How does IMDb decide what is and isn't a country?

Hopefully this will help, if not, re-post with more detailed explanation of the problem. http://www.imdb.com/updates/guide/cou...

Yes, have read that. Have also had a less than satisfactory interchange with IMDb's Help Desk.

Basically, I was trying to update the country of origin for some movies listed by UNESCO's "Memory of the World: National Cinematic Heritage" (PDF). The document, and thus UNESCO, lists four films on page 28 as being from The Holy See (Vatican City). After trying to figure out what I was doing wrong on the Update data form - I could not find any reference to The Holy See or Vatican City in the drop-down list for 'country of origin,' I contacted the Help Desk.

Their response is that Vatican City is not a country, it is part of Italy and we should put incorrect information into the database. I have provided them a number of high level bodies that recognize the Vatican's sovereignty but get no response. Just Vatican City "is not a country." "Thank you for understanding."

What's even funnier, IMDb lists "Holy See (Vatican City State)" on their browse by country list at http://www.imdb.com/country/ . They list entities like Jersey, Guernsey, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands (none of which can be selected as 'country of origin') but don't even include South Sudan which has been independent since 2011.

So the problem is, what criteria is IMDb using to define what is and is not a country? Their current list is problematic.

Xianjiro: I can shed a little light on this subject, but not much.

When you are trying to submit a Country of Origin for a title, the drop-down list will include only those countries that are already listed as Countries of Origin for other titles. If you need to submit a new title with a Country of Origin that is not yet listed as such, you should be able to check the box marked "Provide explanation" and explain in the explanation box that this is a film with Vatican City as its Country of Origin, but Vatican City is not yet on the drop-down list of Countries of Origin and so needs to be specially added.

If you were submitting a previously unlisted Country of Origin for a title already in the database, you would instead submit a Miscellaneous Correction, of the type "Country of Origin", to explain the situation.

That said, I am disappointed that an IMDb staffer would tell you that Vatican City is not a country but a part of Italy. Vatican City has been a sovereign and independent country since 1929.

While one may question the assignment of the film Leone XIII (1896) to the Vatican City -- since the Vatican was not an independent country at that time -- the other three films on the UNESCO list were made after the independence of the Vatican City.

(I'm not going to get into the distinction between the Holy See and the Vatican City, except to say that indeed, they are different, albeit related, entities.)

Thanks for the comments, @gromit82. Now if we can only get someone within IMDb to care.

An update. IMDb customer service has conceded the fact that Vatican City is actually independent (three months after the prior mentioned email exchange). However, the representative stated much the same thing others have stated - until we have a title, we won't add it to the database.

I replied with documentation/links to the UNESCO PDF mentioned above. I have not heard back, but prior slow response would indicate it might take a month or three for them to get around to it. Not sure how long it will take for programmers to adjust the database code after that though.

Still, there is hope!

Have managed to FINALLY get Vatican City/The Holy See recognized as a country in IMDb - it even has movies listed now! Hooray!