Recent artiles have looked at US Cinema Poster sizes and UK poster sizes and formats. With this article, we will close the loop by examining some notable posters from other countries with a rich history in producing cinema posters. We begin in Europe then travel east to look at some wonderful examples of Japanese film posters.
Italian Cinema Posters
Italian films have won many foreign language Oscars and Palme D’Or’s and this country has had a major influence on cinema since the advent of film-making. Its independence from Holywood is also reflected in the fact it prints its own cinema posters.
The image featured at the top of the page shows the 4 main Italian cinema poster formats.
Italian Locandina (13 x 28 inches)
An example poster for the film 8 1/2 can be seen on the top left of the image. Similar to US window cards, these posters often had a blank area at the top to write the details of the cinema and showtimes.
Italian Photobusta (27 x 19 inches)
Similar to Lobby Cards and Front of House cards, Photobustas were produced in sets of 8 to 10 and showed different scenes from a film. A photobusta with a scene from Dr Strangelove can be seen on the bottom left.
Italian 2 Foglio (39 x 55 inches) and Italian 4 Foglio (55 x 78 inches)
The Foglio’s really gave Italian poster artists the opportunity to show their incredible skills. Posters for Italian releases of British and American films would generally have used completely different artwork than that used in the country of origin. Two incredible poster both for very Italian film productions can be seen in the image. In the centre is a poster for a documentary about the Italian F1 Driver Fangio – ‘Fangio: Una vita a 300 all’ora’. On the right is a 4 Foglio for what is considered to be Fellinis masterpiece La Dolce Vita. Both images are highly coveted.
French Cinema Posters
France has a wide range of cinema posters and lobby cards. We look at 3 of the most common french posters – The French petite, French Moyenne, and the French Grande (small, medium and large).
French Petite poster (16 x 24 inches) & French Affiche Moyen (31.5 x 23.5 inches)
The petite generally come with a single fold while the Affiche Moyenne comes with 2 folds. It is always worth measuring these posters carefully before ordering a frame as the size can vary. An Apocalyse Now petite poster and moyen poster for Zulu can be seen in the image above.
French Grande Poster (47 x 63 inches)
The standard French cinema poster size is the French Grande. Modern Grande posters for US films tend to use the same artwork as the US one sheet posters. Prior to the 80’s many French cinema posters produced independent artwork for foreign film posters. The Amelie poster in the picture is of course a French Grande.
Polish, German and Spanish Posters
Poland produced a rich body of cinema art while part of the Eastern Bloc between 1950 and 1980. Posters from this time were one of few ways for artists to defy the authoritarian communist regime. The posters were printed on A1 format which is 23 x 32 inches. The Midnight Cowboy poster on the left of the image below is a Polish A1 poster. The standard German poster is also A1, and measures 23 x 32 inches. The standard Spanish poster is a One-Sheet poster, albeit one that is shorter than the US One Sheet as it measures 27 x 39 inches.
Japanese Cinema Posters
Japan has produced an incredible range of cinema posters in styles that are often very different to those produced for Western cinemas. The following styles can be seen below –
Chirashi (10 x 7 inches)
Around the size of a flyer, these images are often printed with information on the back
B0 Poster (20 ¼ x 28 ¾ Inches)
Many B0 posters can be found on the Cinema Poster Gallery website. It is very much the standard Japanese Cinema poster size with dimensions of 500 x 707 mm.
B1 Poster (40 1/2 x 28 ¾ Inches)
Double the size of a B0 poster and similar in dimensions to the UK and US One Sheet poster.
STB Tatekan poster (58 x 20 ¼ Inches)
Tatekan translates to standing signboard. These portrait style posters are relatively rare and some titles such as the Thunderball poster below always command a lot of interest.
B0 Poster (58 x 40.5 inches)
The largest of Japanese Cinema posters. A rare Apocalypse Now poster can be seen on the right below.
The two main styles of cinema poster used in Australia and New Zealand are a One Sheet, similar in size to the US One Sheet poster, and a daybill poster. Standard dimensions for a daybill poster are 13 x 30 inches.
We hope this series of articles has helped to demystify different poster sizes and the countries they come from. As always do reach out with any questions you might have. We are always happy to help.
