Coverage, standards, and corrections
How the World Cinema Atlas Is Curated
A transparent account of what the atlas covers, how films enter each country route, and why a short honest list is more useful than a complete-looking one.
- Published country guides
- 196
- Ranked film placements
- 2,353
- Native voice selections
- 1,278
- Outside-view selections
- 1,075
- Full 10 + 10 routes
- 62
Two views of every destination
Native voice and souvenir view answer different questions. Native films need a verified creative relationship to the country and a meaningful place within its cinema. Souvenir films are foreign-led works whose setting, subject, or cultural center remains substantially tied to the destination. The second list is a comparison, never a substitute for the first.
Selection before ranking
A film must qualify for a route before reputation or preference can affect its position. Production financing, filmmaker nationality, a shooting location, or a database country tag cannot establish native identity by themselves. Outside views must be centered on the destination rather than merely passing through it.
What determines the order
Qualifying films are ranked for cinematic craft, enduring reputation, influence, importance within the relevant national cinema, and depth of engagement with place. Lists stop at ten. A route stays shorter when research has not produced enough strong, verified selections.
Evidence and editorial review
Candidate discovery can begin with film institutes, archives, festivals, official film pages, established public databases, and wider web research, but automated matches are never published directly. The released catalog is assembled from editorial-desk-approved records, and each country is reviewed as a whole so duplicated films, weak country relationships, and misleading language assumptions can be caught in context.
What the public catalog contains
The production site publishes only first-party film identifiers and the information needed to use the guide: titles, original titles where available, years, posters, synopses, curator notes, ranked country relationships, and stable decision aids such as runtime, genre, mood, and entry level. Research identifiers, provider scores, and private candidate pools are excluded from the public bundle.
How decision aids are used
Decision aids answer a practical question—what should I watch tonight?—without changing the editorial order. “Easy entry” describes accessibility, not emotional lightness; “adventurous watch” signals greater length, formal challenge, or contextual demands. Content notes are screened, concise, and non-exhaustive rather than a substitute for a formal content-rating service.
Review dates and change policy
A country review date changes after a substantive selection, classification, factual, or page-level editorial review. Dates are not refreshed merely to make a page appear current. Corrections are assessed against the same eligibility rules as the original publication, with the public methodology updated when the governing rule itself changes.
Corrections are part of the atlas
Film history and country attribution can be contested, and coverage improves over time. Useful corrections identify the country, film, disputed relationship, and a reliable source. Every report is reviewed editorially before the published route changes.
Coverage by continent
The table counts published country guides and ranked placements in the current public catalog. A smaller number reflects verified coverage, not a judgment about the importance of a cinema.
| Continent | Guides | Native | Outside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 56 | 297 | 192 |
| Asia | 48 | 362 | 271 |
| Europe | 43 | 391 | 405 |
| North America | 21 | 109 | 89 |
| South America | 14 | 96 | 67 |
| Oceania | 13 | 23 | 41 |
| Antarctica | 1 | 0 | 10 |
Suggest a correction
Send the country, film title, disputed relationship, and a reliable source to hello@aurapoints.org. Reports are reviewed before the public guide changes.