Nanomaterials in the form of thin film form indispensable parts of modern technological world including microelectronics, optoelectronics, energy conversion and storage, sensors, and various biomedical devices. The active fabrication of the nanostructured thin films gives a fine-tuning of the structural, optical, electrical and mechanical properties on a nanoscale. The review compiles a broad overview of the principle, taxonomic groupings, and the most current developments in respect to the thin film preparation technique of nanomaterials. The main deposition modalities such as physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, sol-gel processing and electrochemical are analyzed in details. Techniques of characterization, salient functional properties, major application, ongoing challenges, as well as future research directions, are also outlined.