Censorship of film

Censorship of film is the restriction, alteration, or suppression of motion pictures by governments, regulators, or other authorities. It can occur before release or after exhibition.

Film censorship board: An authority that reviews films and may classify, edit, or prohibit their exhibition. Such boards turn censorship into an administrative process with powers set by law.
Hays Code: A set of Hollywood production rules governing film content from the 1930s to the late 1960s. The code shows how an industry adopted a censorship system under pressure from regulators and public campaigns.
Battleship Potemkin: Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Soviet silent film, noted for its revolutionary subject and montage editing. Its prohibition in several countries shows how authorities targeted films for political meaning.
Motion Picture Association film rating system: A voluntary United States system that assigns films age-based ratings such as PG-13 and R. Its ratings restrict access by age rather than requiring the state to cut or prohibit a film.
Film classification: The assignment of age-based or content-based ratings to guide or restrict access to films. Classification regulates audiences without necessarily requiring a film to be altered or banned.
Motion Picture Production Code: A code of conduct that governed content in American motion pictures from 1930 until its replacement in 1968. Its enforcement made content restrictions part of mainstream Hollywood production.
The Birth of a Nation: D. W. Griffith’s 1915 American epic, criticized for racist depictions and celebrated for influential film techniques. Protests and local restrictions around its screenings exposed conflict over racist content and public exhibition.
Voluntary self-regulation: The practice of an industry setting and enforcing standards without direct government control. Industry codes can limit content while avoiding formal state censorship.
Prior restraint: Government restriction of expression before it is published or publicly presented. Advance approval of films is a direct form of prior restraint.
Comstock laws: Nineteenth-century United States laws that criminalized the mailing of materials deemed obscene. Older obscenity laws supplied legal precedents for restricting films on moral grounds.

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