Submitting your Metadata to IMDb

Submitting your metadata to aggregators like IMDB, WikiData, or cultural heritage organizations can help with discoverability, attribution, and preservation depending on the location and purpose of where you submit it.

IMDb

IMDb, the largest database for tv and film metadata, has a strong relationship with Google. Adding your metadata to their system can leverage the expensive investment they’ve made for your benefit. IMDb metadata submissions are reviewed by their staff, and must meet their quality standards.

To contribute to IMDb you need to register: https://www.imdb.com/registration/signin

IMDb data is very structured so your contributions need to meet their strict formats. There is a significant amount of help available here: https://help.imdb.com/contribution

To add a title not currently in IMDb

Before adding a new title review IMDb’s guidance and criteria for new listings:

https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/titles/adding-a-new-title/GNXTSSVTJTFCRZGN

Titles are not automatically added – your contribution will go to IMDb Data Managers for review and inclusion in the database

To add a new title:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Submit your title using the New Title Form: https://contribute.imdb.com/updates?update=title&ref_=helpms_ch_t_newtitle_ra
  3. Complete as many sections of the form as possible – cast, crew, url for video hosted online, contextual information such as film festival showings etc (poor quality/unverifiable metadata may cause your submission to be rejected)
  4. After submitting your New Title Form you can track your contribution on your Contributor page

To update an existing listing

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Find the Name Page or Title Page that you want to update
  3. Scroll to the bottom and click the yellow edit button
  4. A list of sections available for editing will appear
  5. Scroll to the relevant section(s) you want to update and select them
  6. Use the dropdown menu to enter your update type (adding, correcting, deleting)
  7. Make your edits (enter additions and corrections, mark deletions and enter a reason)
  8. When you are finished editing select Check These Updates to run the auto-checker
  9. If the auto-checker highlights your changes in Green you can click Submit These Updates
  10. If the auto-checker flags any errors try re-doing your updates and double-checking your formatting, then check them again

You’ll receive an email notification that your updates were submitted and they will be forwarded to IMDb’s data managers for processing.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts

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