AbstractNanoporous Anodic Alumina Films (NAAF) have been used for growing a lot of nanostructure functional materials. Of particular interest is the NAAF conversion into membranes (NAAM) with different highly controlled pore diameter and distribution to be used as templates and masks to grow a wide variety of nanomaterials. This work constitutes an approach to a review of our latest results regarding the use of NAAF and NAAM as templates in which II-VI semiconductor, functional oxides, hard materials and magnetic nanowires have been grown. The growth techniques and methods used include Isothermal Close Space Sublimation (ICSS), Magnetron Sputtering, electroplating and sol-gel. Ion Beam Irradiation (IBI) combined with different NAAM as masks has been also used for Titania substrates functionalization.