Genre List

Genres classify works by shared content or formal traits. In improv theatre, the genres usually played come from film, TV, theatre, music...

The adventure film sends its hero on a great journey into distant, exotic or dangerous worlds. At its centre lie courage, the spirit of d...

Bollywood films are productions of the Hindi-language film industry in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and the most prolific cinema segment in t...

Epic theatre Theatre in Brecht's style is so-called "epic theatre". It aims to depict large-scale social conflicts — war, revolution, ec...

The children's film tells stories for a young audience with children as protagonists, clear morals and a tone built on wonder, warmth and...

The cooking show is a TV genre in which the preparation of food is publicly staged. Depending on the format, the focus may lie on pure kn...

In a crime film, a crime is always committed — usually a murder. It is solved as a rule by the lead character(s), most often a police off...

The Eastern is the Asian counterpart to the Western: an umbrella term for action films from East Asia in which honour, the sword, martial...

The epic (German "Monumentalfilm") is a large-scale film with historical, mythological or religious subject matter, distinguished by extr...

The erotic film tells of desire, seduction and sexual tension. It occupies its own genre field next to pornography — where the latter sho...

The fairy tale is one of the oldest and most rewarding genres for improv theatre. It tells, in simple language, of magical events, sharpl...

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945–1982) is one of the defining directors of New German Cinema. In just thirteen years he made over forty fil...

The horror film is a film genre that deliberately triggers fear, terror, disgust and a feeling of threatening uncertainty in the viewer. ...

Teleshopping or the long-form infomercial is a TV format in which a single product or a small product range is sold over an extended peri...

List of genres, styles, and broadcast formats. Film genres Adventure film Action film Aristocratic romance Amateur film Mountain film ...

The martial arts film places Asian fighting arts in their various forms (Kung Fu, Karate, Taekwondo, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Pencak Silat, ...

The medical drama (or hospital series) is an episodic TV genre in which doctors, nurses and patients meet inside a clinic. Medical cases ...

The monster film tells of an extraordinary, threatening creature that endangers people, city or world. The monster may be of natural orig...

The musical is a genre of theatre and, secondarily, of cinema. It combines song, dance, acting and music inside a continuous dramatic fra...

Typical visual cues: News anchor sits behind a desk Lower body is hidden Often only the upper body is visible Anchor reads from notes A...

The pirate film is a sub-genre of the adventure film and at the same time a distinctive form of its own with an unmistakable inventory: s...

The road movie tells of a journey — usually by car, occasionally by motorbike, bus, camper, train or on foot — during which the character...

Science fiction (SF) is a very broad genre which, in the widest sense, deals with technological and scientific questions. SF is often set...

Slapstick is a form of physical comedy in which mishaps, falls, chases and property damage carry the laughs. Language plays a secondary r...

Superhero films tell of people with extraordinary abilities — acquired, inherited or technologically created — who go up against evil and...

The swashbuckler (German: Mantel-und-Degen-Film) is mostly set in the 16th to 18th century at European royal courts, in port cities and o...

Within talk shows, two types must be distinguished: - the mostly evening, serious discussion programmes, - the daytime tabloid-style "dis...

The vampire film is a sub-genre of the horror film, but with its own unmistakable iconography. At its centre stands the vampire — undead,...

The war film tells of war and its effects on soldiers, the civilian population and society. Alongside action moments (battles, skirmishes...

The Western tells of the European settlers' takeover of North America's "Wild West" in the second half of the 19th century. The newcomers...