Skip to Main Content

Hours & Login Menu

  • Hours
  • Login
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan
Dartmouth Libraries Dartmouth Libraries

Global dropdown menu

    • Borrow and Request
      • Who Can Borrow
      • What Can You Borrow
      • Loan Periods and Renewals
      • Borrow from Other Libraries
      • Request Materials
      • All Borrow and Request
    • Collections
      • Digital Collections
      • Media Collections
      • Oral Histories
      • Collections Care
      • All Collections
    • Course Reserves
      • Find Course Reserves
      • Create or Add Course Reserves
      • All Course Reserves
    • Off-Campus Access
    • Records Management
      • Retention and Disposition
      • Confidential Monthly Destruction
      • Electronic Records
      • Physical Records
      • Retention Schedules
      • All Records Management
    • Search and Browse
      • Library Search
      • Databases
      • Journals
      • Research Guides
      • Maps and Atlases
      • Newspapers
      • Dartmouth Digital Commons
      • Music Scores
      • BorrowDirect
      • Archives and Manuscripts
      • All Search and Browse
    • Design and Produce
      • Audio and Video
      • Book Arts
      • Design and Digital Art
      • Equipment and Hardware
      • Software
      • All Design and Produce
    • Data Services
      • Research Data Management
      • Data Analysis and Visualization
      • Data Repositories
      • Data Workshops
      • Datasets at Dartmouth
      • All Data Services
    • Digital Scholarship
    • Publishing and Copyright
      • Copyright
      • Open Access
      • Publisher Agreements
      • Publishing for Faculty
      • Publishing for Students
      • All Publishing and Copyright
    • Research Help
    • Teaching and Workshops
    • Print, Copy, Scan
    • Locations
      • Baker-Berry Library
      • Book Arts Workshop
      • Evans Map Room
      • Feldberg Business and Engineering Library
      • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
      • Jones Media Center
      • Library Collections and Services Facility
      • Rauner Special Collections Library
      • Sherman Art Library
      • All Locations
    • Accessibility
    • Events
    • Exhibits
    • Hours
    • Study Spaces
    • About Dartmouth Libraries
      • Council on the Libraries
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Friends of the Libraries
      • Library Departments
      • Strategic Framework
      • Staff Directory
      • All About Dartmouth Libraries
    • Employment
      • Staff and Professional Positions
      • Student Positions
      • Fellowships
      • All Employment
    • News and Highlights
    • Policies
    • Programs and Awards
      • Alumni Memorial Book Fund Program
      • MAD Research Video Contest
      • Staff Awards
      • All Programs and Awards
    • Contact Us
    • We're Here to Help
      • Students
      • Faculty
      • Alums
      • Staff
      • Visiting Researchers and Community
      • All We're Here to Help
    • Find a Specialist
      • Subject Librarians
      • Audio and Video Production
      • Preservation and Emergency Preparedness
      • Publishing and Copyright
      • Records Management
      • Research Data Services
      • Systematic Review
      • All Find a Specialist
    • Ask Us
  • Hours
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan

Global dropdown menu

    • Borrow and Request
      • Who Can Borrow
      • What Can You Borrow
      • Loan Periods and Renewals
      • Borrow from Other Libraries
      • Request Materials
    • Collections
      • Digital Collections
      • Media Collections
      • Oral Histories
      • Collections Care
    • Course Reserves
      • Find Course Reserves
      • Create or Add Course Reserves
    • Off-Campus Access
    • Records Management
      • Retention and Disposition
      • Confidential Monthly Destruction
      • Electronic Records
      • Physical Records
      • Retention Schedules
    • Search and Browse
      • Library Search
      • Databases
      • Journals
      • Research Guides
      • Maps and Atlases
      • Newspapers
      • Dartmouth Digital Commons
      • Music Scores
      • BorrowDirect
      • Archives and Manuscripts
    • Design and Produce
      • Audio and Video
      • Book Arts
      • Design and Digital Art
      • Equipment and Hardware
      • Software
    • Data Services
      • Research Data Management
      • Data Analysis and Visualization
      • Data Repositories
      • Data Workshops
      • Datasets at Dartmouth
    • Digital Scholarship
    • Publishing and Copyright
      • Copyright
      • Open Access
      • Publisher Agreements
      • Publishing for Faculty
      • Publishing for Students
    • Research Help
    • Teaching and Workshops
    • Print, Copy, Scan
    • Locations
      • Baker-Berry Library
      • Book Arts Workshop
      • Evans Map Room
      • Feldberg Business and Engineering Library
      • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
      • Jones Media Center
      • Library Collections and Services Facility
      • Rauner Special Collections Library
      • Sherman Art Library
    • Accessibility
    • Events
    • Exhibits
    • Hours
    • Study Spaces
    • About Dartmouth Libraries
      • Council on the Libraries
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Friends of the Libraries
      • Library Departments
      • Strategic Framework
      • Staff Directory
    • Employment
      • Staff and Professional Positions
      • Student Positions
      • Fellowships
    • News and Highlights
    • Policies
    • Programs and Awards
      • Alumni Memorial Book Fund Program
      • MAD Research Video Contest
      • Staff Awards
    • Contact Us
    • We're Here to Help
      • Students
      • Faculty
      • Alums
      • Staff
      • Visiting Researchers and Community
    • Find a Specialist
      • Subject Librarians
      • Audio and Video Production
      • Preservation and Emergency Preparedness
      • Publishing and Copyright
      • Records Management
      • Research Data Services
      • Systematic Review
    • Ask Us
  • Hours
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan
  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Film Genres
  5. Science fiction

Film Genres

This guide highlights library resources for some of the more popular film genres.
  • Introduction
  • Streaming services
  • Action films
  • Amateur films
  • Animation
    • Stop-motion animation
  • Animé
  • B movies
  • Biographical films
  • Blaxploitation films
  • Children's films
  • Comedies
  • Cult films
  • Crime films
    • Gangster films
  • Detective & mystery films
  • Documentary films
  • Ethnographic films
  • Experimental films
  • Exploitation films
  • Film noir
  • Historical films
  • Horror films
    • Slasher films
  • Independent films
  • Indigenous films
  • James Bond films
  • LGBTQIA+
  • Mockumentary films
  • Musicals
  • Newsreels This link opens in a new window
  • Police films
  • Religious films
    • Bible films
  • Road films
  • Science fiction
    • Star Trek films
    • Star Wars films
  • Science films
  • Shakespeare on film
  • Short films
  • Silent films
  • Sports films
  • Superhero films
  • War films
    • Anti-war films
  • Vampire films
  • Westerns
  • Zombie films

Film Studies Librarian

Profile Photo
Lucinda M. Hall
Email Me
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Social: LinkedIn Page LibraryThing Page
Subjects: Film and Media Studies, Geography, Polar Studies

Other library resource(s)

  • Resource logoScience fiction film theory and criticism from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Ritch Calvin
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    ISBN: 9780199791286
    Defining science fiction is a difficult task. The origins of the term reside in the scientific fantasies of technological developments. However, science fiction can be defined as characteristics of the text (or film), as the speculation on or extrapolation from current events, or as a set of reading (or viewing) protocols. However, in common usage, the term science fiction often encompasses a wide range of concerns, including fantasy and horror.

Science Fiction Film Societies

  • International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival
    • Link
    The International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival's mission is to support and develop the artistic appreciation, educational opportunities and growth of independent film within Arizona.
  • Psychotronic Film Society
    • Link

Keeping up with the journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's you can download and read the articles you want.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's now available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.

A quick definition for science fiction films

A genre characterized by stories involving conflicts between science and technology, human nature, and social organization in futuristic or fantastical settings, created in cinema through distinctive iconographies, images, and sounds often produced by means of special effects technology. All the technologies of cinematic illusion are displayed at their most cutting-edge state in science-fiction films, and this has been true since the earliest years of cinema, when trick films like Le voyage dans la lune/A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, France, 1902) used stop-motion animation and other effects to create what is in all probability cinema’s first-ever portrayal of space travel: in topic, techniques, and iconography, Le voyage dans la lune was a prototype for the science-fiction cinema to come. The 1920s and 1930s saw portrayals of future and imagined worlds, many of them dystopic, in feature films such as Aelita/Aelita: Queen of Mars (Yakov Protazanov, USSR, 1924); Metropolis (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1926); and Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, UK, 1936), while many post-World War II science-fiction films offered apocalyptic imaginings of alien invasion and nuclear holocaust. The canonical 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, UK/US, 1968) began a new era in science-fiction cinema’s foregrounding of spectacle and impact in moving image and sound by creating a sublime, all-enveloping environment for the viewer. Viewed in cinemas, science-fiction extravaganzas like 2001 offer an encompassing visual, auditory, and bodily experience in which the spectator is invited to succumb to extreme sensory and bodily engulfment (see haptic visuality). Wherever cinema exhibits its own distinctive matters of expression—as it does with science fiction’s displays of state-of-the-art special effects technologies—this is invariably a highly self-conscious, even an exhibitionistic, gesture, eclipsing narrative, plot, and character.

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Science fiction. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 May. 2022

Finding library resources for science fiction

To find sci-fi in the Library's collections, you can click on one of the subject headings below:

  • science fiction films
    The call number range for Westerns is PN 1995.9 .S26 on Baker Level 4.
  • dystopian films
  • apocalyptic films

Introductory reading(s)

  • Cover artHistorical dictionary of science fiction cinema by M. Keith Booker
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .S26 B566 2010
    ISBN: 9780810874626
    The history of science fiction film now spans more than 100 years, during which time more than 1,000 science fiction films of various kinds have been made. Beginning with the work of pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès at the dawn of the 20th century and moving through such silent films as Fritz Lang's classic Metropolis, science fiction film has had a long and eventful history that has taken it in many directions but that has moved the genre inexorably forward into a prominent place at the center of the film industry in the works of big-budget hitmakers like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Bay. The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Cinema provides broad coverage of the people, films, companies, techniques, themes, and subgenres that have made science fiction cinema such a vital part of world cinema. ...
  • Cover artThe philosophy of science fiction film by Steven M. Sanders, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .S26 P49 2008
    ISBN: 9780813124728
    Science fiction films give viewers a glimpse into alternative realities, and also explore various philosophical questions and themes. The contributors to this volume use classic science fiction movies to explore complex philosophical themes and concepts.
  • Cover artScience fiction film: a critical introduction by Keith M. Johnston
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .S26 J45 2011
    ISBN: 9781847884763
    Science Fiction Film develops a historical and cultural approach to the genre that moves beyond close readings of iconography and formal conventions. It explores how this increasingly influential genre has been constructed from disparate elements into a hybrid genre.
  • Cover artThe science fiction film reader by Gregg Rickman, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .S26 R53 2004
    ISBN: 9780879109943
    An illustrated collection of essays by masters such as H.G. Wells, Luis Bunuel, Jorge Luis Borges, Arthur C. Clarke, Anthony Burgess, Joseph Campbell, Pauline Kael, George F. Will, Robin Wood, and Susan Sontag.

Selected book title(s)

  • Cover artThe cinematic life of the gene by Jackie Stacey
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .S26 S725 2010
    ISBN: 9780822345077
    What might the cinema tell us about how and why the prospect of cloning disturbs our most profound ideas about gender, sexuality, difference, and the body? In The Cinematic Life of the Gene, the pioneering feminist film theorist Jackie Stacey argues that as a cultural technology of imitation, cinema is uniquely situated to help us theorize "the genetic imaginary," the constellation of fantasies that genetic engineering provokes.
  • Cover artFuture west: utopia and apocalypse in frontier science fiction by William H. Katerberg
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PS 374 .F73 K38 2008
    ISBN: 9780700616091
    What is the future of the American West? Is it fated to shine with the benign promise of Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia? Or will it instead dissolve into postapocalyptic dust, as in Walter Miller's classic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, or devolve into relentlessly dark and rain-soaked urban landscapes, as in Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner?' William Katerberg takes a new look at works of utopian, dystopian, and apocalyptic science fiction to show how narratives of the past and future powerfully shape our understanding of the present-day West.
  • Cover artH. G. Wells, modernity and the movies by Keith Williams
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PR 5778 .F55 W55 2007
    ISBN: 9781846310607
    This book investigates Wells's interest in cinema and related media technologies, by placing it back into the contemporary cultural and scientific contexts giving rise to them. It plugs a gap in understanding Wells's contribution to exploring and advancing the possibilities of cinematic narrative and its social and ideological impacts in the modern period.
  • Cover artScience fiction, horror and fantasy film and television credits by Harris M. Lentz
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .S26 L46 1983 v. 1-2
    ISBN: 9780786409501
  • Cover artTech-noir: the fusion of science fiction and film noir by Paul Meehan
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker/Berry PN 1995.9 .S26 M366 2008
    ISBN: 9780786433254
    This critical study traces the common origins of film noir and science fiction films, identifying the many instances in which the two have merged to form a distinctive subgenre known as Tech-Noir.

Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)

Articles and other writings about sci-fi films can be found in many publications. We have one journal that looks exclusively at sci-fi films. However, you can also use Film & Television Literature Index to find other, relevant articles.

  • Issue cover artScience fiction film and television by Liverpool University Press
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic journal
    Science Fiction Film and Television is a biannual, peer-reviewed journal that encourages dialogue among the scholarly and intellectual communities of film studies, sf studies and television studies.
  • Resource logoFilm & television literature index
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    This index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
  • Resource logoThe web of science citation databases by ISI (Institute for Scientific Information)
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    The online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.

A Selected list of science fiction films

Find more science fiction films in the online catalog.

  • Cover artThe blob by Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #2270
    ISBN: 9781559409094
    Residents of a small Pennsylvania town combat a slimy space invader.
  • Cover ArtThe brother from another planet by John Sayles
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #3041
    ISBN: 9780792858102
    In this vastly amusing, offbeat fantasy, Sayles takes a fresh look at our society through the eyes of a black extraterrestrial (Joe Morton) who crash-lands on Earth -- in Harlem -- and is taken in by the regulars of a local bar. The alien changes everyone he meets on his original and eye-opening journey through the streets of urban America. But can his message of brotherly love resonate with the intergalactic bounty hunters trying to track him down?
  • Movie poster artEx machina by Alex Garland
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19423
    Caleb, a coder at the world's largest Internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a retreat belonging to the company's reclusive CEO, Nathan. But when Caleb arrives he finds that he will have to participate in a fascinating experiment with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot woman, Ava. Truths, emotions, and motives are blurred as the relationship between Caleb, Ava, and Nathan intensifies.
  • Movie poster artJe t'aime je t'aime = I love you, I love you by Alain Resnais
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19321
    Claude Ridder is recovering from a failed suicide attempt after the collapse of his relationship with Catrine. He is approached by an obscure scientific lab, who wants him to participate in the human trials of a new time travel device. The test will send him back one year's time, for one minute. But the machine goes haywire, and Ridder gets caught in a never-ending series of temporal leaps, re-living his tragic life out of sequence.
  • Killer klowns from outer space by Stephen Chiodo
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19976
    ISBN: 9780792850540
    Aliens who look like clowns land in their circus-tent spaceship near a small town with the plan to turn all humans into cotton candy.
  • Movie poster artLooper by Rian Johnson
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #15668
    In the year 2074, the mob sends problem people back in time to 2034, where a hired gun waits to eliminate them. Joe is one such hired gun, good at what he does. But problems arise when the mob tries to 'close the loop,' and Joe comes face-to-face with his future self during a hit. When Joe's future self escapes after he hesitates to finish the assignment, Joe must chase himself down and finish the job.
  • Movie poster artThe Martian by Ridley Scott
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19450
    After a bad storm blows across Mars, astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead and left behind. Now stuck on a hostile planet he must find a way to signal Earth and in the meantime survive on limited supplies.

Internet resource(s)

  • Best Sci-fi Short Films from Short of the Week
    • Link
  • Science fiction films from filmsite
    • Link
  • Sci-fi from Polygon
    • Link
    Polygon thinks of themselves as an expert tour guide for popular culture.
  • SciFi Film Festival
    • Link
    SciFi Film Festival is an annual festival held in Sydney, Australia, showcasing sci fi and fantasy genre films and filmmaking, video games, virtual reality and new media technologies.
  • << Previous: Road films
  • Next: Star Trek films >>
  • Last Updated: Apr 14, 2025 4:06 PM
  • URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/filmgenres
  • Print Page
Login to LibApps
Report a problem
Tags: action films, adventure films, amateur films, anti-war films, Arts, b movies, baseball films, basketball films, blaxploitation films, boxing films, comedy films, cop films, crime films, cult films, detective films, documentaries, ethnographies, exploitation films, film & media studies, film noir, football films, gangster films, historical films, hockey films, horror films, independent films, James Bond films, mockumentaries, musicals, religious films, road films, science fiction films, science films, Shakespeare on film, silent films, slasher films, soccer films, sports films, star trek films, star wars films, superhero films, surfing films, vampire films, war films, westerns, zombie films

Dartmouth Libraries

  • Baker-Berry Library
    • Book Arts Workshop
    • Evans Map Room
    • Jones Media Center
  • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
  • Feldberg Business & Engineering Library
  • Rauner Special Collections Library
  • Records Management
  • Sherman Art Library

About Us

  • Staff Directory
  • Subject Librarians
  • Library Departments
  • Policies
  • Employment
  • Accessibility
  • Federal Depository Library

Contact Us

  • 25 North Main Street
    Hanover, NH, USA 03755
  • Phone: 603-646-2567
  • Contact Us

Give Us Feedback

Dartmouth Libraries

Footer copyright

  • Dartmouth College
  • Copyright © 2025 Trustees of Dartmouth College
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Privacy Policy