Columbia Film Language Glossary

The Columbia Film Language Glossary is an online environment designed to enhance screenings, readings, lectures, and discussions for any course that involves the study of film. It provides definitions of essential terms used in basic and advanced film courses that are representative of all the major categories of film studies: practical terminology, technical terminology, the language of business, and historical terms, as well as the language of criticism and theory.

Through the use of multimedia within the definitions, users will foster a more thorough understanding of the film vocabulary being defined—an explanation of the theory and a demonstration of the practice. Specifically, terms combine visual text, film clips, and audio commentary in creative ways, delivering them in high-quality media for classroom use and private study.

The Film Language Glossary is available to any student of film and the wider community. Definitions and audio commentary are written and narrated by faculty at Columbia University.

The glossary is built and maintained by the Center for Teaching and Learning at Columbia for the purpose of promoting and advancing education and scholarship related to film and media studies. This project was initially developed in 2005 with Richard Peña, Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University School of The Arts, and Nancy Friedland, Librarian for Film Studies and Performing Arts at Columbia University. The glossary was redesigned in 2015 to make it compatible with modern browsers and mobile devices.