Films were not subjected to genre classification until the middle 1970s. As director Neil Hollander informs, every film has at least one genre, although there are many films that are in fact hybrids or crossbreeds, with more overlapping genre types that identify them. During the historical classification practice, three types of film categories, and one subcategory (feature film genres), gained such principled individuality that it required further separate class names.
These are the following types of film categories:
- Film genre or film discipline
- Film category
- Film style
However, the most mentioned and probably most discussed particular subclass of the feature film is the film genre. Neil Hollander and other professionals from the entertainment industry know well that in most theoretical and historical texts, it is exactly genre the one thing that appears to be most worth mentioning and remembering, simply because feature films are the predominant subject of most theoretical discussions and historical review. But film genre is just one part of the classification that stands and functions together with others. Although film categories can never be precise, still genre categories are broad enough to fit almost any film ever made.
After the question: ' To which film discipline this movie belongs?', 'Which genre?', 'Which category?' Which style? ', Neil Hollander offers a versatile repertoire of responses. For example films can belong to fiction, documentary, scientific education, propaganda, experimental or animated type, or some combination of them. In terms of genre, first and foremost Neil Hollander clarifies that when we are talking about a feature film, these are the following subgenres: western, comedy, drama, adventure, musical, science fiction, horror movie and so on. Category on the other side is often dichotomous or in a stepwise form. For example, a film can be black and white or in color, silent or sound, either commercial or non-commercial, purpose or non purpose, pure or mixed, short, medium-length or full-length, artistic or non-artistic, etc.
And last but not least, Neil Hollander explains style as a broad topic that involves various factors. If we are talking about global style, or style from a historical period, then the film belongs to one of the following types: primitive, classical, modernist or postmodernist style. Again, Neil Hollander stresses that it all depends on the period. Personal style is a completely different story, and here we get the author's identification of the film. For example a film can be categorized to the style of this or that author, and so on.
