Top 10 Film Genres List
By: Article by pujitha reddy,
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Top 10 Film Genres List
If asked “What kind of movies do you like?” Some of the answers that can be expected are “I’m totally into romantic comedies”, “I enjoy action adventure a lot”, “I love courtroom drama”, “Horror movies give me creeps but I like them”, “Science fiction movies are so cool”, “It’s lot of fun to watch animated movies” and many more other answers. Every person has a unique taste in movies and prefers different movie genres. And the film genres are developing and evolving with time. Some popular film genres are action, animated, adventure, comedy, westerns, musicals, drama, epic, crime, war, disaster, superhero, fantasy, sports, horror etc. I assembled here, a list of top 10 film genres. Sorry, if your favourite genre didn’t make it to my top 10 list. But what to do people, it is a top 10 list after all!
10. Musicals/ Dance
Dance musicals are feast to the eyes and warm the hearts of countless numbers of crowds with amusing lyrics and story lines. These movies centralize on sequences of music, dance and choreography. In recent years many musicals have turned into some very good box office hits and their soundtracks have topped the charts. Of all the film genres, this genre of films has been viewed as the most escapist.
Some best examples: West Side Story, All that Jazz, Singin’ in the rain, Mamma Mia!, Hairspray, Step Up movies, High School Musical series, Camprock etc.
9. Horror
The horror film has undergone numerous transformations than any other film genre has ever gone. The horror films have been made since the onset of movie making itself. These films conjure the primary fears of the spectators providing entertainment in the process. While watching a horror film the audiences feel a fear of unknown without actually being in any sort of danger. Frequent components of horror films include ghosts, serial killers, dangerous animals, zombies, aliens, monsters, vampires and many other supernatural forces.
Some best examples: Psycho, The Exorcist, The Shining, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Evil Dead, Poltergeist, Friday the 13 th , Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary’s Baby, Halloween, Carrie, Jaws, Saw, The Grudge, Candyman, Final Destination etc.
8. Crime/ Gangster
Crime/Gangster films revolve around the evil actions of criminals or gangsters, especially underworld figures or ruthless mobsters who break the law, steal and murder their way through life. This genre films are usually set in dark places of large and crowded cities. These places of crime are exotic and give the audience the thrill. We can see many sorts of things like heaps of cash, gold bars, fast cars, sleazy night clubs and bars, smuggled goods and different types of weapons which provide us a view of the underworld.
Some best examples: The Godfather, The Departed, The Untouchables, Road to Perdition, Scarface, The Public Enemy, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Donnie Brasco, Gangs of New York, Little Caesar, The Town etc.
7. Romantic Comedy
This genre films capture the attention of the viewers by combining funniness with romance. The romantic comedy films are cheerful and jaunty. The films of this genre revolve around romantic concepts. Every year many movies of this genre are being released, elevating the beauty of love with a touch of humor. Thanks to romantic comedies, people live hopefully wishing that love will find them one day making them part of a good love story just like in these movies!
Some best examples: Pretty Woman, When Harry met Sally, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Annie Hall, Roman Holiday, Sleepless in Seattle, Knocked Up, Love Actually, Notting Hill, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 10 Things I hate about You, She’s the Man etc.
6. Drama
In the drama genre films the sincere stories of people’s real life situations are presented. These films depict the intense life issues of humans and deal with the social problems. The themes in these films include the life struggles, inner conflicts, relational and emotional stresses, and various other dramatic plots. The drama film genre is apparently the largest film genre as it includes a wide ranging extent of films.
Some best examples: The Shawshank Redemption, Good Will Hunting, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, 12 Angry Men, Million Dollar Baby, Raging Bull, A Beautiful Mind, Changeling, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind etc.
5. Fantasy
Fantasy films involve themes like magic, myths, supernatural forces, mystique creatures and fantasy worlds. And mainly encourage vivid imagination and things impossible in the real world. This genre films need not root on facts like the science fiction genre. This one reason is what lets the spectators to escape into the unique world. The fantasy films portray ordinary people like us in an extraordinary situation. If more of science related futuristic elements are used, then it may overlap into science fiction and if dark frightening forces are involved it may wind up into horror genre.
Some best examples: Harry Potter films, The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, Twilight Saga, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of Caribbean, Star Wars, Percy Jackson, The Hobbit, The Princess Bride, Labyrinth etc.
4. Animation
This genre is fast growing in popularity in the present time. A collection of pictures or illustrations which are slightly different from the one preceding them and have been photographed frame-by-frame are projected in quick succession to form an animated film. The techniques nowadays have advanced a lot that the illusions created appear so realistic. The animated movies serve as good source of entertainment to people of all age groups especially children.
Some best examples: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Toy Story, Shrek, Finding Nemo, Ice Age, Madagascar, How to Train your Dragon, The Lion King, Rango, Brave, Wall-E, Kung fu Panda, Up, Cars, Ratatouille etc.
3. Epics/ Historical
Epics-Historical films usually involve a story revolving around historical or imagined events, myths, legends or a famous personality. These films usually accentuate human emotion on an elevated level. What I love most about this genre of films is the extravagant settings, splendid costumes and spectacular background music. It is quite expensive to produce epic films. Some common themes of epic films are wars, natural disasters, catastrophic events, political outbreaks, historical figures, superheroes, famous military leaders, royalty etc. The largest number of Academy awards won by any film is 11 and this was accomplished by three movies – Ben-Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. All these are epic films!
Some best examples: Gone with the Wind, Titanic, Ben-Hur, The Lord of the Rings, Schindler’s List, Gladiator, Spartacus, Saving Private Ryan, Lawrence of Arabia, Elizabeth, Gandhi, Troy etc.
2. Science fiction
This genre of films involves hypothetical and scientific portrayal of occurrences that have no evidence of existence according to the mainstream science. Some examples include aliens, time travel, extrasensory perception, cyborgs, futuristic robots, spacecrafts, interstellar space travel and other advanced technologies that are not present in reality. A fair number of science fiction movies have originated from the writings of Jules Verne and H.G.Wells. Sci-fi movies have also performed very well at the box office.
Some best examples: Avatar, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Alien, The Matrix, Inception, Blade Runner, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, Terminator, Wall-E, A Clockwork Orange, The Hunger Games, Transformers, Jurassic Park, The Thing etc.
1. Action Adventure
This is one of the favourite film genres. Action adventure films always make headlines with their ticket sales and box office records! These films usually involve so many high energy fights, chases, conquests, explorations and stunts enthralling the audiences. The story usually revolves around a good guy who is trying to take down a bad guy in his pursuit of unknown. If a theme or dramatic back story imbues the action then the film will be more successful. Meaningless action has always failed. With the advancements in CGI it has become easy to create action sequences that are usually so risky and can’t even be performed by professional stunts men. So who is up for an action adventure?
Some best examples: Indiana Jones, Die Hard, Pirates of Caribbean, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Iron Man, Mission: Impossible, First Blood, The Expendables, Kill Bill, Sherlock Holmes etc.
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Break it down and there has to be almost 100 different sub-genres.
Like Film Noir?
Or Film Verite, or Courtroom Dramas, or biographical movies, or Westerns, or.......
Don't have a favorite genre, I've watched all of them.
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To leave the movie HEAT , directed by Michael Mann and starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer , off the "crime/gangster" movie list is a sin.
Lots of omissions - Fiddler on the Roof and Evita for musicals. And did you see the article I posted about The Red Turtle for animation - the most compelling animation movie I've ever seen, and not a word was spoken in it..