The following
outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to film:
''
Film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
'' refers to motion pictures as individual projects and to the field in general. The name came from the fact that
photographic film
Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine ...
(also called
filmstock) has historically been the primary
medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
* Medium bomber, a class of war plane
* Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium ...
for recording and displaying motion pictures.
What ''type'' of thing is film?
Film can be described as all of the following:
*
Art – aesthetic expression for presentation or performance, and the work produced from this activity.
** One of
the arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...
– as an art form, film is an outlet of human expression, that is usually influenced by culture and which in turn helps to change culture. Film is a physical manifestation of the internal human creative impulse.
*** One of the
visual arts – visual arts is a class of art forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking and others, that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature.
*** One of the
performing arts – art forms in which artists use their body, voice, or objects to convey artistic expression. Performing arts include a variety of disciplines but all take the form of a
performance
A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Management science
In the work place ...
in front of an audience.
***
Fine art
In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...
– in Western European academic traditions, fine art is art developed primarily for aesthetics, distinguishing it from applied art that also has to serve some practical function. The word "fine" here does not so much denote the quality of the artwork in question, but the purity of the discipline according to traditional Western European canons.
*
Show business – a means of providing employment for
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...
s,
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
s,
artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
s and
technicians, regardless of whether the finished film was produced as a
for-profit enterprise or as a
not-for-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
public service.
Other names for film
* Movies
* Motion pictures
* Talking pictures
* Pictures
* Celluloid
* Flicks (or flickers)
* Photoplays
* Picture shows
* The cinema
* The silver screen (talkie era); the silver sheet (silent era)
* Videos
Essence of film
*
Filmmaking
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, cast ...
– process of making a film. Filmmaking involves a number of discrete stages including an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and exhibition. Filmmaking is both an art and an industry. That is why they call it "show business". It's a show and a business. Films were originally recorded onto nitrate film stock which was highly flammable.
After the late 1950s, plastic film was used which was shown through a movie projector onto a large screen (in other words, an analog recording process). The adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the entire process of production, distribution, and exhibition from start to finish.
Cinematic genres
Film genre
By setting
*
Biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
- portrays a real-life character in his or her real-life story
*
Crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...
- places its character within realm of criminal activity
*
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
- films set in imaginary worlds, often with a
swords and sorcery theme
*
Film noir - portrays its principal characters in a
nihilistic
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Iva ...
and
existentialist realm or manner
*
Historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
- taking place in the past
*
Science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
- placement of characters in an
alternative reality, typically in the
future or in
outer space
Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...
*
Sports
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
- sporting events and locations pertaining to a given sport
*
War - battlefields and locations pertaining to a time of war
*
Westerns - colonial period to modern era of the western United States
By mood
*
Action - generally involves a moral interplay between "good" and "bad" played out through violence or physical force
*
Adventure - involving danger, risk, and/or chance, often with a high degree of fantasy
*
Comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
- intended to provoke laughter
*
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
- mainly focuses on character development
*
Erotic - sexuality or eroticism and sex acts, including love scenes
*
Horror - intended to provoke fear in audience
*
Mystery - the progression from the unknown to the known by discovering and solving a series of clues
*
Romance - dwelling on the elements of
romantic love
Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions.
The ''Wiley Blackwell Encyc ...
*
Thriller
Thriller may refer to:
* Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television
** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre
Comics
* ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...
s - intended to provoke excitement and/or nervous tension into audience
By format
*
Biographical - a ''biopic'' is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person, with varying degrees of basis in fact
*
Documentary - a factual following of an event or person to gain an understanding of a particular point or issue
*
Experimental (''
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...
'') - created to test audience reaction or to expand the boundaries of film production/story exposition then generally at play
*
Musical - a film interspersed with singing by all or some of the characters
*
Silent - a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue
By production type
*
Live action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...
- film using actors
*
Animation
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
- illusion of motion by consecutive display of static images which have been created by hand or on a computer
*
Television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
- a film that is produced for and originally distributed by a television network
By length
*
Short - may strive to contain many of the elements of a "full-length" feature, in a shorter time-frame
*
Serial - similar to shorts, but forms a constant story arc
*
Feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
- film that is "full-length"
By age
*
Children's film - films for young children; as opposed to a
family film, no special effort is made to make the film attractive for other audiences
*
Family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
- intended to be attractive for people of all ages and suitable for viewing by a young audience; examples of these are Disney films
*
Teen film - intended for and aimed towards teens although some teen films, such as the ''
High School Musical
''High School Musical'' is a 2006 American musical television film directed by Kenny Ortega and written by Peter Barsocchini. The 63rd Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) and first installment of the ''High School Musical'' film series, ...
'' series; may also be a family film; not all of these films are suitable for all teens, as some are rated R
*
Adult film - intended to be viewed only by an adult audience, content may include violence, disturbing themes, obscene language, or explicit sexual behaviour. This includes various forms of
exploitation films. ''Adult film'' may also be used as a synonym for
pornographic film
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotic ...
.
Cinema by region
History of film
History of film
The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art, visual art form created using history of film technology, film technologies that began in the late 19th century.
The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. ...
*
Block booking
*
Camera obscura
*
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...
*
Intertitle – prior to the days of sound film, intertitles (cards with text inserted into the scene) represented dialogue or descriptive/narrative material
*
Magic lantern
*
Motion Picture Patents Company
*
Phantasmagoria
*
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
*
Zoetrope
A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...
– one of several pre-film animation devices which produced the illusion of movement, most popular in the mid- to late 1800s
General film concepts
Film theory
*
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
– an American awards show hosted by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences which recognizes excellence in cinematic achievement, as voted for by the Academy itself. The statuettes handed out to winners are nicknamed "Oscars".
*
Actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...
*
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Lead ...
*
B movie
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...
*
Film directing
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pro ...
*
Film editing
*
Film studio
*
Movie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras. Mod ...
*
Cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
*
Set construction
*
Sound stage
Film formats
*
List of film formats
Films
*
List of films by title:
#,
A,
B,
C,
D,
E,
F,
G,
H,
I,
J-K,
L,
M,
N-O,
P,
Q-R,
S,
T,
U-V-W, &
X-Y-Z
*
List of years in film
Films by genre
*
List of action films
*
List of adventure films
*
List of animated feature-length films
*
List of biographical films
This is a list of biographical films.
Before 1950
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
, '' The Final Game''
, , Manuel Estiarte
, , Álvaro Cervantes
, -
, , Pedro García Aguado
, , Jaime Lorente
, -
, , ''Major ...
*
List of cinematic genres
*
List of comedy films
*
List of comedy-drama films
*
List of crime films
*
List of drama films
List of drama films is a chronological listing of films in the drama genre.
* List of drama films of the 1900s
* List of drama films of the 1910s
* List of drama films of the 1920s
* List of drama films of the 1930s
* List of drama films of the 1 ...
*
List of disaster films
This list of disaster films represents over half a century of films within the genre. Disaster films are motion pictures which depict an impending or ongoing disaster as a central plot feature. The films typically feature large casts and multiple ...
*
List of fantasy films
List of fantasy films is a chronological listing of films in the fantasy film, fantasy genre. Fantasy television programs, including made for TV movies and miniseries, should be listed at List of fantasy television programs.
Fantasy films are fi ...
*
List of films featuring extraterrestrials
*
List of films noir
*
List of gangster movies
*
List of historical drama films
*
List of horror films
This is a list of lists of horror films. Often there may be considerable overlap particularly between horror and other genres (including action, thriller, and science fiction films).
By decade
* List of horror films of the 1890s
* List of horror ...
*
List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films
*
List of mystery films
A mystery film is a genre of film revolving around the solution to a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of a protagonist to solve the mystery by means of clues, investigation, and deduction.
This is a list of mystery films by decade.
...
*
List of punk movies
*
List of racism-related movies
*
Lists of science fiction films
Science fiction films
This is a list of science fiction films organized chronologically. These films have been released to a cinema audience by the commercial film industry and are widely distributed with reviews by reputable
critics. (The excepti ...
*
List of sports films
*
List of thriller films
*
List of war films
*
List of Western films
This is a list of notable Western films and TV series, ordered by year and decade of release. For a long-running TV series, the year is its first in production.
The movie industry began with the work of Louis Le Prince in 1888. Until 1903, ...
Films by origin
*
List of films by region and country of origin
Films by setting location
*
Lists of films based on location
Films by cost
*
List of most expensive films
*
List of most expensive non-English-language films
This is a non-definitive list of most expensive non-English-language films, with budgets given in United States dollars. Only films with budgets exceeding US$30 million are listed here.
Where the source gives the budget in the native currency, co ...
Films by success
*
List of films considered the best
*
List of highest-grossing films
*
List of films considered the worst
*
List of Academy Award-winning films
This is a list of Academy Award–winning films.
If a film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, its entry is listed in a shaded background with a boldface title.
Competitive Oscars are separated from non-competitive Oscars (i.e. Honorary Award ...
*
Lists of box office number-one films
Films by movement
*
Absolute film (1920s)
*
Budapest school (1972 - 1984)
*
Cinéma du look
Cinéma du look () was a French film movement of the 1980s and 1990s, analysed, for the first time, by French critic Raphaël Bassan in ''La Revue du Cinéma'' issue no. 449, May 1989, in which he classified Luc Besson, Jean-Jacques Beineix and ...
(1980s)
*
Cinema Novo
Cinema Novo (), "New Cinema" in English, is a genre and movement of film noted for its emphasis on social equality and intellectualism that rose to prominence in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s.Dixon & Foster, 293. Cinema Novo formed in res ...
(1960 - early 1970s)
*
Czechoslovak New Wave (1960s)
*
Dogme 95 (1995 - 2005)
*
Free Cinema (1956 - 1959)
*
French New Wave (1958 - late 1960s)
*
German Expressionism
German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...
(1913 -1920s)
*
Grupo Cine Liberación
The ''Grupo Cine Liberación'' ("The Liberation Film Group") was an Argentine film movement that took place during the end of the 1960s. It was founded by Fernando Solanas, Octavio Getino and Gerardo Vallejo.
The idea of the group was to give ...
(1969 - 1971)
*
Hong Kong New Wave (1979 - early 1990s)
*
Italian neorealism (1944 - 1952)
*
Japanese New Wave (1956 - 1976)
*
Kammerspielfilm
''Kammerspielfilm'' is a type of German film that offers an intimate, cinematic portrait of lower middle class life.
History
The name derives from a theater, the '' Kammerspiele'', opened in 1906 by a major stage director Max Reinhardt to stage ...
(1920s)
*
L.A. Rebellion (1967 - 1989)
*
Mumblecore (2002 - )
*
New French Extremity
New French Extremity (New French Extremism or, informally, New French Extreme) is a term coined by ''Artforum'' critic James Quandt for a collection of transgressive films by French directors at the turn of the 21st century. Also available othe ...
(1999 - 2003)
*
New Hollywood (Summer 1967 through Spring 1983)
*
New Nigerian Cinema (2006 - )
*
New Queer Cinema (1990s)
*
No Wave (1976 - 1985)
*
Parallel Cinema (1952 - 1976)
*
Poetic Realism (1930s - 1940s)
*
Polish Film School
Polish Film School ( pl, Polska Szkoła Filmowa) refers to an informal group of Polish film directors and screenplay writers active between 1956 and approximately 1963. Among the most prominent representatives of the school are Andrzej Wajda, And ...
(1955 - 1963)
*
Pure Film Movement
The was a trend in film criticism and filmmaking in 1910s and early 1920s Japan that advocated what were considered more modern and cinematic modes of filmmaking.
Critics in such magazines as '' Kinema Record'' and ''Kinema Junpo'' complained tha ...
(1910s - 1920s)
*
Remodernist film
Remodernist film developed in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 21st century with ideas related to those of the international art movement Stuckism and its manifesto, Remodernism. Key figures are Jesse Richards and Peter R ...
(2004 - )
*
Surrealist Cinema (1920s)
*
Third Cinema Third Cinema ( es, Tercer Cine) is a Latin American film movement that started in the 1960s–70s which decries neocolonialism, the capitalist system, and the Hollywood model of cinema as mere entertainment to make money. The term was coined in th ...
(1969 - 1978)
*
Yugoslav Black Wave
Yugoslav Black Wave (also referred to as Black Wave; or sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=none, separator=" / ", Crni talas, Црни талас) is a blanket term for a Yugoslav film movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. Notable directors include Dušan M ...
(1963 - 1972)
Film companies
*
List of film production companies
This is a list of film production and distribution companies. A production company may specialize in producing their in-house films or own subsidiary development companies. Major production companies often distribute films from independent product ...
*
List of film production companies by country
This is a list of film production and distribution companies. A production company may specialize in producing their in-house films or own subsidiary development companies. Major production companies often distribute films from independent product ...
*
List of film distributors by country
This is a list of motion picture distributors, past and present, sorted alphabetically by country.
Albania
* Constantin Film
* United International Pictures
Argentina
* Star Distribution
* Warner Bros.
* Sony Pictures
* Fox Distribution ...
Film studios
Major film studios
Majors (Big Five)
*
Walt Disney Studios – American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company, founded in 1923
*Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group (a subsidiary of Sony Pictures) – American film studio owned by Sony, founded in 1924
* Paramount Pictures (a subsidiary of Paramount Global) – American film studio owned by Paramount Global, founded in 1912
* Universal Studios (a subsidiary of NBCUniversal) – American film studio owned by Comcast, founded in 1912
* Warner Bros. (a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery) – American film studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, founded in 1923
Others
* Lionsgate
* Lantern Entertainment
* Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM
Awards and festivals
*List of film awards
*List of film festivals
*List of Academy Awards ceremonies
*AFI 100 Years... series
*List of Golden Globe Awards ceremonies
Notable people from the film industry
*List of show business families, Show business families
*List of soundtrack composers, Soundtrack composers
Film theorists
* Rudolf Arnheim
* André Bazin
* Sergei Eisenstein
* Siegfried Kracauer
* Lev Kuleshov
* Vsevolod Pudovkin
Famous film producers
List of film producers, Notable film producers
* George Lucas
* David O. Selznick
* Jerry Bruckheimer
Famous directors
List of film and television directors, Notable film and television directors
* Woody Allen
* Kathryn Bigelow
* James Cameron
* Yash Chopra
* Joel and Ethan Coen
* Francis Ford Coppola
* Michael Curtiz
* David Fincher
* Victor Fleming
* Werner Herzog
* Alfred Hitchcock
* Peter Jackson
* Alejandro Jodorowsky
* Stanley Kubrick
* Fritz Lang
* Sergio Leone
* Sidney Lumet
* David Lynch
* Christopher Nolan
* Martin Scorsese
* Steven Spielberg
* Quentin Tarantino
* Billy Wilder
* Sam Wood
* William Wyler
* Satyajit Ray
Famous actors
List of actors, Notable actors
* Humphrey Bogart
* Marlon Brando
* James Cagney
* Russell Crowe
* Denzel Washington
* Tom Cruise
* Bette Davis
* Leonardo DiCaprio
* Alec Guinness
* Tom Hanks
* Audrey Hepburn
* Katharine Hepburn
* Amitabh Bachchan
* Anthony Hopkins
* Christopher Lee
* Jack Lemmon
* Daniel Day-Lewis
* Walter Matthau
* Al Pacino
* Edward G. Robinson
See also
* Film industry
*
Filmmaking
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, cast ...
* Independent film
* List of film festivals
* List of motion picture production equipment
References
External links
*
Allmovie- information on films: actors, directors, biographies, reviews, cast and production credits, box office sales, and other movie data
Film Site- reviews of classic films
Rottentomatoes.com- movie reviews, previews, forums, photos, cast info
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)- information on current and historical films and cast listings
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Outlines of culture and arts, Film
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