The Public Domain Catalog!

Festival Films has been in business for over 30 years and has thousands of public domain films and TV shows available for purchase. The many uses of public domain titles are explained on the Home Page. Click on the Cafe Roxy Sign for "Variety Programs" of public domain films.

You may download a PDF Catalog of the most popular public domain films and TV shows. This is a good place to begin browsing by genre. The lists below contain both popular, familiar titles plus more obscure films that are not in the PDF catalog.

Feature Films in the public domain

Best of the Best!

Special Subjects

Classic Television Series in the public domain.

Public Domain TV shows are listed by episode titles and grouped in volumes that we sell on DVD-R.

Formats

Beta-SP, Beta-Digi, DVCam, Hard Drive and other high-range masters are available for those specialized users who demand top quality, for instance to master commercial DVDs or for national TV broadcast. Please inquire about prices for these formats.

DVD-R

All titles in the Public Domain Catalog (above) are also available on top-quality, economical DVD-R format. Many TV stations use DVD-R for their broadcasts. DVD-R also works well for online streaming. We supply Cafe Roxy Programs on DVD-R because most movie theaters and other venues have DVD projection or large screen TVs in place.

DVD-R Prices start at $30 for a feature film, 4 half-hour TV shows or a Cafe Roxy program, with discounts for volume purchases. DVDs come with a statement as to why each film or films are in the public domain. A free DVD sampler disc is available on request.

Quality Guarantee!

Whenever possible the videos have been transferred from 35mm film for maximum quality. Some serials and TV shows were transferred from 16mm originals. These are often the same masters broadcast by TCM and other cable channels who show older classics, and in some cases our masters are better quality.

Quality is guaranteed. Any film found to be inferior may be exchanged for another title. Some films because of their age or rarity are simply not available in perfect condition. Whenever better material turns up, we upgrade our masters. There are no company logos or watermarks over the picture, and none of those scary FBI Warnings that do not apply to public domain films.

Definitely Public Domain

The PD Catalog contains mostly American films made before 1964. These carefully researched films have been considered to be in the public domain in the USA for many years. Why is a film in the public domain? Study all about it in this Copyright Discussion. Briefly, films fall into the public domain because they were never properly registered with the Library of Congress in the first place or were not renewed as required by the prevailing copyright laws at the time.

Each film comes with a specific statement as to why it is in the public domain!

So no royalties and no fears. Public Domain Films may be broadcast on cable TV, on the Internet, duplicated freely, sold on DVD, used for stock footage in various projects and shown to audiences everywhere!