Postmodernism is a term used in the arts, literature, and psychology that describes the change in communications and technology that often refers back to earlier periods of history. Within the media ,postmodernism is a large part of pop culture in countries including the U.S. where postmodern film often references the movies of earlier periods of film history. In film, postmodernism can be seen in a number of ways, including the altering of the state of mind of the protagonists, as a homage or pastiche of an earlier style of film and a sense of hyper-reality.

The term "postmodernism" is a product of the late-20^th century and was first used in psychology in 1979 by Jean-Francois Lyotard. In general, it is used to explain the movement of the arts and literature from the ideas established by mass communication techniques in the late-19^th century to the ideas of the late-20^th century and beyond. In an effort to explain postmodern film, researchers often refer to individual films that possess examples of postmodernism.

Pastiche is one of the common examples cited by academic researchers in postmodern film. This feature of postmodern technique makes use of well-known areas of pop culture, which are referenced by the filmmakers often in a comic style. An example of a pastiche in Hollywood movies is the Austin Powers series of films that pay homage to the spy movies and culture of the 1960s.

The sterility and loneliness of modern and future life is another feature of the postmodern film that explains the changing of human nature into a machine-like detached personality. Examples of the advance of technology over human feelings are known as the flattening of affect, and include the film Taxi Driver featuring the descent into insanity of a lonely taxi driver in a big city. Altered states are another example of postmodernism, showing the changing of personality in a film's characters often because of the use of hallucinogenic drugs.

A playfulness with history can also often be included in postmodern film. Many movies attempt to ask questions of what would have happened if history had turned out differently, including such titles as Twelve Monkeys and Donnie Darko. The use of technology to negatively affect the life of human beings is often included in postmodern films as well, referred to as examples of hyper-reality. Cases of hyper-reality attempt to show that the world can be a better place when reality is not what we believe it to be. For example, The Truman Show is the story of a man who discovers that his life has been recorded for a reality TV show with his friends and neighbors being paid actors.