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I need to find the title of a movie or TV-show, but I only know part of its story and/or descriptions of scenes and characters. I might happen to know who acted in it or even have some images from it.

However, this site doesn't serve identification questions anymore so it won't help me solve this directly. But how can I get my movie identified still? Are there any external resources I could consult? And if yes, how can I optimize the results I get therefrom?

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    As suggested here. Feel free to contribute to this.
    – Napoleon Wilson Mod
    Commented Jan 27, 2018 at 0:18
  • @AJ I noticed you rolled back my recent edit. I'd like to understand why. The edit removed outdated information about the ID question ban, which is no longer in effect as per our community consensus. I also made a grammar correction. Also, given that this post no longer reflects current policy, I suggest removing the faq tag to avoid potential confusion for new users since they can now ask ID questions on this site.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Aug 10 at 5:12

2 Answers 2

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First of all, there is a site within the Stack Exchange network which still accepts such questions:

Then there are also some other Q&A sites working similar to SE where you can just provide a description and ask for a movie:

If you are working from different information than a verbal description, there's also other less Q&A oriented ways to find your movie/TV-show:

  • Google image search lets you search directly for matches to a given image, for when you have a visual representation of either a scene from the film or an actor whose name you'd like to know.
  • So does TinEye
  • QuoDB might be useful if you only have a specific quote or part of the dialogue you remember.
  • IMDb's Advanced Search lets you combine a variety of types of information from IMDb catalogs to create extremely specific searches. You can fill in (with the information you have) as many optional fields as you can to narrow the search results.
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    This is a first start. If you have similar links, feel free to add them. If you have different, maybe more procedurally oriented, guidance, you might also post it as a new answer.
    – Napoleon Wilson Mod
    Commented Jan 27, 2018 at 0:17
  • 16
    Here we are 2 years later, and these suggestions don't really make up for the disappearance of that feature in Movies SE - except maybe reddit where similarly as SE one user can belong to several communities without having to create new accounts. The websites suggested also have way less users than SE does and terrible UI/UX. I don't accept these as alternatives.
    – MicroMachine
    Commented Mar 3, 2020 at 21:58
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    You don't have to. Feel free to add others that work better for you.
    – Napoleon Wilson Mod
    Commented Mar 3, 2020 at 23:17
  • Does any of these allow refining queries with additional criteria or restrictions? Allow for "not" criteria (i.e. certain words not used synopsis)? Allow searching the scripts? Allow for criteria such as "number of words in title"? "number of main protagonists"? "gender of main protagonist"?
    – einpoklum
    Commented Aug 30, 2021 at 19:21
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You can post your ID question on Movies & TV Stack Exchange.

The Movies & TV SE community has agreed to allow identification questions, making it an excellent resource for finding that elusive movie or TV show title.

To maximize your chances of getting a helpful answer, provide as many details as you can remember. Include when you watched the show or movie, and mention any titles you've already ruled out. Our guide on asking identification questions offers valuable tips to improve your post and increase the likelihood of a successful identification.

Alternatively, if your mystery show or movie falls under the Speculative Fiction umbrella (which includes genres like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero Fiction, and Utopian/Dystopian Fiction), you might also consider posting on our sister site, Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange. They welcome identification questions for Speculative Fiction works, but be sure to review their identification guidelines before posting.

You can also browse the list of questions there tagged [story-identification] and [movie] or [story-identification] and [tv] for some examples of how to format your question and what kind of information to provide.

Relevant Science Fiction & Fantasy SE meta posts:

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