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Aesthetic: Principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in the arts.
Affect: Feeling or emotion.
Allegory: Poem, story, or picture that may be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, usually a moral or political meaning.
Apologia: A defense of one's opinions, position, or actions.
Archetypes: Typical examples of a person or thing.
Auteur: A filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie.
Axiology: The philosophical study of value.

Bildungsroman: A novel dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education.

Camera obscura: An optical device that led to the photographic camera, consisting of a room or box with a hole in one side.
Celluloid: Transparent flammable plastic sheets made from camphor and nitrocellulose, used for early cinematographic film.
Chiaroscuro: Treatment of light and shade to model three-dimensional forms.
Cinema verite: A technique of documentary filmmaking in which the camera records actual persons and events without directorial control; introduced in France in the 1950s.
Close-up: A shot which tightly frames a person or object.
Coda: A concluding passage of a piece, forming an addition to the basic structure.
Connotative: Based on implication, in this case symbolic or metaphoric.
Crux: The critical or central point or feature.

Denotation: Literal or primary meaning.
Deterrence: The use of punishment as a threat to deter people from offending.
Diegetic: Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose sound is implied to be present by the action of the film.
Dissolve: Film technique often used as an indicator of a passage of time.

Fade: Film technique used to indicate the beginning or end of a scene.
Federalism: A mixed mode of government, combining the Federal government with state governments in a single system.
Fordism: Postwar mode of economic growth in advanced capitalism.
Fourth wall: Imaginary wall between the audience and the world of the film or production.

Intertitles: Printed dialogue or narration that is shown between scenes in a silent film.

Long shot (full shot, wide shot): A shot showing the entire object or human figure intended to place it in relation to the surroundings.

Melodrama: A dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and events intended to appeal to the emotion.
Melodramatic: Have characteristics of being exaggerated, sensationalized, or overemotional.
Memetic: Related to a meme, or unit of cultural information, transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.
Metonymic: A figure of speech in which a thing or concept is called not by its own name, but by the name of something associated with that thing or concept, such as "count heads" for "count people."
Mimetic: Imitative desire to present reality, reconstructing a mirror of nature.
Mise en scène: The arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play or film.
Montage: The process of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole.
Morality plays: Allegorical play in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a Godly life over an evil life.

Non-diegetic: Sound whose source is not visible on the screen or not implied to be present in the action.

Ontology: The philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality.
Orwellian: Referencing a dystopian account of a future totalitarian state.

Paradigmatic: Denoting the relationship between a set of linguistic items.
Pastiche: Imitate the style of an artist or work.
Pathos: A quality that evokes sadness or pity.
Personae: The aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others.
Polemic: A strong verbal or written attack on someone or something.
Polysemic: The capacity for a sign to have multiple meanings.
Populism: Representing the interests of ordinary people.
Populist: Representing the interests of ordinary people.

Semic: The elements in a narrative relating to characters, settings, objects, or themes.
Serial: A play or story appearing in regular installments on radio, TV, periodical, or early films.
Simulacra: An unsatisfactory imitation or substitute.
Spaghetti Western: A movie about the American Old West made cheaply in Europe, typically by an Italian producer and director.
Stop-action (stop-motion): Animation technique that physically manipulates an object that appears to move on its own.
Superimposition: Placement of an image or video on top of an already existing image or video.
Synecdochal: A figure of speech in which a term that denotes one thing is used to refer to a related thing, as in "3 head of cattle" for "3 cows."
Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole, or vice versa.
Syntagmatic: One element selects the other element to precede it or follow it.

Tableau vivant: A living picture.
Tabula rasa: An absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals, as in a clean slate.
Taylorism: Principles or practice of scientific management.

Vaudeville: Popular entertainment from the early 20th century, featuring a mix of many specialty acts, such as song and dance, burlesque comedy, comedians, trained animals, jugglers, etc.
Voyeurism: Sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors.