Use the ABANY limiter to single out the Documents containing a Synopsis. Add ABANY(yes) in one of the Advanced Search boxes, or add it to the search using the link "Search within" in the Results page. Combine it with an AND to the main search to include only Film records with a Synopsis.
See how to search the field Production Genre in the Searchable Fields box on the right. Here below the list of terms used to index the Production Genre in this field:
AFI Catalog offers nine (9) Look ups (i.e., browsable indexes), so you can easily find spelling or format variations of, for example, an author's name or publication subject. You can find the Look up links in the Advanced Search page and they are available for the following searchable fields:
For a description of these fields, please see the Searchable Fields table to the right.
Note: Look ups are also available from the Command Line search page (through the Look up terms link located on the right side of the page).
To use and locate a Look up, select the field from the Advanced Search drop-down menu. If a Look up is available, under the search row you will see a link to the Look up (e.g., Look up Authors). Look ups for Cast, Company/organization, Crew, Director, Subject headings, are listed in the More search options section of the Advanced Search page.
Select the Look up link and then you will see a browsable and alphabetical index for that field. There are some indexes that will not display an alphabetical list before searching for the term, rather you will have to enter a term first, and then the alphabetical list of matches will display.
Once you locate the index term that you would like to add to your search, mark the item, and then click the Add to search button. The index term will now appear in the advanced search form along with the appropriate pull-down menu selection. You may select multiple items by checking the box next to each, then selecting either the AND or the OR Boolean operator radio button prior to clicking the Search button.
An accessible version of the Searchable Fields table is available here below.
AFI=American Film Catalog FIAF=International Index to Film Periodicals Database FII=Film Index International
| Field Name | Label | Search Examples & Explanation |
| Abstract | AB | AB(“music track”) The Abstract field contains the film’s Synopsis in AFI and FII.; |
| Accession Document Number |
AN | AN(356894) Search the unique database ID for articles and documents. |
| Anywhere | Disney cartoon Enter keyword(s) without a field code label to search the entire record. On the Advanced Search page, enter search terms or phrases, and select the “Anywhere” from drop-down menu to the right of the search box. |
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| Anywhere except full text | NOFT | NOFT(sound) Searches for keywords in the citation and abstract. It excludes the full text of the article from the search. |
| Cast | CAST | Cast.Exact("Pickford, Mary") CAST(AL PACINO) Searches the name of the Actor (Cast>Name). ** |
| Character | CHR | CHR.Exact("Ruth Wilcox") CHR(Connie Corleone) Searches the name of Character (Cast>Role). ** |
| Company Organization |
ORG | Org(Paramount) Org("Merchant Ivory Productions Ltd") Production company &ndash. ** |
| Country of Publication | CP | CP("Great Britain") CP("United States") In AFI and FII use this field to focus the search on movies produced in a specific Country. ** |
| Crew | CREW | Crew(Morricone) Crew("Forster, E M") Searches the name of a Crew member (Credits >Name). ** |
| Director | DIRECTOR | Director.Exact("IVORY, James") Director.Exact("Griffith, David Wark" OR "Griffith, D W") director(sofia coppola) Search the name of the film Director. ** |
| Document Title | TI | TI(“The Godfather”) TI(Cabiria) Applies to all types of records. Locates the occurrence of search words in the title of the film or locates the title in its entirety (AFI, FIAF, FII – Film records). Includes also the Alternative Title. |
| Document Type | DType | DType(Film) DType(Review) DType(Book) In AFI the Document Type is always Film. |
| Location | LOC | Loc("Sicily Italy") Loc(Spain) In AFI and FII use to search for the location of the film. Can be a country and a region or a town. There can be more than one location in the same film. |
| Notes | NT | NT(Variety) NT(Married n/5 Vivien n/1 Leigh) NT(Playwright) NT(awards n/5 baftas) NT("fritz lang") AFI : Searches the Document Note text of the record. |
| Person | PER | Per("Selznick, David O.") Per(Almodovar Pedro) Per(Ismail Merchant) Searches all the fields with single person names.** In AFI and FII includes: Cast, Crew, Director, Producer. |
| Producer | PRODUCER | Producer(Griffith) Producer("MERCHANT, Ismail") Searches the name of individual producer. |
| Production genre | PGR | PGR("Drama") Applies only to AFI . Use to search for the Film Production Genre: check the box for a full list of definitions included in this field |
| Production Title | PTI | PTI(The Godfather) PTI(“Mario Puzo's The Godfather”) Locates the occurrence of search words in the title of the film or the entire title. Includes also the Alternative Title. Applies to all types of records. ** |
| Publication date | PD | PD(19871020) PD(19691217) PD(1991) Use this field to search for dates of World release of Films in all. |
| Publication Subject | JSU | JSU(“Motion Pictures”) In AFI and FII the Publication Subject is always Motion Pictures. |
| Publication Title | PUB | PUB(Variety) Specific publication or publications. In AFI the Publication Title is always American Film Institute Catalog. |
| Source type | SType | Stype(Artistic & Aesthetic Works) Use this to find specific source types. In AFI the Source Type is always Artistic & Aesthetic Works. |
| Subject Heading(All) | SU | SU(costume) SU.Exact("costume films") Applies mostly to AFI and FIAF . Use the subject search field to look for a specific subject. A search for the subject heading “costume”, will find films with the subjects: costumes, costume films, costume design , etc. To run a subject search where only “costume films” is retrieved and no other alternative terms, search using EXACT. ** |
| Year | YR/PY | YR(1978) YR(1914-1918) Use a single year or series of years (separated by a hyphen) to search for all films released during that year or that course of years (AFI, FIAF, FII ). |