Film can refer to motion pictures as individual projects and to the field in general. The name came from the fact that photographic film (also called filmstock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist — motion pictures (or just pictures or "picture"), the silver screen, photoplays, the cinema, picture shows, flicks — and commonly movies.

Film genres and plots * List of films featuring extraterrestrials * List of character-based movie franchises * List of cinematic genres * List of comedy-drama films * List of drama films * List of disaster films * List of fantasy films * List of films noir * List of gay-related movies * List of horror films * List of Mafia movies * List of punk movies * List of racism-related movies * List of science fiction films * List of war films * List of religion films Cast and crew * List of actors * List of directors * List of show business families * List of soundtrack composers Companies * List of film production companies * List of film production companies by country * List of film distributors by country Film details * List of computer-animated films * List of longest films by running time * List of film formats Film success * Films considered the greatest ever * Films considered the worst ever * List of highest-grossing films * List of movies that were financial failures * List of movies that have won eight or more Academy Awards * List of films by weeks in theaters

Awards and festivals * List of movie awards * List of film festivals * List of Academy Awards ceremonies * List of Golden Globe Awards ceremonies Film links * List of fiction works made into feature films * List of film trilogies * List of television programs based on films * List of non-fiction works made into feature films Geography * Cinema of present-day nations and states * List of Albanian films * List of British films * List of movies set in Hong Kong * List of movies set in Los Angeles * List of movies set in New York City * List of movies set in Puerto Rico Other * List of Alfred Hitchcock cameo appearances * List of films preserved in the United States National Film Registry * List of 'years in film' * List of Stephen King films * Lists of film source material See also * List of basic film topics * Film stubs * Filmmaking stubs * Films by source * Glossary:Japanese film credit terms * List of video-related topics The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to film: By setting * Biography - portrays a real-life character in his or her real life story. * Crime - places its character within realm of criminal activity * Film noir - portrays its principal characters in a nihilistic and existentialist realm or manner * Historical - taking place in the past * Science fiction - placement of characters in an alternative reality, typically in the future or in space * Sports - 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 - intended to provoke laughter * Drama - mainly focuses on character development * Fantasy - speculative fiction outside reality (i.e. myth, legend) * 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 * Thrillers - intended to provoke excitement and/or nervous tension into audience By format * Animation - illusion of motion by consecutive display of static images which have been created by hand or on a computer * 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) - 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 * Short - may strive to contain many of the elements of a "full-length" feature, in a shorter time-frame 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 - intended to be attractive for people of all ages and suitable for viewing by a young audience. Examples of this are Disney films. * Teen film - intended and aimed towards teens although some teen films such as the High School Musical series may also be a family film. Not all of these films are suitable for all teens in which some are rated-R.
Animation Main article: Animation Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. When the frames are strung together and the resulting film is viewed at a speed of 16 or more frames per second, there is an illusion of continuous movement (due to the persistence of vision). Generating such a film is very labor intensive and tedious, though the development of computer animation has greatly sped up the process. File formats like GIF, QuickTime, Shockwave and Flash allow animation to be viewed on a computer or over the Internet. Because animation is very time-consuming and often very expensive to produce, the majority of animation for TV and movies comes from professional animation studios. However, the field of independent animation has existed at least since the 1950s, with animation being produced by independent studios (and sometimes by a single person). Several independent animation producers have gone on to enter the professional animation industry. Limited animation is a way of increasing production and decreasing costs of animation by using "short cuts" in the animation process. This method was pioneered by UPA and popularized by Hanna-Barbera, and adapted by other studios as cartoons moved from movie theaters to television.[7] Although most animation studios are now using digital technologies in their productions, there is a specific style of animation that depends on film. Cameraless animation, made famous by moviemakers like Norman McLaren, Len Lye and Stan Brakhage, is painted and drawn directly onto pieces of film, and then run through a projector.