Types of Films Vocabulary List

A list of vocabulary items related to the film industry

Types of films

Types of films vocabulary list

The following vocabulary list is about types of films.

Genres of films and concise descriptions of each are provided for English language learners.

Action film

This is a film genre in which the hero is pushed into a series of events that typically include violence, extended fighting, physical feats, and frantic chases.


Adventure films typically use their action scenes to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way.

Animated film (cartoon films)

First, the industry of cartoon films such as Disney's films flourished during the beginning of the 19th century. Today, with the advent of new technologies that use computer graphics, animated films are made more elaborately. 


In comedy films, the focus is on humor. These films are made to make the audience laugh through amusement.


This is a non-fictional film intended to document reality. The objective is to instruct, educate, or maintain a historical record.


This is a genre of narrative fiction that is more serious in tone.

Horror film

Horror films attempt to elicit fear for entertainment purposes. These films have been initially inspired by literature from authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley

Romance or love story

In romantic films, the focus is on romantic love.

Musical film:

Music and songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing (e.g: Singin’ in the Rain, 1954).

Science fiction or Sci-fi:

These films use speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar travel or other technologies.


These are also called suspense films or suspense thrillers. They refer to a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience (e.g. Hitchcock's film Rebecca (1940)

War film

War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama.


This a genre of fiction that is set mainly in the latter half of the 19th century in the Western United States. Its stories commonly center on the life of a nomadic cowboy or gunfighter armed with a revolver and a rifle who rides a horse.

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