Drama is a Parent Genre (along with comedy) with all serious tone works falling within it. Drama has no boundaries regarding fusion with other genres.
Films in the Drama Genre encompass these elements:
- More serious than humorous in tone
- Narrative fiction (or semi-fiction)
- In-depth development of Realistic characters
- Realistic emotional struggles
- Centred usually on a character or characters who are in conflict at a crucial moment in their lives.
- Often revolve around families
- Digging under the skin of everyday life to ask big questions and touch on the deepest emotions of people.
- Often have tragic or at least painful resolutions
- The survival of some tragic crisis, like the death of a family member or a divorce
- Characters must be in conflict. Usually with themselves, others, society, or sometimes even natural phenomena.
- Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, child abuse, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption