Who
  • News
  • Entertainment
  • Style
  • Health
  • Beauty
  • Sexiest People
  • The Travel List
  • streaming
  • Video
Who
  • News
  • Entertainment
  • Style
  • Health
  • Beauty
  • Sexiest People
  • The Travel List
  • streaming
  • Video
Subscribe
  1. Home
  2. Film & Movies

Name that movie! Five quick ways to find a forgotten movie name online

Here are five sites that can help name that movie. - by Rhys McKay
  • 25 Feb 2020

We’ve all been there – randomly remembering a movie you really loved, but not for the life of you remembering what it’s called.

WATCH BELOW: Ultimate DIY home movie theatre

{title} Play

{title}

{duration}
The Lion King First Official Teaser Trailer Play

The Lion King First Official Teaser Trailer

1:33
Noah Centineo just landed his first leading role, and here's everything we know Play

Noah Centineo just landed his first leading role, and here's everything we know

0:44
'Despicable Me' Creator Will Reboot 'Shrek' Franchise Play

'Despicable Me' Creator Will Reboot 'Shrek' Franchise

0:39
What Is The 'The Girl In The Spider's Web' About? Play

What Is The 'The Girl In The Spider's Web' About?

0:42
Mary Poppins Returns - Official Trailer Play

Mary Poppins Returns - Official Trailer

2:38
What To Watch This Weekend: October 26, 2018 Play

What To Watch This Weekend: October 26, 2018

2:38
What Do Fans Want To See In The Next 'Venom' Movie Play

What Do Fans Want To See In The Next 'Venom' Movie

0:39
Critics Like The New 'Halloween' Play

Critics Like The New 'Halloween'

0:43
'Game of Thrones' Actor Richard Madden Rumored For Bond Play

'Game of Thrones' Actor Richard Madden Rumored For Bond

0:35

You don’t want this to keep you up at night, but googling that obscure actor who might have been in it has fallen short.

‘What Is My Movie’ might be able to save the day – a strangely accurate site that can guess a film based on something as little as a vague scene description.

If you’re not sure how to use the site, or if you’re curious to know if there are other hacks to unearthing titles, this is our short guide to the secrets of finding forgotten movie names.

RELATED: Feel Good Movies: Top 35 Happy Movies of All Time

What Is My Movie?

What Is My Movie is a super-accurate movie finder site that can suggest the name of a movie by a scene or plot description, an incomplete title, and actors’ and directors’ names. By “super-accurate”, we mean that the site can easily find a film like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the sparse description “erasing memories”.

Creepy? A little bit. Useful? Hell yeah.

what-is-my-movie-joker

Creepy? A little bit.

Warner Bros

According to the site, the search engine was originally developed by tech company Valossa for Arctic15, a start-up matchmaking conference.

The team sought to “present a new way of searching video content” by attempting to analyse data that can’t normally be analysed by machines, from scenes to themes to plot and dialogue.

The site now hosts 40,000 titles in its library, including movie titles from the 1900s to the most recent releases.

However, don’t expect the site to be 100 percent up to date. After all, a new movie is released every week!

name-that-movie-emma-stone

"Stars Emma Stone"?

Getty

How to use it

First, type anything you can recall from a film in the search box. You can input whatever you can remember from the film’s title, its plot, its characters, or its actors. You also might try describing specific scenes or type out bits of dialogue.

Once the site gives you its suggestions, you can refine your search by choosing title matches, actor matches, or director matches.

You can also help the site by letting it know if its suggestions are good matches or bad matches!

WATCH BELOW: Nicole Kidman And Keith Urban's Daughters Make Their Film Debut. Post continues after video...

Are there other ways to name a movie you can’t remember?

IMDB

IMDB, or the Internet Movie Database, is a site that records pretty much everything about every single movie that’s ever been released. The only problem is that IMDB’s search engine is incredibly simple. You can look up an actor, director, or production company, but you’ll have to go through their page and rifle through the list of movies they’ve done to find the right one. If none of the titles ring any bells, you could be stuck clicking on each one for hours!

However, there is one trick that could work. Using this URL, you can attempt to find a film on IMDB using Google by entering short plot descriptions.

Remember to keep it simple though! For example, if you want to find the film A Quiet Place, you’re going to want to use keywords like “no sound”, “horror”, and “deaf”. If you want to find the film Someone Great, you can use keywords like “Netflix”, “break up”, and “New York”. And if you want to find the film Blade Runner 2049, you can try the keywords “IMAX”, “future”, and “cyberpunk”.

Hot tip

When all else fails, you can try posting a question on IMDB’s message boards. It’s filled with filmy folk who love to dissect and discuss films.

what-is-my-movie-schindler

It'd be hard to forget Schindler's List!

Getty

Filmfind

Just like IMDB’s message boards, Filmfind is a community of cinema-lovers where a movie search query is answered by real people instead of a search engine or AI. The site works like a forum where you can either describe what a movie is about and wait for someone to come up with an answer, or volunteer to answer another person’s query. 

Wild About Movies

If for some reason you know a film’s release date but not its title, actors, or director, you can head over to Wild About Movies – a site that categorises films by year then by release date. While it’s highly unlikely you’re going “What was the name of that movie that was released in 2010?”, it’s still fun to go through each year on this site and make comparisons between what kinds of movies were popular on certain years.

what-is-my-movie-rocky

Name the Rocky!

Getty

The Internet Movie Browser

The Internet Movie Browser is a movie database with an extensive range of filters. You can insert film titles, the names of the actors and directors, release dates, and production companies into the search bar, and then refine the search by providing a range for the release date and runtime and ticking off genres and countries. You can also organise results based on critics’ scores.

While it’s not the easiest way to search for a film whose title you don’t know, it is good for comparing film ratings and finding top-rated films.

RELATED: 11 Movies Like The Notebook

  • Entertainment
  • Film & Movies
  • TV
Rhys McKay

Subscribe to Who magazine-& save!

Subscribe Now
Subscribe to Who magazine

Subscribe to Who magazine-& save!

Subscribe Now
Subscribe to Who magazine

Recommended to you

Louis Tomlinson Calls James Corden Out
Watch 0:36

Louis Tomlinson Calls James Corden Out

{headline}

{headline}

Dakota Johnson admits Fifty Shades movies were “psychotic”

Dakota Johnson admits Fifty Shades movies were “psychotic”

EXCLUSIVE: Austin Butler reveals the moment he became Elvis

EXCLUSIVE: Austin Butler reveals the moment he became Elvis

Local and international stars wow at Elvis premiere in Sydney

Local and international stars wow at Elvis premiere in Sydney

Sam Worthington and Phoebe Tonkin's big news

Sam Worthington and Phoebe Tonkin's big news

{headline}

{headline}

Iconic movie and TV hairstyles – and the stories behind them

Iconic movie and TV hairstyles – and the stories behind them

Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma tie the knot

Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma tie the knot

It looks like Brad Pitt is starring in the 'Friends' movie

It looks like Brad Pitt is starring in the 'Friends' movie

{headline}

{headline}

Netflix and Chill With These Top 10 Binge Worthy TV Shows

Netflix and Chill With These Top 10 Binge Worthy TV Shows

The Shock Factor: 15 Most Controversial Films of All Time

The Shock Factor: 15 Most Controversial Films of All Time

8 Detective Movies That’ll Keep You On Your Toes

8 Detective Movies That’ll Keep You On Your Toes

8 Of The Best Teen Romance Movies From The Last 20 Years

8 Of The Best Teen Romance Movies From The Last 20 Years

Romcoms & Epic Drama: Our Top 30 Chick Flicks

Romcoms & Epic Drama: Our Top 30 Chick Flicks

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's kids' HUGE new movie role

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's kids' HUGE new movie role

Netflix Australia is ruining the month of June by axing these movies and TV shows from their site

Netflix Australia is ruining the month of June by axing these movies and TV shows from their site

Who
  • About Us
  • Subscribe Today
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Privacy
Who Magazine Subscribe
  • About Us
  • Subscribe Today
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Privacy

Brands

  • Beauty Crew
  • Home Beautiful
  • marie claire
  • Bounty Parents

Our Network

  • Better Homes and Gardens
  • BHG Shop
  • New Idea food
  • New Idea
  • Girlfriend
  • That’s Life
  • All Recipes
  • Practical Parenting
  • 7plus
  • 7News
  • Sunrise
  • Starts at 60
  • The West Australian
  • Perth Now
  • 7mate
  • 7Sport
  • Hard to Find
© 2022 Are Media PTY LTD
All products are independently selected, tested or recommended by our team of experts.If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Get more from Who

Magazine Subscription Offer

Subscribe to Who magazine-& save!

Shop This Offer
Subscribe to Who magazine