The Maughan Library on screen
The Maughan is frequently used as a filming location. Credits include Enola Holmes (doubling for the Houses of Parliament), Johnny English (doubling for the Tower of London), The Imitation Game and The Take.
Find journals for Film Studies
Use Library Search to access an extensive collection of ejournals and print journals. Titles include:
| Asian Cinema | Film History |
| Sight and Sound | Film Quarterly |
Arts & Humanities print journals are held on the ground floor of the Maughan Library. See our Floorplans.
External libraries for Film Studies
If you need resources beyond King's, you may want to visit other libraries with film collections:
Please check for access restrictions before visiting.
Collections Guide for Film Studies
Welcome to the Collections Guide for Film Studies
This guide provides tailored information on library collections and links to some of our key resources.
Watch films online
A diverse collection of films covering a wide range of genres and multiple languages. Staff and students have access to subscription titles as well as free content.
- BFI Player (British Film Institute) This link opens in a new window BFI Player is a video on demand service from the British Film Institute, streaming acclaimed, landmark and archive films. These are available for rent, for subscription or for free. King's College London has a subscription. The placement and availability of films is dependent on rights agreements with licensors. The focus is on British and European independent films, as well as international releases.Additional information:Access your free BFI Player subscription in 3 easy steps: 1. Go to player.bfi.org.uk/students and create an account OR sign in if you already have one by selecting 'Already have an account? Sign in'2. Select university from the dropdown list 3. Authenticate subscription using your university credentialsFYI:• Once you've set up your subscription, you can simply login on BFI Player for the remainder of this academic year. You don't need to use the subscribe link• BFI Player is unavailable outside the UK• Rentals and festival events are not included in the subscription offer• Make sure you tick the box ‘I’d like to receive the newsletter’ for exclusive competitions, watchlists and other BFI opportunities via email. A reminder that users need to re-subscribe every year e.g. if someone had an account last year, they simply need to visit player.bfi.org.uk/students and select 'Already have an account Sign in'.
A key streaming resource for films. Includes French, Spanish and Asian feature films, plus documentaries and videos on a wide range of subjects.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window Kanopy is an online video streaming platform with access to a unique collection of films in the world, including documentaries and training films.
Offers a huge collection of films, TV and radio programmes which have aired on UK channels. Useful for titles that are not available via commercial streaming services or on DVD.
- Box of Broadcasts (BoB National) This link opens in a new window BoB (Box of Broadcasts) National is a shared online off-air TV and radio recording service for UK higher and further education institutions. You can choose and record any broadcast programme from 60+ TV and radio channels. The recorded programmes are then kept indefinitely (no expiry) and added to a growing media archive (currently at over 1 million programmes), with all content shared by users across all subscribing institutions.Please note: Individual registration is required and access is only available from the UK.
A film streaming resource specialising in features and documentaries from Spanish-speaking countries. Also includes titles in a number of languages.
- Digitalia Film Library This link opens in a new window Digitalia Film Library is an online film streaming platform providing access to films and documentaries in international languages and includes unique content from Spain and all Spanish speaking countries. With access to more than 1400 titles covering 42 different languages including Spanish, Russian and many other Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages, Digitalia Film Library provides subtitles in English.
A vast multi-disciplinary video collection. Includes a large number of documentaries on its Film Platform and Documentary channel.
- Alexander Street Video (Alexander Street Press) - New platform This link opens in a new window Alexander Street Press is an online video streaming platform with access to more than 34,000 video titles. King’s has access to a wide range of educational videos, audio and text resources.
Covers a wide range of subjects including feature films and documentaries.
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window Academic Video Online makes video material available with curricular relevance: documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, and more. Search for award-winning films including Academy®, Emmy®, and Peabody® winners and access content from PBS, BBC, 60 MINUTES, National Geographic, Annenberg Learner, BroadwayHD™, A+E Networks’ HISTORY® and more.
A large collection of Spanish-language films and companion guides.
- Platino Educa This link opens in a new window An educational site, aimed at teachers and lecturers, which provides a large collection of Spanish-language films and companion teaching guides. The website provides information in English and Spanish.
Documentary films, features and newsreels from countries including the USSR, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, China and East Germany.
- Socialism on Film This link opens in a new window Sourced from the British Film Institute (BFI), Socialism on Film documents the communist world, from the Russian Revolution to the end of the Cold War. This unique multimedia collection spans most of the twentieth century and contains documentary films, features and newsreels from countries including the USSR, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, China and East Germany, and provides a counterpoint to Western perceptions of communist states.
Find Film Studies literature online
The following eresources are focused on film, media and performing arts:
- Screen Studies Collection (1893-) (Proquest) This link opens in a new window Screen Studies Online is a new portal for subscribers to Proquest film resources which combines the American Film Institute Catalog (AFI Catalog), FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals and Film Index International. Created in partnership with three distinguished film research organizations, the British Film Institute, the American Film Institute, and the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), Screen Studies Online can be used to cross-search these three resources or to search the individual databases separately.
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (1880-2015) (ProQuest) (Collections 1, 2,3 & 4) This link opens in a new window An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.King's has access to:EIMA1: Music, Radio and The StageEIMA2: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 1)EIMA3: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 2)
- Performing Arts Periodicals Database (1864-) (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window This database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 395 international periodicals, plus full text for more than 160 of the indexed journals. The database currently includes almost a million records, the majority from the most recent ten years of each journal. Performing Arts Periodicals Database covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
- American Film Scripts Online, Volumes I and II This link opens in a new window The Film Scripts Online Series contains over 1,100 scripts and makes available, for the first time, accurate and authorized versions of copyrighted screenplays. Now film scholars can compare the writer’s vision with the producer’s and director’s interpretations from page to screen.Most scripts in the series have never been published before and are available nowhere else. Alexander Street developed the collection through arrangements with Warner Bros., Sony, RKO, MGM, and other major film studios; rights holders such as Faber & Faber, Newmarket Press, Penguin Putnam, StudioCanal, and Vintage Anchor; and the writers themselves, including Paul Schrader, Lawrence Kasdan, Gus Van Sant, Neil LaBute, Oliver Stone, and many others.King's has access to Series 1 and 2.
Small group viewing facilities at the Maughan Library
Newspapers
UK and international newspapers are useful for a range of subjects. Our collection provides a range of historical titles and current editions.
Watch films on DVD
Many films are available online but some are only released on DVD. Our collection of DVDs, blu-rays and videos is on the ground floor of the Maughan Library in rooms G.68, G.69 & G.70. Films are arranged A-Z by title, with numerical titles at the start of the sequence, at classmark PN1995. See our Floorplans.
Search for DVDs using Library Search and refine your results by 'Resource type' to 'Videos'.
Players for multi-region DVDs and VHS are in G.70. Headphones are provided in booths, or if you prefer to use your own, some equipment is bluetooth compatible. Group viewing facilities with large screens and multi-region blu-ray players are in G.71.
Find books for Film Studies
The print book collection for Film Studies is on the second floor of the Maughan Library in rooms 2.56, 2.57, 2.58 and 2.59. See our Floorplans.
Key classmarks include:
- PN1993 - for film guides
- PN1993.5 - National cinema movements and guides to film from particular countries
- PN1994/1995 - film theory and criticism.
- PN1995.9 - specific genres and themes such as documentary, film noir, horror and sexuality.
- PN1997 - BFI guides on specific films
- PN1998 - criticism and commentaries on the films and careers of key directors.
Find Arts & Humanities literature online
The following eresources cover a range of disciplines including your subject area:
- Proquest Arts & Humanities collection This link opens in a new window A collection of ProQuest databases in the Arts & Humanities subject area for King's users. Additional databases may be available via Senate House
- JSTOR ebooks and journals This link opens in a new window JSTOR offers academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. Via JSTOR books, King's currently has access to over 54,000 titles from over 42 publishers.King’s subscribes to the following collections within JSTOR: 19th Century British PamphletsArts & Sciences I-XV CollectionBusiness I CollectionBusiness II CollectionIreland CollectionJewish StudiesLanguage & Literature CollectionLife Sciences CollectionMusic CollectionPolitical ScienceFilm StudiesLanguage and LiteraturePhilosophyReligionSociologyBusiness and Economics
- Periodicals Archive Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window PAO – formerly PCI Full Text - is a major online periodical archive that contains hundreds of journal backfiles in the humanities and social sciences. The date range is 1770-2000. A hive of hundreds of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It provides researchers with access to more than 200 years of scholarship, spread across a wide variety of subject areas. Please note King's College London users have access to Collections 1 to 10 and JISC special collections 1 and 2.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content; since 1995, its electronic journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE books and journals, from leading university presses and scholarly societies, are fully integrated for search and discovery. King's only subscribes to selected journals.
- EBook Central (Proquest) - King's This link opens in a new window Ebook Central is an ebook platform. King’s have purchased over 21,200 titles covering a range of subjects and provides further access to over 176,350 titles.
- Humanities Index (1962-) (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window Formerly known as BHI: British Humanities Index.An international abstracting and indexing tool for research in the humanities, HI indexes over 400 internationally respected humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK. It covers current affairs, political science, religion, law, history, archaeology, education, economics, environment and gender studies.Updated monthly with approximately 1,500 records added; it also has the capability to link to electronic full text of many journal articles
Senate House Library
Senate House Library is a large humanities research library in Bloomsbury. 
King’s staff and students are entitled to free membership which provides
borrowing rights to print books and remote access to most eresources.
See Membership for information on signing up.