You often ask our writers,

“How to quote a movie in an essay?”

This question usually comes from students in the Arts, as they often refer to motion pictures, TV shows, and other types of audiovisual content in their papers.

We went to Charles R., one of the top academic writers here on EssayShark, for the answer. He’s shared a practical guide on how to write a movie review and gave us the general rules for citing movie titles in essays:

• Italicize movie titles
• Use uppercase for major words and subtitles
• Put the title in quotations if it’s extra short (like “It,” for example)
• Don’t italicize quotes or partial quotes from a movie
• Use punctuation inside quotations

Easy-peasy, right?

Not quite. Charles says the rules vary a bit, depending on the citation style you need to use in your essay. Below is your detailed guide on writing movie titles and quoting audiovisual materials in academic papers in three primary formats: APA, MLA, and Chicago.

So, let’s get down to business.

How to Quote From a Movie: Audiovisual Citations

While written sources like books, scientific journals, and articles are more common in academic research, students also use audiovisual content for reference in their essays on Media Studies or Communication.

The first catch you might face:

Of course, movies are not alone. Audiovisual citations cover materials like documentaries, online videos, TV shows, and podcasts. All are fine to refer to if they are relevant to your research and if you know the specifics of citing them in essays in a manner that keeps academic standards high. This guide covers the rules for citing the following audiovisual content in-text and in the reference lists of your essays:

• Motion pictures (films, movies)
• TV shows
• Audio recordings (podcasts)
• Radio broadcasts

Before we go to the practical tips on how to cite a movie in an essay, here’s the second catch: Where to look for audiovisual citations and how to know if the chosen source is credible enough to use in academic papers?

How to Quote a Movie in an Essay: Choosing Credible Sources

Not all audiovisual content is created equal. While finding a video reference online may seem easy, your teachers will hardly approve of all the sources you want to add.

How to know if a source is worth using in your essay:

• It’s original (don’t cite blogs or unreliable websites that reposted the video; refer to the original platform where it appeared).
• It’s credible (check who produced/wrote the video; evaluate the content — do extra research on the creator’s background to understand their qualifications and perspectives; verify the information from the video using other sources).
• It’s relevant to your research (don’t quote a movie for the sole purpose of adding witty words in your paper; refer to audiovisual content only when it brings some added value to the arguments in your essay).

How to quote movies:

For a movie citation, you’ll need the following information: the movie title, the director, the year of release, and the production company/studio. You can find it in the movie’s end credits or on credible movie databases like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb (Internet Movie Database). If you watch the film on a streaming service or online platform, include information about that website in your reference.

Also, when you’re wondering how to cite a quote from a movie, consider this:

When you revise your essay via an AI detector to prevent artificial text patterns from appearing in your work, the tool may see the quote as AI-generated. It stands to reason you can’t rewrite it as it’s… well, a quote. Leave it the way it is, using quotation marks to label it.

More on that below.

A Quick Overview of Citation Styles: APA, MLA, Chicago

The rules of how to quote a movie in an essay vary depending on the citation style and formatting guidelines you get from a college professor or publisher.

Most educational institutions request any of these three:

1. APA (American Psychological Association) is a writing style and format for academic documents in fields like Education, Psychology, Nursing, Social Science, Anthropology, Sociology, and Criminal Justice.
2. MLA (Modern Language Association) is a style for formatting citations in works within your Arts or Humanities courses.
3. Chicago (The Chicago Manual of Style) is a style guide for publications rather than college essays. Yet, educators may assign it to students with majors in Journalism, History, or Social Science.

All citation styles have detailed manuals with specific guidelines for in-text citations, references (works cited) pages, quotations, abbreviations, headings, margin size, etc.

So:

Check the assignment carefully before writing your essay to know what style you’ll need to use for referencing. Follow the corresponding manual (7th edition APA Manual, MLA Handbook 9th edition, Chicago Manual of Style 18th edition) to ensure that you structure and format everything like a boss.

Extra read: Are you struggling to come up with an original movie-related topic for your essay? Check our massive list of Disney research paper topics for inspiration!

How to Quote a Movie in an Essay: APA

The key elements to include in your APA movie citation (apart from the movie title itself) include the movie director(s), producer(s), year of release, and studio.

General rules for writing a movie title in APA:

1. Uppercase all words of four letters and above.
2. Uppercase a movie title’s first and last words, even if they are articles (a, the) or short pronouns (in, at, etc.).
3. Italicize the entire title.

Let’s move to the formatting details (with examples) for different types of audiovisual content in your essay. As you remember, the rules of how to quote a movie also include content like TV shows, audio recordings (podcasts, music albums), and radio broadcasts.

	Format	Example
Motion picture	Producer Last Name, First Name. (Producer), & Director Last Name, First Name. (Director). (Year of release). Title of Movie [Motion picture]. Country of origin: Studio.	Spielberg, S. (Producer), & Zemeckis, R. (Director). (1985). Back to the Future [Motion picture]. United States: Universal Pictures.
TV show	Producer(s) Last Name, Initials. (Producers). (Years of release). Title. [Format]. Publisher.	Jones, A., Brooker, C, Rhoades, J., Ali, B. (Executive Producers). (2011–present). Black Mirror [TV series]. Zeppotron, House of Tomorrow, Broke & Bones.
Audio recording	Author/Performer. (Year). Title of Recording [Medium]. Publisher.	Brown, S. (Host). (2022). Exploring Space [Podcast episode]. ABC Podcasts.
Radio broadcast	Author/Host. (Year). Title of Broadcast [Radio broadcast]. Radio Station.	Johnson, E., & Brown, J. (2024). Breaking News Update [Radio broadcast]. NPR.

Ensure that the creators’ names and initials are followed by their roles in parentheses: (Producer), (Director), (Host), etc. Keep reading to learn how to cite a movie in an essay when you want to include a quote (or a partial quote) in the text, rather than just a reference.

Tip: If you wonder or have doubts about which movie to describe or use as a reference in your paper, try our essay prompt generator free to generate fresh ideas for your work.

MLA Movie Citation

MLA is the most common citation style in essays on Arts (movies are also here) and Humanities. Like APA, it prescribes italics for movie names. Besides directors, you can include the names of 2-3 lead performers (actors) in your citation. Please note that here, we write the director and actor’s full names, not their initials as we did in APA.

Consider the word order. Also, pay attention to the fact that what we call a “reference list” in APA is a “works cited list” in MLA.

Let’s see how to quote a movie in an essay when you need to format its title in your text’s body or works cited list:

1. Uppercase both titles and subtitles.
2. Use capital letters for both parts of hyphenated words.
3. Do not uppercase articles (a, the) or short conjunctions.
4. Italicize the entire title.

	Format	Example
Motion picture	Director Last Name, First Name, director. Title of Movie. Publisher, Year of Release.	Zemeckis, Robert, director. Back to the Future. Universal Pictures, 1985.
TV show	Last Name, First Name, creator. Title. Publisher, Year of Release. Platform. url.	Brooker, Charlie, creator. Black Mirror. Zeppotron, House of Tomorrow, Broke & Bones, 2011. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/ua-en/title/70264888
Audio recording	Author(s)/Performer(s). Title of Recording. Publisher, Publication Date.	Podcast: Gladwell, Malcolm. The Lady Vanishes. Revisionist History, Slate, 2016. Music album: Valo, Ville. The King of Rock’n’Roll. Spinefarm, 2001.
Radio broadcast	Author(s)/Host(s). “Title of Broadcast.” Title of Program, Radio Station, Broadcast Date.	Smith, Emma, and James Johnson. “Breaking News Update.” Morning Edition, NPR, 10 May 2023.

The details on how to cite a movie quote in-text are below.

Tip: Do you want to have a few fresh topic ideas for your future essays? Check our free title generator for essay: It can help you decide what movie to discuss in your paper or how to structure your essay title for better readability and engagement.

Chicago Style Movie Citations

Chicago style is not as popular as APA or MLA in essays, but you may still need to know and use it, especially if your major relates to Social Science, Journalism, or History.

Here, we call a reference list a “bibliography” and provide detailed information about the movie’s director (full name, not initials), release year, and studio. If you cite audiovisual materials from a streaming platform, YouTube, or another online source, also include its URL in your citation.

This citation style has some specific rules regarding how to cite a movie in an essay if the title includes prepositions and short conjunctions:

1. Uppercase all major words.
2. Lowercase short conjunctions (below four letters).
3. Uppercase prepositions, regardless of their length.
4. Italicize the movie titles.

	Format	Example
Motion picture	Director Last Name, First Name. Title of Movie. Year of Release. Format. or: Director’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Movie. Studio, Year. Length. URL (if applicable).	Zemeckis, Robert. Back to the Future. 1985. Film. Nolan, Christopher. The Dark Knight. Warner Bros., 2008. 2 hours, 32 minutes.
TV show	Last Name, First Name of main contributor, job title. Series Title. Season #, episode #, “Episode Title.” Other contributors. Aired Month Day, Year of original air date. URL.	Morgan, Peter, writer. The Crown. Season 3, Episode 3, “Aberfan.” Directed by Benjamin Caron. Aired November 17, 2019. https://www.netflix.com/watch/80215733.
Audio recording	Creator’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Recording. Year of Publication.	Gladwell, Malcolm. Revisionist History: The King of Tears. 2016.
Radio broadcast	Author/Host. Title of Broadcast. Year. Medium.	Smith, Terry Gross. Fresh Air. 2019. Radio.

How to quote from a movie in the body of your essay? Let’s move to the specifics below.

How to Cite a Movie in an Essay: In-Text Citations

Here’s how to cite movie quotes in the top three citation styles.

APA:

• Format: Producer Last Name & Director Last Name (Year)
• Example: Spielberg & Zemeckis (1985)

Like this:

According to Spielberg & Zemeckis (1985), time travel is possible in the movie Back to the Future.

When citing a movie quote in APA, include the producer’s last name, the year of release, and the quote’s timestamp. Like this:

“I’ll be back” (Cameron, 1984, 01:23:45).

MLA:

• Format: (Director Last Name); (Movie Name); (Director Last Name Timestamp)
• Example: (Zemeckis); (Star Wars); (Tarantino 00:34:15)

Like this:

In Back to the Future (Zemeckis), Marty McFly travels back in time to the 1950s.

“May the force be with you” (Star Wars).

“The truth is… you’re the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men” (Tarantino 00:34:15).

Whatever citation style you use (APA, MLA, or Chicago), enclose direct speech in double quotation marks within your essay.

Chicago:

• Format: (Director Last Name Year)
• Example: (Zemeckis 1985)

Like this:

According to Nolan (2008), The Dark Knight is a masterpiece of the superhero genre.

When citing a movie quote, enclose it in double quotation marks to indicate direct speech and specify the director, the release year, and the timestamp of that quote in parentheses. Like this:

“Here’s looking at you, kid” (Curtiz 1942).

Or this:

In The Godfather (Coppola 1972), Michael Corleone famously said, “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” (00:28:52).

If you don’t want to use the direct speech of movie characters in your essay, you can paraphrase it into indirect speech to write without quotation marks (use a paraphrasing tool online free for that). Either way, you should cite the director and the year of release in parentheses.

If you use a partial quote in your essay, format it as follows:

• Include a leading sentence explaining what the reader is going to see.
• Add the actual quote in double quotation marks, and use ellipses to indicate any missing parts of that quote.
• Place a parenthetical citation that includes the producer’s last name and the year of release.

Example:

As the film’s climax shows, “Carpe Diem… makes your lives extraordinary” (Heft & Weir, 2001).

Useful Tips on How to Quote a Movie in Essays

We know what you’re thinking:

“So much information and so many tiny details to consider. How can I remember all those italics, commas, dots, capitalizations, quotations, etc.?”

Easy:

You don’t need to remember them. They are technical elements to use when formatting your essay, and they have nothing to do with its creative part. Given that each citation style (APA, MLA, you name it) has a detailed handbook with all the guidelines available online, just check it to ensure that you’ve got all the citations right.

Want to save time searching and figuring out the rules on quoting audiovisual sources in your particular case? Now you have this easy guide in your pocket! Refer to it to get a relevant example fast.

But wait, there’s more:

Charles (our expert writer in the Arts, remember?) has gathered some extra movie citation tips for you. They are more practical, so we bet you will try them for improving your essay’s credibility and your overall performance.

First, get extra tips on choosing credible video sources for your paper:

• Don’t refer to videos you find on social media or low-quality platforms with no apparent source.
• Verify the information from the video, even if you take it from reputable news sources like CNN, BBC, Forbes, etc. Look for the sources they cite in those videos and verify their claims.
• Check audiovisual content for bias. Are there any signs of manipulation or propaganda? Don’t use videos presenting a one-sided view of a topic.
• Read the video’s comments to see what others say: If many call out inaccuracies, it may be a sign this video isn’t credible enough to use in academic papers.
• Don’t use too much audiovisual content as references in your essay. While it’s suitable for some topics or projects, overdoing it makes your paper hard to read and difficult to pick out your arguments and opinions among those quotes.

Second, here are some tips on how to quote a movie (apart from those on following the formatting guides of your prescribed citation style):

• When you cite a movie in your essay, add some context for readers: why you refer to this particular film and quote and how it fits your essay topic, argument, or research.
• When you use a quote from a movie based on a book or another resource, mention this fact in your paper. Help the reader understand that connection.
• When discussing a movie’s director, mention their vision or style if it’s relevant to the context and influenced your decision to use that particular citation in your essay.
• When citing a movie that involves sensitive subjects, provide warnings if necessary.

Confused?

With so much detailed information on formatting movie quotes in your academic texts and reference lists, you won’t have any problems with these types of citations anymore. Use this article as a handy manual when you doubt whether you put that comma, bracket, or capitalization in the proper place, and — boom! — all the citations in your essays will be well-organized and professional.

Still wondering how to quote a movie in an essay or want an expert to revise your draft and help with your writing assignments? Charles and the other academic writers at EssayShark are here to assist and answer your questions.

Please don’t hesitate to ask!

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