User information

Current state of the database

The Austrian Film Museum currently manages approximately 22,000 dossiers, which are continually being worked into a specially developed database. The results of the online search correspond to the current state of the collection. Due to copyright restrictions, the materials themselves cannot be displayed or downloaded. The "results list" represents the materials held by the Film Museum, which can then be viewed on-site with requests made in advance.
The Film Museum's aim is to ultimately make the remaining materials in the collection as well as other resources available via the online search. The collection will expand to include approximately 50,000 separate dossiers.

Dossier Contents

The dossiers contain a variety of documents: An individual dossier might contain an article, a newspaper clipping or a promotional item, as well as an entire series of articles along with advertising and press materials, screening invitations, etc. Approximately 82% of the dossiers represent individual film titles, 15% are devoted to persons, while 1.5% represent film festivals and another 1.5% are devoted to corporations, events, and documents related to technical advancements. The distribution of the film dossiers are pictured on the accompanying graph.

Search tips

For a quick, simple search, personal names are listed in "last name, first name" format. (Tip: Only use last names.) For film titles, definite and indefinite articles are omitted from the head of the title. Tip: Instead of THE WRONG MAN (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956), simply type "wrong man" (see Glossary entry for Dossier Title). Entries are not case-sensitive.

Other options are to use the "advanced search" or the drop-down menus. For example, one could enter "Film" and select the country and/or year to obtain a list of relevant titles.