Searching for Feature Films | Films by Genre | Films by Country | Streaming Video (jump to section) | Physical Video & Viewing (jump to section)

Searching by Title

Be aware that some films might have more than one version or could be an adaption from a book. 

• Use quotation marks to instruct LibrarySearch to look for the exact phrase (e.g., "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World"). With more generic titles, include the name of the director or another contributor (e.g., writer, composer, producer, actors). 
• Use the filters on the left side to limit your results by Format (click on Video or Show more to see all options) and click on APPLY FILTERS button.  

Searching for Feature Films

Please note that titles available on the Kanopy streaming video service are currently not discoverable in LibrarySearch. 

Most films are categorized in LibrarySearch under the subject ‘Feature Films’, some remaining films may be categorized as ‘Motion Pictures’. These search terms can be combined with additional subjects, genres and country names to find specific films.  

1. Open Advanced Search on the University of Toronto Libraries website 
2. In the Search Filters, set the first drop-down menu to ‘Subject’, and the second drop-down to ‘contains’. 
3. Enter ‘Feature films’. 
4. Optionally, in the second Filters field enter an additional subject search. It may be helpful to experiment with selecting ‘Any field’ or ‘Subject‘, and ‘contains’ or ‘is (exact)’.  
5. In the Format drop-down select ‘Video/Film’. 
6. Select the green Search icon. 

Films by Genre

Genres of feature films can generally be found via a Subject search for that film genre followed by the word ‘films’. For example, 'Comedy films', 'Science fiction films', etc. 

1. Open Advanced Search on the University of Toronto Libraries website.
2. In the Search Filters, set the first drop-down menu to ‘Subject’, and the second drop-down to ‘contains’ or ‘is (exact)’. 
3. Enter the genre term followed by the word ‘films.’  
4. In the Format drop-down select ‘Video/Film’. 
5. Select the green Search icon. 

Here are some common genre searches:  

• Action and adventure films 
• Comedy films 
• Documentary films 
• Experimental Films 
• Fiction films 
• Horror films 
• Romance films 
• Science fiction films 

Films by Country 

To search for films produced in a specific country: 

1. Open Advanced Search on the University of Toronto Libraries website 
2. In the Search Filters, set the first drop-down menu to ‘Any field’, and the second drop-down to ‘contains’.  
3. Enter ‘Feature films -- CountryName’, where CountryName is substituted for the desired country, eg; ‘Feature films -- Peru’, ‘Feature films -- Germany’, etc. 
4. In the Format dropdown select ‘Video/Film’. 
5. Select the green Search icon. 

Here is an example search for Canadian films sorted by newest date