20 Movie Genres Flashcards

movie genres flashcards

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Each movie has its genres or even several. For example, “Titanic” is a drama and romance, “Avatar” is a fantasy, action and adventure.

Here is the list of the most popular movie genres and their short description:

  1. Action films usually include high energy, big-budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes, destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires, etc.), non-stop motion, and adventurous, often two-dimensional ‘good-guy’ heroes (or recently, heroines) battling ‘bad guys’ – all designed for pure audience escapism.
    Examples: “Die Hard”, “Kill Bill”, etc.
  2. Adventure movies are usually exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales, very similar to or often paired with the action film genre. They can include traditional swashbucklers or pirate films, and historical spectacles, searches or expeditions for lost continents, “jungle” and “desert” epics, treasure hunts, disaster films, or searches for the unknown.
    Examples: “Back to the Future”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, etc.
  3. Comedies are light-hearted plots consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter (with one-liners, jokes, etc.) by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters.
    Examples: “American Pie”, “The Hangover”, etc.
  4. A cartoon is a film using animation techniques to photograph a sequence of drawings rather than real people or objects.
  5. Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets.
    Examples: “Schindler’s List”, “The Godfather”, etc.
  6. A romance is understood to be emotion-driven stories that are primarily focused on the relationship between the main characters of the story. Beyond the focus on the relationship, the biggest defining characteristic of the romance genre is that a happy ending is always guaranteed.
    Examples: “Dirty Dancing”, “Pretty Woman”, etc.
  7. Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience.
    Examples: “Saw”, “Scream”, etc.
  8. War movies acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting (against nations or humankind) on land, sea, or in the air provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film.
    Examples: “Saving Private Ryan”, “Inglourious Basterds”, etc.
  9. Musical films are cinematic forms that emphasize full-scale scores or song and dance routines in a significant way (usually with a musical or dance performance integrated as part of the film narrative), or they are films that are centered on combinations of music, dance, song or choreography.
    Examples: “Mamma Mia!”, “La La Land”, etc.
  10. A fantasy story is about magic or supernatural forces, rather than technology if it happens to take place in a modern or future era.
    Examples: “The Lord of the Rings”, “Harry Potter”, etc.
  11. A mystery (crime) movie follows an investigator as he/she attempts to solve a puzzle (often a crime). The details and clues are presented as the story continues and the protagonist discovers them and by the end of the story the mystery/puzzle is solved.
    Examples: “The Sixth Sense”, “The Da Vinci Code”, etc.
  12. Sci-fi films are often complete with aliens, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and unknowable forces, and extraordinary monsters.
    Examples: “Star Wars”, “”The Terminator”, etc.
  13. Historical or epic movies often take an historical or imagined event, mythic, legendary, or heroic figure, and add an extravagant setting and lavish costumes, accompanied by grandeur and spectacle and a sweeping musical score.
    Examples: “Braveheart”, “”Troy”, etc.
  14. A documentary film is a nonfictional motion picture intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record.
    Examples: “Fahrenheit 9/11”, “The Fog of War”, etc.
  15. A thriller is a story that is usually a mix of fear and excitement. It has traits from the suspense genre and often from the action, adventure or mystery genres, but the level of terror makes it borderline horror fiction at times as well.
    Examples: “The Silence of the Lambs”, “Shutter Island”, etc.
  16. A biography  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.
    Examples: “The Social Network”, “A Beautiful Mind”, etc.
  17. Stories in the western genre are set in the American West, between the time of the Civil war and the early twentieth century. They focus on the adventure of the main characters and the contrast between civilization or society and the untamed wilderness, often featuring the characters working to bring civilization to the wilderness.
    Examples: “Wild, Wild West”, “Django Unchained”, etc.
  18. Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films, which feature numerous martial arts fights between characters. These fights are usually the films’ primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expression and development.
    Examples: “The Karate Kid”, “Rush Hour”, etc.
  19. A series of movies takes place in the same cinematic universe, it tells one continuous story, or are different chapters in one over arcing story.
    Examples: “Friends”, “Game of Thrones”, etc.
  20. An advertisement is the promotion of company products and services, carried out to drive up sales. It is also done to build a brand identity, communicate changes in old products, or introduce new product/services to the customers.

The PDF files contains all these film genres with an appropriate picture.

What is your favorite movie genre? Tell us in the comments!

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