Chicago Style Movie Citation and Image Citation (18th Edition)

A Chicago style movie citation follows The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (2024). The details of a Chicago citation film entry are simple: title, director, studio or distributor, and year. What trips students up is the order.

In a footnote, the title comes first

In the notes-bibliography system, a note to a film starts with the italic title and names the director with directed by: Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay (Paramount Pictures, 2014). Purdue OWL's CMOS 18 audiovisual page shows this order.

In the bibliography, the director comes first

The entry inverts the director's name and adds dir.: DuVernay, Ava, dir. Selma. Paramount Pictures, 2014. That puts each Chicago style movie citation in alphabetical order with your books and articles.

Paste a film's details into the citation tool above, choosing the video or film source type, to see both forms. The film type has fields for the director or channel, the title, the studio or platform, a format such as DVD, and a URL. For notes in general, see our guide to Chicago in-text citation.

A Chicago citation film entry changes slightly with the version you watched. The table shows the bibliography entry for each.

Theater release

When you saw the film in a theater or the version doesn't matter, a Chicago style movie citation needs only the director, the title, the studio and the year. This is the most common Chicago citation movie form in class papers.

DVD and Blu-ray

A disc often comes out years after the film. Give the original release year, a semicolon, the distributor and the year of the disc, then the format: (1990; Warner Home Video, 2002), DVD. This Chicago citation film detail matters when a director's cut or remaster differs from the original.

Streaming

For a film you streamed, end the note and the Chicago citation film entry with the service name or a URL. Purdue's TV example swaps the disc details for a Netflix link. Name the service you actually used.

Citing one scene

Chicago lets you name a scene in a note when the disc menu gives scene titles. You can also point to a moment with a time stamp, such as at 1:12:40. Keep the bibliography entry for the whole film.

A TV episode works much like a Chicago style citation for movies, with two extra layers: the series and the episode.

The pattern

Like a Chicago style movie citation, an episode note gives the series title in italics, the season and episode numbers, the episode title in quotation marks, the writer or director, and the air date. End with the network, the distributor and format, or a URL.

The bibliography entry

Start with the person you're crediting, usually the writer or director, then their role: Snodgrass, Melinda M., writer. Then give the series, the season and episode, the episode title, the air date and the URL. The example above follows Purdue OWL's model for this episode, without the cast list.

Whole series

To discuss a whole show rather than one episode, cite the series with its creator and the years it aired, and name the network. Many instructors are happy with the series named in your text and the episode in a note; ask if you're unsure. Our Turabian footnotes guide covers the same patterns for classes that use Turabian.

A Chicago style citation for a YouTube video treats the creator or channel as the author, the video's title as a short work in quotation marks, and YouTube as the place it was published.

• Note: CrashCourse, “The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1,” YouTube, January 26, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I.
• Bibliography: CrashCourse. “The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1.” YouTube, January 26, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I.

What the official guide adds

The Chicago citation quick guide shows a fuller form for a recorded lecture: the speaker, the title, the moderator, the event and its date, then "posted March 21, 2022, by University of Chicago, YouTube," the running time and the URL. Use that fuller form when the person speaking differs from the channel that posted the video, or when the event date matters. Chicago also notes that "video" may be added when the format isn't clear from context.

Who counts as the author

In a Chicago style citation for a YouTube video, use a real name when the creator gives one; otherwise use the channel name exactly as it appears. Our citation tool's film type labels the name field "Director, creator or channel" for this reason.

Time stamps

To point to one moment in a Chicago style citation for a YouTube video, add the time stamp to the note: CrashCourse, “Agricultural Revolution,” at 4:15. The bibliography entry never takes a time stamp. Our guide to citing a YouTube video in MLA shows the MLA version if your other classes use it.

A Chicago image citation for a painting, sculpture or photograph lists the artist, the italic title, the date, the medium and where the work is held. Add the dimensions if you know them, and a URL if you viewed the work online.

Artwork you saw in person

Name the museum and, if readers might not know it, the city. Drop the URL. The University of Queensland's CMOS 18 guide says art details can usually go in your text rather than in a note or bibliography, so a sentence such as "Hopper's Nighthawks (1942), at the Art Institute of Chicago…" may be enough.

Artwork and photographs online

For a Chicago image citation of a work you saw online, add the URL of the museum or archive page. Chicago says to add a URL for works consulted online. The Lange example uses the Library of Congress page for the photograph.

Images in books

If you found the image in a textbook or exhibition catalog, cite that book, and give the figure number or page in your note. This Chicago style citation for images keeps readers pointed at the source you actually saw.

Images on ordinary websites

For a Chicago style picture citation of a chart, diagram or photo on a news or organization site, give the creator if one is named, a title or short description, the date, the website's name and the URL. If no creator is named, start with the title or description.

When you put an image into your paper, the Chicago style picture citation usually goes in a caption under the image rather than in a footnote.

The caption

Start the Chicago image citation by labeling the image Figure 1, Figure 2 and so on. Then give the artist or creator, the italic title or a description, the year, and the medium if it's artwork. End with a credit line naming who owns or supplied the image: the museum, archive, website or book. UNC Libraries' guide to citing images recommends writing the caption in the same form as a footnote, single-spaced, with a blank line before the next paragraph of text.

Referring to the figure

In your text, refer to the image in a Chicago style picture citation as figure 1 or in parentheses as (fig. 1).

Credit line only or a full entry?

For a class paper, a caption with a credit line often does the job, and Chicago doesn't require bibliography entries for artwork. Many instructors still want every source in the bibliography, so check the assignment. If you publish your work, you may also need permission from the copyright holder.

A Chicago style picture citation example

Figure 1. Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, March 1936, photograph. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

For APA classes, our guide to citing an image in APA covers the APA figure note instead.

Science and social science classes may use Chicago's author-date system. Films and images follow the same details, with the year moved up after the name.

• Film in text: (DuVernay 2014)
• Film reference: DuVernay, Ava, dir. 2014. Selma. Paramount Pictures.
• Video reference: CrashCourse. 2012. “The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1.” YouTube, January 26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I.

Images in author-date

For a Chicago style image citation in author-date, cite the artist and year in your text, such as (Hopper 1942), or put the details in a figure caption. See our Chicago author-date citation guide for the whole system.

These slips cost the most points on a Chicago style movie citation or image citation. Check your notes and entries against the list.

Next steps

Our Chicago book citation guide covers the books on your list, and every guide is on our student writing guides page. For the bibliography page itself, see the Turabian bibliography guide. When you're ready, the free Chicago footnote generator formats each Chicago style movie citation, YouTube video and book from a few details.