Due to the environmental pollution caused by packaging waste and food safety issues, traditional packaging materials with basic mechanical properties could not satisfy the demand from consumers. Therefore, functional packaging materials have received more and more attention. The functionality of the packaging materials depend not only on the design of packaging structure, but also on the selection of packaging materials. With the development of novel materials and technology, the functionality of packaging materials tends to be diversified and broader application market is highly required. This review summarizes the research on functional packaging materials in recent years. Based on the application of packaging materials, the functional packaging materials are divided into four categories according to the functionality of the packaging materials, which are barrier packaging materials, green packaging materials, freshkeeping packaging materials and intelligent packaging materials. And the characteristics, application status and development trend of the each type of packaging materials are summarized. Finally, the development status of functional packaging materials is reviewed and the broad application prospects of functional packaging materials in the food and medical fields are proposed. At the end, future efforts on functional packaging materials are proposed, which should be focused on the research directions of food safety, environmental protection and integrated multifunctional packaging.