In anime listings, a film (or movie) is a theatrical feature: a single work made for cinema release rather than a broadcast episode or direct-to-video release. Anime films include original features, sequels to series, compilations, and franchise events.
Theatrical anime splits into a few standard kinds. There are compilation films that retell a television arc with new polish, sequel films that continue a series in canon, original films with no series at all, and franchise films designed as events, with the biggest modern examples setting national box-office records. Which kind a film is matters more than its running time.
The canon question follows the type. An original film is simply itself. A sequel film may be the only place a story continues, making it required canon. A compilation is a retelling, authoritative for its images and usually not for its facts. Franchise films in long-running series are historically original stories outside the manga's line, though author involvement varies and is stated per series.
This site treats film status as part of a subject's canon sheet, printed wherever a quiz touches a film. Box-office and release facts are always date-anchored, because records are the kind of fact that a bigger opening weekend quietly rewrites. Premiere dates cluster deliberately: franchise films anchor holiday weeks and summer breaks, and a film's release slot is part of its marketing identity in Japan's crowded theatrical calendar.
In use"A two-hour continuation of a finished television series, released in cinemas, is a film, and its canon status is a separate question."