A few years ago I put together a Google custom search engine called Film Blogs, Etc. that I remain quite pleased with, and that I use all the time. It includes a good mix of high-quality web-based publications that approach film from a variety of angles. A number of these sites cover new movies, often in the form of festival dispatches, making this a good resource for finding information about films that haven’t yet garnered enough reviews to appear on sites like Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, and the online film magazines, journals, and blogs by Film Studies academics and movie critics/journalists that it includes make it a nice complement to scholarly databases like the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals and the Film Literature Index Online.
After the jump is a list of the 142 sites that Film Blogs, Etc. searches. I’ll be updating it throughout the spring and summer as I tinker with the search engine in an effort to make it even better.
Sites included on the Film Blogs, Etc. custom search engine:
100 Films (Lucas McNelly)
About.com: World/Independent Film
Academic Hack, The (Michael Sicinski)
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Anthony Kaufman
Artforum – Film section
As Perfect As It Can Be (Edo Choi)
Auteurs Notebook, The
Bright Lights Film Journal – also Bright Lights After Dark
Category D (Chris Cagle)
Chicago Reader – Brief Movie Reviews section
Chutry Experiment, The (Chuck Tryon)
Cinebeats (Kimberly Lindbergs)
Cine File, The (Andrew Schenker)
Cinema Echo Chamber (Brandon Harris)
Cinemasparagus (Craig Keller)
CinemaTexas Notes
Cinematic Art, The (Ted Pigeon)
CinePassion (Fernando F. Croce)
Coffee Coffee and More Coffee (Peter Nellhaus)
Critic After Dark (Noel Vera)
Critic’s Notebook
Current (Criterion Collection)
D+kaz (Daniel Kasman)
Daily, The (David Hudson)
Daily Plastic (Robert Davis and J. Robert Parks)
Dave Kehr
Digital Poetics (Nicholas Rombes)
Down Inside You’re Dirty (Steve Carlson) – also The Ongoing Cinematic Education of Steve Carlson
Dr. Mabuse’s Kaleido-Scope
Drifting: A Director’s Log (David Lowery)
DVDBeaver
Elusive Lucidity (Zach Campbell)
Errata (Rob Davis)
Evening Class, The (Michael Guillén)
Exploding Kinetoscope, The (Chris Stangl)
Ferdy on Films, etc. (Marilyn Ferdinand and Roderick Heath)
Film Freak Central
Filmjourney.org (Doug Cummings)
Filmmaker Magazine
Film of the Month Club
Film of the Year (Thom Ryan)
Film Panel Notetaker, The
Film-Philosophy
Film Studies For Free (Catherine Grant)
Fin de Cinema (Joe Bowman)
Flickhead – also blog (Ray Young)
Front Row, The (Richard Brody)
Gareth’s Movie Diary (Gareth McFeely)
Girish Shambu
Glass of Papaya Juice, A (Raquel Laneri)
Greenbriar Picture Shows (John McElwee)
GreenCine Daily (Aaron Hillis)
Hammer to Nail
Hands of Bresson, The (Damon Smith)
Harvard Film Archive – Past and Current Film Series sections
Hell On Frisco Bay (Brian Darr)
Hot Blog, The (David Poland)
House Next Door, The
Independent Eye, The (Alison Willmore)
Indian Auteur
indieWIRE
Jamais Vu (Jason Sperb)
JonathanRosenbaum.com (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Jump Cut
KinoKultura
Kino Slang (Andy Rector)
Koreanfilm.org
KyleSmithOnline.com (Kyle Smith)
Last Night with Riviera (Matt Riviera)
Like Anna Karina’s Sweater (Andrew Grant)
Listen Eggroll (Mike D’Angelo)
Long Pauses (Darren Hughes)
Lucid Screening
Midnight Eye
Movie City Indie (Ray Pride)
Movie City News
Moviegoer, The (Paul Matwychuk)
MovieMorlocks.com (Turner Classic Movies)
Moving Image Source
Nick’s Flick Picks (Nick Davis)
Not Coming to a Theater Near You
Observations on Film Art and Film Art (Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell)
Offscreen
On Film (Chicago Reader)
Only The Cinema (Ed Howard)
Out 1 Film Journal (James Hansen)
Outside The Frame (Peter Keough)
Parallax View
Passionate Moviegoer, The (Joe Baltake)
Pauline Kael reviews
Projectionist, The (David Edelstein)
Pullquote (Amy Monaghan)
Ray Carney
Reeler, The (S.T. VanAirsdale)
Refractory
Reverse Shot – also Reverseblog
Roger Ebert’s Journal (Roger Ebert)
Rouge
Salon.com – Movies section
Scanners (Jim Emerson)
Screen Rush (Eric Kohn)
Screenville (Harry Tuttle)
Self-Styled Siren (Campaspe Smith)
Senses of Cinema
Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule (Dennis Cozzalio)
Shadowplay (David Cairns)
Shooting Down Pictures (Kevin Lee)
Slant Magazine – Film and DVD sections
Some Came Running (Glenn Kenny) – also In The Company Of Glenn
Sounds, Images (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky)
Spectacular Attractions (Dan North)
SpoutBlog
Steady Diet of Film (Erin Donovan)
Strictly Film School (Acquarello)
Sunset Gun (Kim Morgan)
Supposed Aura (Mubarak Ali)
Synoptique
Tativille (Michael J. Anderson)
Termite Art
Thanks for the Use of the Hall (Dan Sallitt) – also old blog
Thompson on Hollywood (Anne Thompson) – also a previous interation of this site
Time Out New York – Film section
Tisch Film Review
Twitch
UbuWeb: Film & Video
Undercurrent
Unspoken
Variety – Reviews section
Videoarcadia (David Phelps)
Vinyl Is Heavy
Where the Stress Falls (Michael S. Smith)
William K. Everson Collection
Wright On Film (Benjamin Wright)
Zero for Conduct (Michael Atkinson)
List last updated: 11/17/09
oh my, awesome! how about my blog, can I be added to the engine?
Hi cello,
I’ve added your site to the list of about 80 (and counting, I suppose) that I’m considering adding to the search engine. I don’t want to include *too* many sites — 1,000 hits can be almost as bad as 0, in my opinion, if you can’t find something really useful in the first 10 or 20 you look at — but I am looking for a few more sites with a regional focus, which, after a quick glance, is what yours appears to be.
I might also create an “Expanded Film Blogs, Etc.” at some point that includes every film-specific site I know about. . . .
thanks a bunch, yeah you don’t have to do me any favors, if the amrket is already over saturated you don’t have to add me in the slush pile. Just if theres a fit for me. I appreciate it :)
Thanks for the nod, Andy. This sort of thing really helps to direct interested traffic to a blog.
Cello’s blog looks great, and certainly not one of those half-hearted, rarely-updated efforts that clutters up cyberspace from time to time, so it would make a worthy addition to the engine. I’ve added it to my blogroll, too.
Hi Andy,
Great to know I still make the cut after all this time. Always a pleasure, Matt.