Contemporary cinema is the most recent period in film history, beginning around 1965 and continuing up to the present. Global political events, racial and gender politics, multiculturalism, new nationalisms, the global economy, and new technologies all shape the form and content of contemporary cinema.
The Hollywood movie industry shifted noticeably in this period in response to the expansion of a youth audience; the increasing influence of European art films and the globalization of Hollywood; and the arrival of conglomerates, blockbusters, cable, home video, and Internet streaming. Two stylistic trends dominate the contemporary period: (1) the elevation of image spectacles and special effects, and (2) the fragmentation and reflexivity of narrative constructions.
A number of youth-driven new wave movements emerged in both Eastern and Western Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. The spirit of these movements, and the formal innovations of the films, challenged entrenched state- and commercially dominated national film industries, but they were still largely identified with the concept of “the nation.”
New German cinema was launched in 1962, when a group of young filmmakers declared a new agenda for German film in a film festival document called the Oberhausen Manifesto. This diverse movement in cinema can be characterized by two major objectives: to confront Germany’s Nazi and postwar past, approached directly or through an examination of the current political and cultural climate, and to emphasize the distinctive, often maverick, visions of individual directors.
India’s movie producers are the most prolific in the world, and they have thrived since the first Indian film was premiered in 1913. The golden age of Indian cinema came after independence in 1948 with the ascendance of the Bombay-based industry (known as Bollywood) with its stars, songs, and spectacular successes. During the same time, Parallel Cinema, a mainly Calcutta-based alternative to India’s commercial cinema (exemplified by the films of renowned director Satyajit Ray) also achieved prominence.
African cinema encompasses an entire continent and, hence, many languages, cultures, and nations, each with varying levels of economic development and infrastructure. An initial distinction can be made between North Africa and sub-Saharan African cinema. Taking shape in the 1960s after decolonization, sub-Saharan African cinema encompasses the relatively well-financed francophone, or French-language, cinema of West Africa, and films in African languages such as Wolof and Swahili. Although it is difficult to generalize about this rapidly expanding film culture, some of its most influential features and shorts have been united by (1) a focus on social and political themes rather than commercial interests, and (2) an exploration of the conflicts between tradition and modernity.
Chinese cinema poses its own challenge to models of national cinema because it includes films from the “three Chinas”—the People’s Republic of China (or mainland China), Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In the 1980s the so-called Fifth Generation of mainland China, who were interested both in the formal potential of the medium and in critical social content, rose to challenge the previous propagandistic use of cinema. After the phenomenal international success of low-budget Hong Kong kung-fu films in the 1970s, the Hong Kong New Wave led by producer-director Tsui Hark and action film director John Woo introduced sophisticated style, lucrative production methods, and a canny use of Western elements to the genre.
Iranian cinema is notable for its many festival prizes and critical acclaim. The art films of this Islamic nation are characterized by (1) spare pictorial beauty, often of landscapes or scenes of everyday life on the margins, and (2) an elliptical storytelling mode that developed in part as a response to state regulation.