses; critical reviews; cast and crew information; average reviewer ratings.
- Comic Critic - Movie reviews done in comic form.
- DVD Journal - DVD news, reviews, commentary, 'stuff like that'.
- DVD.review.net - 'UK's No.1 DVD review website'.
- DVD Talk - DVD reviews and columns.
- Empire UK edition. Empire Australian edition.
- E-online - Hollywood gossip.
- Film Threat
- Guardian - great film reviews.
- Hotdog - Magazine site.
- JoBlo - Latest news, DVD, VHS and cinema reviews; upcoming releases, box office rankings.
- Journal of Religion and Film
- Masters of Cinema - Substantial material about quality foreign films and classics.
- Metacritic - Compares net-wide reviews for film and DVD/Video releases to yield an overall rating.
- Moviemaker - Magazine on the 'art and business of making movies'.
- New York Times - some of the best reviews and analysis (free registration req'd).
- Premiere - Magazine site.
- Reelviews - Copious reviews by James Berardinelli.
- Roger Ebert - Reviews, interviews & essays, events and 'answer man'.
- Rotten Tomatoes - Similar to Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes compiles net-wide reviews to give an overall 'fresh' or 'rotten' rating.
- Self Made Critic
- SFgate
- U.K. Critic
- Uncut - Hybrid magazine focusing on music and film. The offspring of Mojo and Hotdog would look something like this.
Online DVD rentals
Studios and Collectives - International
- British Film Institute
- Google Film Studio Directory
- Universal Studios - Archives and Collections - Features information about Universal studios plus regularly updated exhibitions from the archives.
- Movie Studios & Theatrical Companies @ Movies A-Z
- Wikipedia Hollywood Movie Studio List
- Wikipedia International Movie-Related Topics
DVD rental & retail
- Aro Video - Wellington's home of quality film has an equally excellent website. The fully searchable catalogue is replete with reviews and recommendations. They also have a good range of VHS and DVD titles for purchase.
- DVD video NZ
- DVD video planet
- Manga NZ
- Moviehouse
- Real Groovy
- Smoke CDs - some music DVDs
- United Video and U.V. Courtney Place
- Video Ezy
Miscellanea
- The Movie Wavs Page - Recorded, downloadable, classic movie quotes. Just the thing for that Dirty Harry line you always wanted for your answering machine. See also: The Movie Sounds Database and Reelwavs.
- The Oscars
- The Razzies
- Whoops! - Movie Goofs, Flubs, Flaws and Mistakes.
- New Zealand Censorship Information (Office of Film & Literature Classification)
- New Zealand Censorship Information in other languages (Office of Film & Literature Classification)
Comments, ideas?
This page is written and maintained by Mark, our Sound & Vision specialist. My aim is to keep you informed about the film and television collections and to highlight parts of the collection which may interest you. I'd be pleased to hear from you about this page - you can email me with any feedback.
(Last updated April 2011)
