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Film Categories |
(See examples below.) |
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Film Categories (represented by icons) |
Other Major Film Categories |
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 Animations
are not
a strictly-defined genre category, but rather a film technique or
medium, although they often contain genre-like elements. This section
presents an historical overview of these kinds of films, noted for
frame-by-frame creation. Also includes the following animation types:
traditional hand-drawn, rotoscoping (stylized animation by
tracing over live-action footage), stop-motion puppetry (including claymation (use
of clay objects) or cut-outs), combined live-action and animation (e.g., Who
Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)),
anime (a style of animation with its roots in Japanese comic
books, usually adult-oriented sci-fi and fantasy) or more recently
2D and 3D CGI (computer-generated animation). See Pixar-Disney
Animations in-depth information. Animated
films are often considered kids
or family-oriented films, although they may be enjoyed
by all ages. See also Film Milestones
in Visual and Special Effects. |
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 A short section designed
as a tribute to various memorable British (UK Films) with a link
to the 100 Favorite British Films of the 20th Century. |
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 These are non-offensive,
wholesome, and entertaining films (usually rated G for 'suitable
for general audiences') that do not include topics or scenes with
violence, foul language and other profanity, religious issues, gratuitous
sexuality and so on, and are specifically designed for children
12 and under (or for family viewing). Children's and family-oriented
films may actually be suitable for all age groups, and cover a wide
range of genre categories (comedy,
adventure, fantasy,
musicals, etc.). Classic
films from Hollywood's 'Golden Era' may be very appropriate
for this type of film audience. See a listing of 100
Recommended Children's Movies. |
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 This 'classic films' category,
not a film genre, identifies many films from Hollywood's
distinguished Golden Era and other 'classics' that have held up
over time. |
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 Not a specific
genre in itself, since cult films can be science fiction, horror,
etc. Cult films have limited but special appeal, and are usually
strange, quirky, offbeat, eccentric, oddball, or surreal, with outrageous
and cartoony characters or plots, garish sets - and often considered
controversial. Includes various camp films, B-movies (low-budget,
with little-known actors and rough scripts), or other trashy or
sleazy selections. Also included in this section is the listing
of Entertainment Weekly's choices for Top
50 Cult Movies. |
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 Strictly speaking, documentary
films are non-fictional, factual works of art. Originally, the earliest
documentaries were either short newsreels, instructional pictures,
or travelogues (termed actualities) without any creative
story-telling or staging. But they have branched out and taken many
forms, and have sometimes become propagandistic and non-objective.
Mockumentaries are comedic parodies of documentaries. Some documentaries
have been considered propagandistic. |
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 One of the earliest forms
of film that originated during the silent era and lasted to the
1950s, often episodic in form, that were shown over a period of
weeks or years. Included attractive heroines, action heroes, comic-book
characters, western figures, and villains in melodramatic sequences
that often ended with a cliffhanger. |
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 A hybrid category
of sexual/erotic films that focus on themes with either suggestive,
erotic or sensual scenes or subjects, sometimes with depictions
of human nudity and lovemaking, but not always of an extremely
explicit, gratuitous or pornographic nature. A mini-history
of Sex in Cinema
is included in this category. This category may include films often
directed at teen audiences, with gross-out sexual subjects. Also
see this site's History of Sex
in Cinema: Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and
Scenes, 50
Sexiest Films of All-Time, and Sexy
Hollywood Bombshells. |
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 Films that have no synchronized
soundtrack and no spoken dialogue, until the dawn of the talkies
in the late 1920s. Films without dialogue featured titles for dialogue
segments, and often were accompanied by live music. For additional
information on the silent era, see Film History sections:
the Pre-20s and the Decade
of the 1920s. |
Other Major Film Categories: There are many other (non-genre) film categories that cross-over many