How to use the site
Everything the World Movie Encyclopedia lets you do — browse, rate, comment, follow, share — plus a few shortcuts to make it faster.
Browsing the catalogue
The main catalogue lists every film in the encyclopedia. Filter and sort live — there's no submit button.
- Search by typing in the search field at the top. It matches title, director, country, year, movement, and award.
- Pin a search by pressing Enter while typing. The pinned term stays as a chip in the filter bar; multiple pins are ANDed together. Click the × on a chip to remove it.
- Filter by movement or award with the multi-select dropdowns. Multiple selections are ORed within one filter, ANDed between filters.
- Sort by title / year / director / country / movement. Use the arrow button to flip direction.
- Toggles: "With video" hides films without clips; "Interested only" narrows to your watchlist; "Show hidden" reveals films you've previously marked Not interested.
- Shareable URLs: every filter change updates the URL. Bookmark a filtered view, or send the URL to a friend — they'll land on the same view.
Keyboard shortcuts
Available on the catalogue page.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| / | Focus the search field |
| ⌘ + K or Ctrl + K | Same — focus the search field |
| Esc (while focused on search) | Clear the search and reapply filters |
| Enter (while focused on search) | Pin the current search term as a filter chip |
Shortcuts don't trigger when you're typing in other text fields (like a comment), so they won't get in the way.
Your library
You can record three things about each film, all from its detail page:
- Rate a film 1–5 stars after you've watched it.
- Mark interested to build a watchlist. There's also a small + Interested chip in the corner of each catalogue card.
- Hide films you've decided you don't want — they disappear from the catalogue unless you turn on "Show hidden".
Open your library from the nav to see Rated / Interested / Hidden as separate tabs. The library opens on Rated by default because that's where most engagement lives.
Comments
Each film page has a comment thread. Anyone with an account can post. Comments are public.
- Post: write in the textarea on the film page and hit Post comment. Comments are sorted oldest first to read like a conversation.
- Edit your own: click the pencil icon to switch to inline editing. Save replaces the text; Cancel reverts.
- Delete your own: click the trash icon. There's a confirm dialog — once gone, it's gone.
- Report someone else's: click the small flag icon. Add a one-line reason if you want. Admins review reports regularly. Reporting is rate-limited.
The full community rules describe what gets a comment removed or an account silenced.
Featured films + discovery
- Featured films appear in the gold strip at the top of the catalogue. Admin-curated, rotated periodically.
- Featured directors appear at the top of the director index.
- Recently added films sit just under the featured strip on the catalogue — a small horizontal scroll of the newest entries.
- Director index has every director (1,000+), searchable, with an A–Z jump strip. About 16% have a written bio so far; the rest say "no bio" and still list their films.
- Related films appear at the bottom of every film page: more by the same director, more in the same movement.
Account & profile
- Set up your profile in Settings: add an about-me, your website, and Letterboxd / Instagram / X usernames. They appear on your public profile.
- Change your password or email in the same place — it's gated on your current password.
- Share a film with the Share button in the film page header. On mobile it opens the OS share sheet; on desktop it copies the link to the clipboard.
- Forgot your password? Use Forgot password. (Email isn't wired up yet — the reset link is shown on-screen for now.)
Following and feeds
The site has a small social layer.
/u/username) or from the Discover list.