Eligibility
There are many ways credits can be applied to titles on IMDb - you'll need to make sure a
credit
you're contributing is eligible before beginning the process.
Credits we can't accept
There are certain types of credits that we do not list unless specifically credited
on-screen: these include work on:
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Marketing elements of a title (e.g. work on key art, trailers
etc.)
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Non-theatrical versions (e.g. DVD authoring, supplemental materials,
captioning,
trailer work etc.)
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Localized releases (e.g. dubbing, dialogue translation/editing on
foreign
versions etc.)
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These details can instead be added to the other works biography section, or alternatively
IMDbPro
members
can add these to the additional credits section of the name page.
Adding Cast / Acting credits
If you're looking to add cast / acting credits, you can find more information in our Cast / Acting guidelines for eligibility and submission
topics for:
Adding Crew credits
If you're adding a crew credit to the database, make sure to check for our policies and
guidelines before you submit your request.
Our other Crew guide articles can be found in the Submission Guides A-Z.
Verifying credits
Our aim is to be the most complete and reliable source of movie, TV, and entertainment information on
the web
- in order to achieve this, we can only accept submissions which are accurate & verifiable at
the point
of submission.
This means you may need to provide enough evidence along with your submission to help us confirm the
credit
is factual - the requirement for verification will increase with the rank of the title.
Evidence likely to be accepted
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Third-party news articles |
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Link to title on streaming platform |
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Screen grab of end credits |
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Pay stubs |
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Call sheets |
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Contracts |
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Receipts |
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If you're unable to provide sufficient supporting evidence, your request may be rejected - you would
then
need to re-submit with additional evidence.
Instructions on how to add supporting evidence is explained below in the How
to section.
How to
contains - where to contribute | adding name /
title | cast credits | crew credits | verification | warnings & errors | tracking update
Anybody with a free IMDb account can submit credits to the database.
If you're looking to add credits to multiple episodes of a TV Series - please instead review our
article titled How
do I add an episodic credit?
For all other credits, please see below.
Where to contribute
Credits can be contributed to either a name page or title page, but once approved are the exact same
(i.e. they will be linked to both the name, and title page).
The guidance is:
- If you're adding a single credit, submit via either a name or title page.
- If you're submitting more than 1 credit to a title, submit them from the
title
page.
- If you're submitting more than 1 credit to a person, submit them from the
name
page.
The process is similar between the two methods, with slight visual changes.
Step 1
Navigate to the name or title page on IMDb - if you don't know the
URL, you
can use the search bar in the header to search for it:
- If the name isn't listed on the database, you can create a new page for it when
submitting a credit through the title page.
- If the title isn't listed, it may not have been added to the database - you can add
a new title yourself.
Step 2
Once on the name or title, scroll to the bottom of the
page and
click
the button to enter the contribution form.
Step 3
Now on the list of contributable information, find the type of
credit you're looking
to add and choose from the drop-down the number of those credits you'd like to
add.
(If you're hoping to add different types of credit, you can select numbers from multiple
sections.)
Step 4
Once you're ready - scroll to the bottom of the page and
hit
Adding the person, or title.
Depending on where you're submitting your credit from, you'll either need to find the person or title
to
complete the pair.
Added via Name page (need to
find the
title) |
Added via Title page (need to
find the
name) |
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Choose where you're adding the credit from for more information:
If submitting Cast / Acting credits
If you're submitting a Cast credit, you'll have the option to include some more information:
- Character - The character played by the cast member in question - if the
character name is unknown it can be left blank. If the person is appearing as
themselves (i.e. in an interview or a documentary), then 'Self'
should be entered here
- Attribute - This is usually left empty, but there are a number of attributes
for edge
cases (e.g. uncredited, voice, archive footage, etc) - this is explained in
more detail in the Attribute
guidelines. You can use
the icon to select from a longer list of
available attributes.
- Order number - If known, you should always populate where in the end credit
role the
person is credited.
For the greatest chance of having your request approved, please visit our supplementary article for
Cast / Acting guidelines which goes into more depth
around
topics such as:
If submitting Crew credits
If you're submitting a Crew credit, you'll have the option to include some more information depending
on if
the credit type. You'll have the option for either both 'Occupation' and
'Attribute', or
just 'Attribute':
Minor crew:
Major crew:
- Occupation (Minor crew only)- This must be populated, if
the the
drop-down doesn't list the specific roll - you can use the icon to select from a longer
list.
- Attribute - This section is usually left empty, however there are some
exceptions
mentioned in our Attribute guidelines or the crew specific help
articles. You can use the icon to select from a longer
list of available attributes.
Our other Crew guide articles can be found in the Submission Guides A-Z.
Providing verification
You may need to provide
supplementary information to help our data editors verify the credits are factual and should be
listed on
the database.
This is important and your credit additions may be rejected if you're unable to provide sufficient
supporting
information.
You can include evidence by ticking the 'Provide an explanation to assist in processing this
submission' at the bottom of the contribution form:
Additionally, you can upload and submit a file as evidence for our data team to review. This is explained in our additional verification guidelines.
The type of verification you can provide will vary depending on if "credited" or "uncredited".
- Credited - This means a name was involved in a titles production and was listed in the
closing credit roll.
- Uncredited - This means a person was involved in the titles production, but was not
listed in the closing credit roll
For more information on how providing credit verification, please visit the article How can I submit
additional verification for a credit
submission?
Handling errors or warnings
Once you've finished populating the form, head to the bottom of the page and click to review the submission.
If there are any problems, the form will re-load with either yellow or red sections highlighted.
These should include reasons for the problems and explain how to correct them - for example:
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
Example 4:
To resolve these, read the warnings / errors provided and make any necessary changes to the
submission
details.
You can then scroll to the bottom of the page and click to refresh the page.
- If there are still problems, the page will come back with more
warnings which you'll need to review and rectify.
- If everything is OK, the window will turn green.
If the latter, you should now be able to submit your request by
clicking .
Tracking your submission
After submitting your request, it should take between 12 - 48 hours to
appear on
the website.
You can track your request from your contribution history to
find it's
current status and estimated completion time.
Frequently asked questions
Below are the most common questions we hear from users when trying to add a new title to the database -
if your
question isn't answered here, you can always ask a member of our friendly community over at Sprinklr.
When will my update be added?
The new credit you submit will need to first be reviewed by a member of the
editing
team
to ensure it's accurate and eligible - for the most part this takes between
12-48
hours, however may take longer.
If you'd like to know the status of your request, you can track your request from your
contribution
history - alternatively, you can review the list
of
pending data to get an idea of when we'll get to your item.
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It's been ages but my update hasn't
appeared on
IMDb, what's happened?
To check the status of your request, you can track your request and it should tell
you if
the request has been rejected, along with a guidance of what to do next to
re-submit
the request for it to be approved in the future.
If your submission is still pending, please be patient and check back later
to see the status of the request.
Remember that your request should adhere to the policies in this article and
should
include enough evidence to help our editing team verify that the title's in
active
production or released.
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The credit shows as approved but it's not
on the page
If you can confirm the credit has been approved via your Contribution History, but it isn't
visible on the name or title page - it may be for a couple of reasons.
- The credit was added to the wrong name or title - We
list millions of titles on IMDb, some of these may share the same name.
We use roman numerals to help differentiate these, but it's still
possible to submit the information to the wrong page.
To
remedy this, please check your Contribution History where you'll
be able to see the instance of the title or name - you can confirm if
the submission went to the correct page.
- All credits on the page are 'uncredited' - Our display
logic requires at least one fully credited listing on a name page
before anything will show. This means if a page has only uncredited
listings it will appear empty, even if your addition has been
approved.
Once a fully credited position is added to the
page, all (uncredited) data will also appear.
You can learn more
about "uncredited" in our article What does uncredited mean?
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My credit keeps being rejected,
why?
If your request is continually rejected, make sure to check your Contribution History as this should
explain why.
The two main reasons are:
- Unable to verify - An editor wasn't able to confirm the
credit is factual, to rectify this you should re-submit your request and
include some additional evidence to help them verify
this.
More information on how to do this can be found in
our article How can I submit additional
verification for a credit submission?.
- Breaches policy - Some part of the request wasn't in
line with our filmography guidelines and therefore an editor wasn't able
to approve it to the site.
Please make sure to review any
specific articles on this help center for the type of credit you're
trying to add (e.g. Cast / Acting
guidelines) to make sure the request is
eligible to be listed, and is formatted correctly.
If your request is rejected with another reason and you're unable to identify
why this might have happened, you can reach out to our friendly community
over at Sprinklr who should be able to help
out.
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