
All of these resources should either point you to material in the public domain, licensed under the Creative Commons, or material that is Royalty Free. Please check the license agreements carefully before moving forward with any use of materials. If you have any questions about the legality of your use, please consult with an attorney.
Also, best use of the materials will be gained by reading the pages on Public Domain, Fair Use, the Creative Commons, and Right of Publicity on this site before proceeding. (Or at least before you actually use any materials from one of these sites.)
The pages listed here claim to host public domain material, but that’s no guarantee that it is, in fact, in the public domain.
As of January 1st, 2025, with a few exceptions, material published in the U.S. in 1929 and before should be public domain. Please check the Copyright Duration Databases and Tools page for resources and information on determining copyright status of any individual work. I’ve also tried to outline some basic issues and pitfalls to watch out for when using public domain material there.
Even a site like Pixabay, where their content has been dedicated to the public domain, has terms of service. It’s probably good to get used to automatically looking at the terms of service of any site that you consider getting material from.
And, even though attribution of public domain material is not required, it’s good form to put any material that you did not create in your credits.
Also, films in this first section are probably not going to be high-resolution, but you may be able to find something here that is in the public domain and then find high-resolution version of it on a paid site.
- Moving Image Archive
– Internet Archive - Movies and Films
– Internet Archive - Public Domain Films
– Motion Picture and Television Reading Room, Library of Congress - Public Domain Films
– Festival Films - Public Domain Movie Torrents
– Public Domain Torrents - Free Stock Video Footage & Video Clips
– Pixabay
– These actually are high-resolution - Pixabay Terms of Service
Some of these are higher-resolution public domain material, and some of them are royalty free material. As always, check the license agreement and terms of service carefully.
- Desert Island Public Domain Film Library
– High quality public domain Films - FAQs
– Desert Island Public Domain Film Library - Buyout Footage
– High quality public domain and historical footage - How To Use Public Domain As Stock Footage
– Buyout Footage
I’ve just listed these commercial sites here to get you started. They appear to have reasonable license terms for independent films. Please do your own research with regards to reviews of their services and commercial practices before deciding on a company to do business with.
- British Pathé and the Reuters historical collection
– Footage Sales – Royalty Free - Copyright Policy
– British Pathé - Licensing Enquiries
– British Pathé - Pond5 Stock Video and Music Library
- Licensing Options
– Pond5 - Content License Agreement
– Pond5 - How to Choose the Right Royalty-Free License on Pond5
Again, no guarantees, please do your own research as to actual public domain status. But I figure big lists of potential public domain works can’t hurt.
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