Movies Word Search

About this puzzle

This puzzle is about how movies get made and how we enjoy them, not any single film. Half the words come from behind the scenes, like the director, the screenplay, the storyboard, the clapperboard, and the green screen. The rest come from the theater seats: tickets, popcorn, trailers, the premiere, and the credits that roll at the end. It is a neat way to learn the vocabulary of filmmaking.

This movies word search is a good pick for a family movie night, a media arts class, or a summer camp film week where kids make their own short videos. Younger players can start on easy mode, and film buffs can try hard. After solving, ask everyone to pick one word and explain what that job or tool does on a real movie set. Each word has a short note below to help.

The 31 words in this puzzle

Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.

In every version (12)

Actor

A performer who plays a character on screen. In animated films, actors record their voices in a sound booth instead of performing on camera.

Animation

A way of making movies by showing many drawings, models, or computer images in quick order so they appear to move. Hand-drawn, stop-motion, and computer animation are all types.

Camera

The tool that records the images of a movie. Early film cameras were cranked by hand, while many modern movies are shot with digital cameras.

Cartoon

A cartoon is a drawn or animated film, often short and funny. Theaters once showed a cartoon before the main feature, which is how many famous characters first became stars.

Credits

The list of names that rolls at the end of a movie, honoring everyone who worked on it. Some films hide a bonus scene after the credits.

Director

The person who guides the creative vision of a movie. Directors work with actors, camera crews, and editors to decide how each scene looks and feels.

Hero

The hero is the main good character who faces a problem and works to solve it. Many movies follow a hero on a journey that changes them by the end.

Popcorn

The classic movie theater snack. It became popular in theaters during the Great Depression because it was cheap to make and fun to eat.

Sequel

A movie that continues the story of an earlier film. A prequel tells what happened before the first movie instead.

Theater

A movie theater shows films on a giant screen with powerful speakers. Theaters with several screens under one roof are often called multiplexes.

Ticket

The pass that lets a moviegoer into a showing. Many theaters now offer digital tickets scanned from a phone, along with classic paper stubs.

Trailer

A short preview that shows clips from a movie before it comes out. Trailers got their name because they were first shown after the main feature.

Added in Medium and Hard (8)

Close Up

A camera shot that shows something up close, often an actor's face. Close-ups help the audience notice feelings and small details.

Costume

A costume designer plans everything the actors wear. Costumes help show when and where a story takes place and tell the audience a lot about each character.

Matinee

A movie or show held in the afternoon. The word comes from the French word for morning, and matinees often cost less than evening shows.

Premiere

The first public showing of a new movie, often a big event with the cast and crew. It comes from the French word for first.

Producer

A person who helps a movie get made by finding money, hiring the team, and keeping the project on schedule and on budget.

Soundtrack

The music that plays during a movie, including songs and the background score. Many soundtracks are released as albums for fans to enjoy at home.

Stunt Double

A trained performer who stands in for an actor during risky scenes, such as falls, jumps, and car chases, so the action can be filmed safely.

Villain

The villain is the character who causes trouble for the hero. A memorable villain gives a story its challenge, and some actors become famous for playing them.

Added in Hard (11)

Blockbuster

A blockbuster is a hugely popular movie that sells a huge number of tickets. Jaws, released in 1975, is often called the first summer blockbuster.

Box Office

The box office is the window where tickets are sold. The phrase also means how much money a movie earns from ticket sales, as in a box office hit.

Casting

Casting is the process of choosing actors for each role. A casting director holds auditions, where actors read lines or act out a scene for the filmmakers.

Clapperboard

A small board with a hinged stick that snaps shut at the start of a take. The clap helps editors match the sound with the picture.

Documentary

A documentary is a nonfiction film about real people, places, or events. Nature documentaries about animals, oceans, and wild places are some of the most popular kinds.

Editor

The film editor chooses the best takes and puts the shots in order. Editing sets the pace of a movie, and many filmed scenes are trimmed or cut entirely.

Green Screen

A bright green backdrop that editors can replace with any background. It lets actors appear to fly, visit space, or stand in imaginary worlds.

Oscar

Oscar is the nickname for the Academy Award, a gold statuette given each year for achievements in film. The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929.

Screenplay

The written script of a movie, with dialogue, actions, and scene descriptions. The person who writes it is called a screenwriter.

Storyboard

A series of drawings, like a comic strip, that shows how each shot in a scene will look. Animated films rely on storyboards to plan every moment.

Subtitles

Words shown at the bottom of the screen that translate dialogue from another language or help viewers follow along with the sound off.

A few facts to share while you solve

• In 1895, the Lumière brothers held one of the first public movie screenings for a paying audience in Paris.
• The Jazz Singer, released in 1927, was the first feature-length movie with synchronized spoken dialogue, which helped end the era of silent films.
• Toy Story, released in 1995, was the first feature-length movie made entirely with computer animation.

Four versions of this puzzle

Pick a version with the buttons above the grid. Each one has its own grid and answer key, and your progress on each is saved separately in this browser.

Hard and large print versions

Hard movies word search: all 31 words on a 18 × 18 grid, hidden forward, backward, up, down and along both diagonals, with filler letters borrowed from the word list. Print it without the word list for an extra challenge. Play the hard version, or see all hard word searches.

Large print movies word search: the 12 most familiar words on a 11 × 11 grid, printed with big letters and a big word list, and no backwards words. Play the large print version, or see all large print word searches.

Printing this word search

Press Print / PDF above the puzzle. You get a clean one-page sheet with the title, the grid, a word list with tick boxes, and optional name and date lines. The answer key prints on a second page. Prefer a file? Download it as a PDF or an image to print later or drop into a worksheet. Whatever version is showing on screen is the one that prints, and the large print version prints with bigger letters.

How to play online

1. Find a word from the list in the grid. Scanning for its first letter is the quickest way.
2. Drag across the word from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
3. Found words get highlighted and crossed off. Stuck? Hint circles the first letter of a word you haven’t found.

Read the full guide to solving word searches, with tips that make big grids much faster.