Dubbing is the process of adding to or replacing the recorded audio of a film or video during post-production. Dubbing commonly refers more narrowly to the process of replacing dialog, especially with a translation synchronized to the film's visuals.
Dubbing is also used to replace unclear dialogue, change lines, or add dialogue from characters off screen. When this is the case, it may be referred to as automated dialogue replacement or sometimes additional dialogue replacement (ADR).
History In many countries, dubbing was adopted at least in part for political reasons. In authoritarian states such as Fascist Italy and Francoist Spain, dubbing could be used to enforce particular ideological agendas, excising negative references to the nation and its leaders and promoting standardized national languages at the expense of local dialects and minority languages. In post-Nazi Germany, dubbing was used to downplay events in the country's recent past, as in the case of the dub of Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, where the Nazi organization upon which the film's plot centers was changed to a drug smuggling enterprise. The first post-WWII movie dub was Konstantin Zaslonov (1949) dubbed from Russian into the Czech language.
In Western Europe after World War II, dubbing was attractive to many film producers as it helped to enable co-production between companies in different countries, in turn allowing them to pool resources and benefit from financial support from multiple governments. The use of dubbing meant that multi-national casts could be assembled and were able to use their preferred language for their performances, with appropriate post-production dubs being carried out before distributing versions of the film.
Methods
ADR
Automated dialogue replacement (ADR)is the process of re-recording dialogue by the original actor (or a replacement actor) in a sound booth after the filming process to improve audio quality (for example, if the microphones from on-set picked up ambient noise such as strong wind or passing traffic) or make changes to the initially scripted dialog.
In the early days of talkies, a loop of film would be cut and spliced together for each of the scenes that needed to be re-recorded, and then the loops would be loaded onto a projector one by one. For each scene, the loop would be played repeatedly while the voice actor performed the lines, trying to synchronize them to the filmed performance. This was known as "looping" or a "looping session". Loading and reloading the film loops while the talent and recording crew stood by was tedious. Later, videotape and then digital technology replaced the film loops, and the process became known as automated dialogue replacement (ADR).
In conventional film production, a production sound mixer records dialogue during filming. During post-production, a supervising sound editor, or ADR supervisor, reviews all of the dialogue in the film and decides which lines must be re-recorded. ADR is recorded during an ADR session, which takes place in a specialized sound studio. Multiple takes are recorded, and the most suitable take becomes the final version, or portions of various takes may be edited together.
the process includes various automated techniques, such as automatically displaying lines on-screen for the talent, automated cues, shifting the audio track for accurate synchronization, and time-fitting algorithms for stretching or compressing portions of a spoken line. There is software that can sort out spoken words from ambient sounds in the original filmed soundtrack, detect the peaks of the dialog, and automatically time-fit the new dubbed performance to the original to create accurate synchronization.
Artificial intelligence In recent years speech synthesis programs and artificial intelligence have been used to artificially automatically dub content. In September 2025 YouTube officially launched an optional multi-language audio-dubbing feature following a two-year-long pilot program. Amazon Prime Video has tested AI-generated dubs in March 2025 and has released AI-dub versions of content such as English dubs of the Banana Fish anime and the Portuguese language show O Silêncio de Marcos Tremmer, though they have been criticized for their overall quality and potential job impact on voice actors. Development of the technology to be able to auto-dub live events has also taken place, though auto-dubs for live events are not currently widely in use.
A related but distinct approach, known as visual dubbing, uses machine learning to modify an actor's on-screen lip and facial movements in post-production to match dubbed target-language audio, rather than replacing the performer's voice. Early models such as Wav2Lip (2020) demonstrated that accurate lip synchronisation could be generated from arbitrary audio and video inputs across any speaker identity or language. The 2023 SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical contract permits adjusting lip and facial movements to match a foreign language as part of standard dubbing practices, without requiring additional performer consent, provided human voice actors perform the dubbed audio.
Global use
Localization Localization is the practice of adapting a film or television series from one region of the world for another. In contrast to pure translation, localization encompasses adapting the content to suit the target audience. For example, culture-specific references may be replaced, and footage may be removed or added.
The new voice track is usually spoken by a voice actor (VA). In many countries, actors who regularly perform this duty remain little-known, with the exception of particular circles (such as Seiyuu the anime fandom) or when their voices have become synonymous with roles or actors whose voices they usually dub. In the United States, many of these voice artists may employ pseudonyms or go uncredited due to Screen Actors Guild (SAG) regulations or the desire to dissociate themselves from the role.
Dialogue writing
The dialogue writer's role is to make the translation sound natural in the target language, and to make the translation sound like a credible dialogue instead of merely a translated text.Chaume, F. (2013). Research paths in audiovisual translation: The case of dubbing. In The Routledge handbook of translation studies (pp. 306-320). Routledge.
Africa North Africa, Western Asia In Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, most foreign movies (especially Hollywood productions) are shown dubbed in French. These movies are usually imported directly from French film distributors. The choice of movies dubbed into French can be explained by the widespread use of the French language. Another important factor is that local theaters and private media companies do not dub in local languages in order to avoid high costs, but also because of the lack of both expertise and demand.
Beginning in the 1980s, dubbed series and movies for children in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) became a popular choice among most TV channels, cinemas and VHS/DVD stores. However, dubbed films are still imported, and dubbing is still performed in the Levant countries with a strong tradition of dubbing (mainly Syria and Jordan). Egypt was the first Arab country in charge of dubbing Disney movies in 1975 and used to do it exclusively in Egyptian Arabic rather than Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) until 2011, and since then many other companies started dubbing their productions in this dialect. Beginning with Encanto, Disney movies are now dubbed in both dialects.
In the Arabic-speaking countries, children's shows (mainly cartoons and kids sitcoms) are dubbed in Arabic, or Arabic subtitles are used. The only exception was telenovelas dubbed in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), or dialects, but also Turkish series, most notably Gümüş, in Syrian Arabic.
South Africa In South Africa, many television programs were dubbed in Afrikaans, with the original soundtrack (usually in English, but sometimes Dutch or German) "simulcast" in FM stereo on Radio 2000.The voice, the vision: a sixty year history of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Malcolm Theunissen, Victor Nikitin, Melanie Pillay, Advent Graphics, 1996, page 120 These included US series such as The Six Million Dollar Man (Steve Austin: Die Man van Staal),The Six Million Dollar Man, TVSA - The South African TV AuthorityKaapse bibliotekaris, Volume 26, Library Service, 1982, page 14 Miami Vice (Misdaad in Miami), Beverly Hills 90210,The critics' thumbs-up, Mail & Guardian, 9 February 1996 and the German detective series Derrick.
As a result of the boycott by the British actors' union Equity, which banned the sale of most British television programs, the puppet series The Adventures of Rupert Bear was dubbed into South African English, as the original voices had been recorded by Equity voice artists.
This practice has declined as a result of the reduction of airtime for the language on SABC TV, and the increase of locally produced material in Afrikaans on other channels like KykNet. Similarly, many programs, such as The Jeffersons, were dubbed into Zulu, but this has also declined as local drama production has increased. However, some animated films, such as Maya the Bee, have been dubbed in both Afrikaans and Zulu by local artists.Maya the Bee flick dubbed into Afrikaans and Zulu for SA audience, Channel24, 18 September 2015 In 2018, eExtra began showing the Turkish drama series Paramparça dubbed in Afrikaans as Gebroke Harte or "Broken Hearts", the first foreign drama to be dubbed in the language for twenty years.eExtra's brand new 'KuierTyd' premieres soon , Nextv News, 1 October 2018
Angola and Mozambique
In Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa, mainly Angola and Mozambique, the satellite TV channel Zap Novelas screens dramas from various countries, including Mexico and Turkey, dubbed in Portuguese by studios in Brazil.Inédita no Brasil, nova novela de Angelique Boyer estreia na África com dublagem paulista, Observatório da TV, 20. Februar 2019
Uganda Uganda's own film industry is fairly small, and foreign movies are commonly watched. The English soundtrack is often accompanied by the Luganda translation and comments, provided by a Ugandan "video jockey" (VJ). VJ's interpreting and narration may be available in a recorded form or live.
Asia
Azerbaijan Before 2006, most foreign movies and TV shows in Azerbaijan were shown in Russian dubbing, especially in cinemas and on TV channels. However, AzTV usually aired foreign content with full Azerbaijani dubbing.
In 2006, a law was introduced requiring all foreign content on TV channels to be dubbed or voice-overed in Azerbaijani. Following this, most channels switched to Azerbaijani voice-over to follow the new rules.Survey: TV channels are prepared to broadcast films only in Azerbaijani — APA, 02 May 2007
In 2011, a similar law was passed for cinemas. But it didn't have much effect due to the local dubbing industry not being well developed yet.Kinoteatrlarda tətbiq olunan dublyaj və subtitrlər hansı problemlərə səbəb olur? - ARAŞDIRMA - VİDEO — Report.az, 6 sentyabr 2016
In 2017, the local streaming platform TVSeans began streaming movies and shows with full Azerbaijani dubbing, mainly done by Balans Studio. While full dubs became more common on TV and streaming, home media releases with full dubs remained limited.
China