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Source note · News and culture

Movies & TV

Films from Wikidata, their summaries from Wikipedia, TV series and their episodes from TVmaze. Every record links to the page its data comes from.

A century of film: 5 times more films released in 2016 than in 1950292,430 films, from 1895 to 2025 · one column per year · one dot for 100 films

films released that year

Wikidata, the “film” items (Q11424) it lists, by year of their first release date · rounded to the nearest dot1Public data (CC0) · drawn, nothing generated
50%of dated films have an article in English: Aureole reads their summary there.
3,499films dated 2025 in Wikidata.
50%have no article in English: the record gives Wikidata’s description.

Who publishes this data

Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 2003 that hosts Wikipedia, Wikidata and the other Wikimedia projects. It doesn’t decide what they say: volunteer contributors write and check it.5

For this sourceWikidata publishes each film’s identity, release dates, running time, director and cast, under CC0; Wikipedia publishes the summary, under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, and each article’s thumbnail.5

wikimediafoundation.org

TVmaze

TVmaze is a television database, started in 2014, that any registered user can edit; it keeps a log of every edit and is funded by subscriptions. Its site doesn’t say which company runs it.5

For this sourceIt publishes series, their seasons, their episodes and their cast through an open API, under the CC BY-SA license: anyone can reuse them, for any purpose, by crediting TVmaze with a link and sharing them under the same license.6

tvmaze.com
Publishers
Wikimedia · TVmazeWikidata and Wikipedia · series
Films
350,243“film” items in Wikidata, 294,664 of them dated1
Series
90,579in TVmaze, with their seasons and episodes2
Depth
1895every release year since, up to today1
Updated
Continuouslyevery edit by contributors is published
Access
Freeno account, no key · CC0 and CC BY-SA

01The reach

Series in 83 languages.

Each dot is a hundred series. Each rectangle is one of TVmaze’s languages; English is highlighted. TVmaze writes its summaries in English, and Aureole shows them as they are; in another language, it reads the summary from the Wikipedia article in that language when Wikidata links it to the series.2

One dot = a hundred series · TVmaze’s index of series, by language · English highlighted
50%of TVmaze’s series are in English2
38,288Wikidata items linked to a TVmaze series2

02What you get

Three questions, three answers from the source.

Ask Aureole: the answers below are the ones the source returned.3

You ask

Who’s in Parasite, by Bong Joon-ho?

The source returns

Song Kang-ho and 10 others

Wikidata · Q61448040 · Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong…
11 on the record, 12 at most

What you get

The cast, each with their own record

Wikidata links each actor to their own item. Aureole shows up to 12 of them, with the thumbnail from their English Wikipedia article when they have one.

You ask

How long is City of God?

The source returns

128 minutes

Wikidata · Q220741 · first released on May 18, 2002
the running time on its record

What you get

Running time and first release

Wikidata dates a film’s releases country by country; Aureole keeps the first one. Wikidata doesn’t publish audience ratings for films: the tool tells the model that the source doesn’t publish one.

You ask

How many episodes are in season 1 of Shaka iLembe?

The source returns

12 episodes

TVmaze · Mzansi Magic, South Africa · in Zulu
aired from June 18, 2023 to September 3, 2023

What you get

A season’s episodes, dated

For each episode, TVmaze gives its number, its title and its air date, plus its running time and rating when its users have entered them. Aureole reads the season you asked for and lists its episodes.

Answers read at the source on October 19, 2026, as examples: sources update, and Aureole reads the current answer when you ask.

03What makes a figure checkable

A checkable figure answers six questions.

A model can write “Pather Panchali runs 120 minutes.” For that figure to be checked, you need to know which film it is, which release, what the value measures, who entered it, who publishes it, and where to read it again.3

Which film?
Pather PanchaliWikidata · Q622380
When?
August 26, 1955its first release
What?
Running timeproperty P2047, in minutes

120

minutes · Pather Panchali · 1955

Who entered it?
Wikidata’s contributorsevery item keeps its history
Who publishes it?
Wikimedia Foundationunder CC0
Where to read it again?
The Wikidata itemwikidata.org/wiki/Q622380

In Aureole, this information appears under the answer.

Under every answer, the “Data read” footer names the sources read and their license, “Wikidata (CC0) · Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)” for a film, “TVmaze (CC BY-SA) · Wikidata (CC0)” for a series, with a link to the page read.4

The record has a button to its source page: the Wikipedia article read, in English when there is one, otherwise the Wikidata item; for a series, its TVmaze page.4

04Where it comes from

From the credits to your conversation.

A film or series record passes through several hands before it reaches your conversation. Each one is identified: you know which item you’re reading, in which database, and under which license.

They produce

Studios and networks

Films come out in theaters, series on a network or a streaming service, each with its credits and its date.

They enter

Contributors

Volunteers at Wikidata, Wikipedia and TVmaze enter dates, running times, casts and episodes; every edit is kept in a history.

They publish

Wikimedia and TVmaze

Wikidata publishes its data under CC0, Wikipedia and TVmaze theirs under the CC BY-SA license, through open APIs.

Aureole

It reads

Aureole, on your Mac

Aureole looks for the film in Wikidata or the series in TVmaze, then reads the record and the Wikipedia summary. It sends only what it’s looking for: a title, a name, an ID, or criteria such as genre and year; your conversation isn’t sent to these services.

DepthWhen the open sources for film and TV began7

  1. 2001Wikipedia · starts in English
  2. 2012Wikidata · goes live, under CC0
  3. 2014TVmaze · starts, a collaborative database
  4. 2015TVmaze API · opens, under CC BY-SA
  5. 2026Today · Aureole reads all three together

05Limits

What the source doesn’t cover.

And the precautions to take before drawing conclusions.

Posters that aren’t free

On the English Wikipedia, a film poster is non-free content, allowed under fair use in US law.6 Aureole neither copies nor hosts it: your Mac loads the article’s thumbnail, like a link preview, and when there is no portrait thumbnail the record shows the title, the year and the director.

No film ratings, no platforms, no age ratings

Wikidata doesn’t publish audience ratings for films; a series carries the rating given by TVmaze users. Aureole doesn’t say which platform a film is on, or its age rating; for a series, it gives the network TVmaze lists.

What Wikidata doesn’t know

Aureole finds a film through its Wikidata item: a film without one can’t be found. A film with no Wikipedia article still has its record, with Wikidata’s description instead of a summary.

What the tool reads at once

Up to 12 actors on a film’s record; 3 sentences of the Wikipedia article for the summary.4

On as soon as it’s installedNo account, no key. Nothing to set up.
Settings→ Data sources→ News and culture

Look up a film or a series from your Mac.

Aureole is a Mac app. Download it and ask your question: it finds the film in Wikidata or the series in TVmaze, and shows you the record with a link to its page.

Download for Mac
Show the 7 sources for this noteHide the sources
  1. Wikidata Query Service, on October 19, 2026: 350,243 “film” items (Q11424, the class the tool’s film discovery goes through), 294,664 of them with a release date, counted by year of their first release date (wdt:P577), and those with an article in English. Wikidata Query Service.
  2. TVmaze, on October 19, 2026: its index of series read page by page (381 pages), 90,579 series, counted by language (2,811 with no language); and, in the Wikidata Query Service, the 38,288 items that carry a TVmaze ID (P8600). TVmaze, index of series, Wikidata Query Service.
  3. Values read at the source, the way the tool reads them: the Wikidata items Q61448040, Q220741 and Q622380 (labels in English, cast P161, running time P2047, first date P577, director P57) and, at TVmaze, the series 77558, its seasons and the episodes of its season 1. Parasite, City of God, Pather Panchali, Shaka iLembe.
  4. The 10 tools, the cast, the summary, the poster, the source page and the “Data read” footer: the code of Aureole’s Movies & TV tool (MoviesNativeToolProvider, MoviesOpenCatalog), in the edition for sale.
  5. Who publishes this data: the official pages of the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikidata, checked on October 17, 2026; those of TVmaze, checked on October 19, 2026. Wikimedia Foundation, About, Wikidata, Introduction, Wikimedia Foundation, projets, TVmaze, Copyright Policy, TVmaze, Privacy Policy, TVmaze, blog, November 23, 2020.
  6. The terms: the license of TVmaze’s API, checked on October 19, 2026; the license of Wikipedia’s texts; and the English Wikipedia’s policy on non-free content, posters included, checked on October 19, 2026. TVmaze API, Licensing, Wikipedia, Reusing content, Wikipedia: Non-free content.
  7. The timeline: Wikipedia created on January 15, 2001; Wikidata launched on October 29, 2012; TVmaze started in 2014, its API opened in 2015; today, the reading. Checked on October 19, 2026. Wikipedia: About, Wikidata, Tenth Birthday, TVmaze, blog “TV API,” April 28, 2015, Internet Archive, tvmaze.com/api on April 6, 2015.