filmiskt

Filmiskt is an adjective used in Swedish and Norwegian to describe something that has the qualities of film or mimics the style of cinema. The word is formed from film and the suffix -iskt, and it has cognates in Danish (filmisk) and Norwegian (filmisk/filmiske). It is commonly used in discussions of visual arts, photography, video, and narrative media to indicate a cinema-informed aesthetic.

The term covers several aspects: composition and lighting that resemble film frames, editing rhythm and pacing, color grading and contrast, and sound design when relevant, as well as mise-en-scène that evokes traditional film language. It can also describe prose or poetry that constructs scenes as if staged for a movie, using cinematic pacing or montage-like sequencing in text.

Filmiskt is primarily a descriptive term in criticism and theory rather than a value judgment. It signals that the work consciously adopts film conventions to achieve its effects, and it may carry different connotations depending on context—ranging from praise for a polished, movie-like look to critique of over-polished or artificial aesthetics.

Examples of usage include phrases such as "en filmisk estetik," "ett filmiskt berättande," and "filmiska bilder." In practice, speakers may prefer related terms like filmisk or the English equivalent cinematic when translating or writing outside its primary Scandinavian context.