120 fps is an extreme form of High Frame Rate (HFR) filmmaking that captures motion with unprecedented clarity and smoothness.
Genres
Genre & Style Terms, A to Z
Discover the rich variety of movie genres and filmmaking styles that define how stories are told on screen. From classic genres like comedy, drama, and horror to stylistic categories like film noir, found footage, and surrealism, this section explores what makes each category unique. Learn how visual aesthetics, narrative tone, and audience expectations come together to shape the identity of a film.
- genre & style terms
- 330
- of the whole glossary
- 11%
- starting letters
- 26
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All 330 Genre & Style Terms
Listed alphabetically, each with its one-line answer first. This page runs from 120 fps to Cross Cutting. S is the busiest letter here, with 48 entries. Jump to a letter to see only the genre & style terms that start with it.
Genre & style terms starting with 0-9
Genre & style terms starting with A
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An action film is a genre where the narrative is primarily driven by a series of spectacular and intense physical feats, including fights, chases, and large-scale stunts.
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An action-adventure film is a genre that combines the high-stakes physical conflict of action films with the exotic locations and quest-driven narratives of adventure films.
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An adventure film is a genre that focuses on a journey to exotic or remote locations, emphasizing exploration, discovery, and the overcoming of obstacles within a grand setting.
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Images captured from above lend films geographic sweep, strategic context, and emotional altitude.
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Afrofuturism in cinema explores the intersection of the African diaspora with technology, science fiction, and imagined futures through a Black cultural lens.
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A music genre marked by its alternative approach to mainstream rock
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An animated musical is a subgenre in which the techniques of animation are used to create a film whose narrative is driven by songs.
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A Japanese animation style known for its diverse genres, distinctive art, and narrative depth.
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An anime film is a feature-length animated work originating from Japan, characterized by distinctive art styles and thematic depth.
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An anthology film, also known as an omnibus or portmanteau film, consists of several shorter, self-contained segments or stories, often linked by a common theme, setting, or framing device.
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An art film is a type of motion picture that prioritizes aesthetic expression and thematic complexity over the narrative conventions and entertainment goals of mainstream commercial cinema.
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A style of filmmaking emphasizing artistic expression over commercial appeal.
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An arthouse film is a motion picture, typically an independent or foreign-language film, intended for a niche audience and exhibited in specialized cinemas.
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The Australian New Wave was a prolific and influential film movement of the 1970s and 80s that brought Australian cinema to global prominence with its culturally specific and artistically bold storytelling.
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Auteur theory argues that a director’s personal vision can override studio machinery and imprint a film with distinctive authorship.
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Avant-garde film describes filmmaking that is radically innovative and oppositional to mainstream culture, often linked to broader artistic and political movements of the 20th century.
Genre & style terms starting with B
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A baking show is a reality television format whose distinct visual style has influenced the way food is filmed and presented in modern cinema.
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The Baltic New Wave describes the post-Soviet flourishing of auteur cinema in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, often characterized by a poetic, allegorical style used to explore themes of national identity, history, and trauma.
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Bedroom pop is a music genre characterized by its DIY aesthetic, with songs written, recorded, and produced by artists in their own homes rather than in professional studios.
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A biopic, or biographical film, is a genre that dramatizes the life of a real-life, non-fictional person or people.
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Biopunk is a science fiction subgenre that focuses on the social and psychological consequences of biotechnology, genetic engineering, and synthetic biology.
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Black comedy is a genre of film that derives humor from subjects that are typically considered serious, morbid, or taboo.
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Motion pictures captured or presented without color, using only shades of gray.
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A 1970s genre showcasing urban Black protagonists amid social upheaval and soul‑inspired soundtracks.
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Bollywood is the globally recognized name for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India, famous for its prolific output and musical masala style.
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1950s documentary-led movement championing personal, low-budget films about ordinary life.
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A buddy film is a genre that centers on the evolving relationship, often a friendship, between two main characters, typically of the same sex.
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A visual effect that simulates a frozen or slowed viewpoint moving dynamically around action.
Genre & style terms starting with C
29 of 32 on this page · all C entries
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'Campy' describes a style that delights in theatricality, exaggeration, and bad taste, often celebrating an aesthetic of 'so bad it's good' with a knowing wink.
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A caper film is a subgenre of crime film, and a lighter cousin of the heist film, that treats a robbery with a comedic, quirky, or lighthearted tone.
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A capsule wardrobe is a minimalist collection of essential, high-quality, and interchangeable clothing items, designed to maximize outfits with a minimal number of pieces.
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A catchphrase is a signature phrase associated with a character or film.
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A children's film is a movie genre specifically created and marketed for a young audience, typically those under the age of 12.
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Chillhop is a microgenre that blends elements of chill-out music, hip-hop, and jazz, closely related to the lo-fi hip-hop phenomenon.
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Cinécriture is a term coined by French director Agnès Varda to describe the comprehensive and authorial process of filmmaking, where all elements are part of a unified act of writing.
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Cinéma du look was a French film movement of the 1980s that favored spectacular visual style and spectacle over narrative or political substance.
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Cinema Novo was a radical Brazilian film movement of the 1960s defined by its political fervor and its famous motto: an idea in the head and a camera in the hand.
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The Cinema of Attractions is a theory that early films (pre-1907) were less about storytelling and more about presenting a series of visual spectacles.
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A documentary style aiming to capture truth through unobtrusive observation.
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CinemaScope is a widescreen film format introduced in the 1950s that uses anamorphic lenses to capture and project ultra‑wide images.
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Cinepoetry is a style of filmmaking that prioritizes poetic expression, using rhythm, metaphor, and symbolism over traditional narrative structure.
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While not a formal movement, 'Cinetismo Mexicano' describes a current within Mexican experimental cinema focused on kinetic energy, abstraction, and the formal properties of the moving image.
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Classical Hollywood cinema is the term for the narrative and visual style of filmmaking that became dominant in the American studio system from roughly 1917 to 1960.
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Climate fiction, or "cli-fi," is a genre of film that deals with the impacts of climate change and global warming.
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A clip show is an episode composed mainly of excerpts from previous installments.
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A tightly framed subject magnifies emotion, detail, and viewer intimacy.
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Motion pictures produced using color-sensitive film stock or digital processes to capture a full spectrum of hues.
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A comedy film is a broad genre of film whose primary goal is to elicit laughter and amusement from the audience through humor.
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A comedy roast is a performance or event where an individual is honored by being subjected to a series of insulting yet humorous jokes from their peers.
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A comedy-drama is a film genre that deliberately blends comedic and dramatic elements, using humor to explore serious subject matter.
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A coming-of-age film is a genre that focuses on a protagonist's transition from youth to adulthood, exploring their psychological and moral growth.
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Lavish wardrobe and period sets foreground social rituals, romance, and class tension.
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A courtroom comedy is a film subgenre that uses the formal, high-stakes setting of a legal trial as a backdrop for humorous situations and characters.
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A cover song is a new performance or recording of a previously released song by an artist other than the original composer or performer.
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A genre showcasing monsters or animals as central antagonists, emphasizing horror and spectacle.
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A crime thriller merges suspenseful pacing with criminal narratives to explore illicit worlds.
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Interweaving actions in separate locations builds suspense, contrast, or thematic resonance.
Other categories
The Other Seven Categories
The rest of the glossary, each with its own A to Z index: filmmaking craft, characters and tropes, storytelling, industry and awards, pop culture and fandom, general terms, and the odd ones out.
