This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for forming a film, which are suitable for forming a film of a semiconductor, dielectric, metal, insulator, or organic substance. In order to form a film of high purity and quality at high speed, a particle beam such as an ion beam, an electron beam, or a plasma is applied to a sputtering target comprising a substance formed by bonding atoms or molecules with either van der Waals forces or hydrogen bonding forces, the particles are sputtered thereby from the target, fly in the space in the vacuum chamber, reach the substrate on which they are deposited to form a desired film. To form an organic film free of pinholes, impurities, or disorder in the molecular composition and arrangement in a large area at high speed, a particle beam of about 10 eV or less is applied to the target comprising an organic compound disposed in a vacuum, the particle beam having a level of energy as high as can break the molecular crystalline bonds and not high enough to break the nonmolecular crystalline bonds, out of the molecular crystalline bonds by van der Waals forces connecting the atoms constituting the organic compound and the nonmolecular crystalline bonds by covalent bonds, for example, other than van der Waals forces, and the sputtered particles from the target are deposited on the substrate facing the target to form a desired film of an organic compound.