Add These Indie Gems to Your Watchlist
A24 darlings, underground hits, and festival favourites.
Independent cinema just had its biggest night in years.
The 97th Academy Awards were a love letter to filmmakers who work outside the studio system, proving that sharp storytelling and inventive filmmaking can still stand tall against Hollywood’s biggest budgets. Sean Baker’s Anora swept multiple top categories, including Best Picture, while Flow, an animated feature made using open-source software, stunned audiences with its unconventional artistry. And then there was A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg’s poignant comedy-drama, which gave Kieran Culkin his first Oscar win. If the night belonged to anyone, it was the indie filmmakers who continue to push the boundaries of what cinema can be.
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With that in mind, here are 15 indie films—from quiet character studies to genre-bending spectacles—that deserve your attention. Whether they premiered at Cannes or flew under the radar at your local arthouse theatre, these films redefine what it means to tell a great story on a small budget.
Dahomey
Mati Diop’s haunting documentary is as much about the ghosts of colonialism as it is about the physical return of looted artifacts. Dahomey captures the 2021 restitution of 26 stolen treasures from a Parisian museum to modern-day Benin, but Diop goes further—giving the artifacts voices, memories, and a deep unease about their homecoming. In merging political discourse with poetic storytelling, Dahomey turns a simple act of restitution into an existential meditation on history, loss, and belonging.
A Complete Unknown
Timothée Chalamet’s turn as Bob Dylan is a revelation—one that avoids the pitfalls of a conventional biopic. Directed by James Mangold, A Complete Unknown zeroes in on the moment Dylan went electric, capturing the friction between folk purists and a musician determined to evolve. With a stacked supporting cast and a keen ear for Dylan’s contradictions, this is a film as restless and enigmatic as its subject.
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All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light is a quiet masterpiece, suffused with longing and the subtle textures of everyday life. Following two nurses in Mumbai, the film explores the way space—both physical and emotional—shapes relationships. From a stolen moment between forbidden lovers to the tender rhythms of friendship, Kapadia crafts an achingly intimate portrait of women navigating a city that both nurtures and isolates.
The Brutalist
Brady Corbet’s three-and-a-half-hour immigrant epic doesn’t just tell the story of Hungarian architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody); it embodies it. Shot on 70mm, The Brutalist is an imposing, monolithic film—both in its grand themes and stark aesthetic. As Tóth struggles to stay true to his artistic vision in America, Corbet turns his journey into a meditation on the cost of creation in a world ruled by commerce.
Nosferatu (2024)
Robert Eggers reimagines cinema’s original vampire through a lens of grotesque beauty. His Nosferatu is a fever dream of repression and desire, dripping with gothic horror and historical accuracy. It’s as sensual as it is terrifying, featuring Willem Dafoe in a deliciously unhinged role and a haunting performance from Bill Skarsgård as the titular night stalker. Eggers proves once again that horror can be both primal and artful.
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The Substance
Demi Moore leads a body horror fever dream in Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, a film that rips apart beauty standards with surgical precision (and a lot of blood). Imagine Freaky Friday reimagined as a feminist horror film, where swapping bodies isn’t a magical experience—it’s a violent, visceral nightmare. Equal parts satirical and deeply unsettling, this one cements Fargeat as a genre visionary.
The Outrun
Saoirse Ronan delivers one of her most deeply felt performances in The Outrun, a devastating yet hopeful story about addiction and self-reclamation. Based on Amy Liptrot’s memoir, the film follows a woman returning to her windswept Scottish homeland after rehab, only to find that escaping the past isn’t as easy as she hoped. The film’s breathtaking landscapes mirror its protagonist’s emotional turmoil, making it as visually hypnotic as it is narratively compelling.
Rebuilding
Josh O’Connor helms this heartbreaking film about Dusty, a Colorado rancher, who loses his entire estate to a devastating wildfire. The story moves beautifully through loss, grief, acceptance, and resolve as both Dusty and his wife—played by The White Lotus’ Meghann Fahy—start from scratch, rebuilding their home, emotionally and physically. Writer and director Max Walker-Silverman’s last movie, A Love Song, was one of the best-reviewed at Sundance 2022, so expect great things.
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Girls Will Be Girls
Shuchi Talati’s Girls Will Be Girls is a standout indie film that explores the nuanced experience of girlhood and womanhood in India. The story follows Mira (Preeti Panigrahi), a teenager navigating young romance, sexual expression, and a complicated relationship with her mother. The film won the Sundance Audience Award for Best World Cinema Dramatic Film and has a rare 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. A poignant look at gender roles in South Asia, Girls Will Be Girls is one of 2024’s must-watch independent films.
Juror #2
Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 is a tightly constructed legal thriller that questions the imperfections of the justice system. The film offers a classic character study, examining how personal morality and systemic flaws intersect. If this truly is Eastwood’s final film, it serves as a fitting end to his legendary career—thought-provoking, expertly crafted, and deeply human.
A Different Man
This psychological thriller and dark satire follows an insecure actor who undergoes a medical procedure to remove his facial disfigurement, only to be overshadowed by another man who still has the same condition but radiates confidence. A Different Man is a caustically funny and thought-provoking examination of beauty standards and self-worth. Featuring Sebastian Stan in a transformative role, the film plays with identity, perception, and the unsettling truths about how society values appearances.
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A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain is an emotionally rich drama about two estranged cousins—played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin—who travel to Poland to explore their family’s Holocaust history. The journey forces them to confront deep-seated family trauma, their clashing personalities, and what it means to carry the weight of generational pain. Acquired after a fierce bidding war at Sundance, A Real Pain is a touching, sometimes uncomfortable, yet deeply rewarding film about memory, grief, and the complexities of family bonds.
Conclave
Ralph Fiennes leads Conclave, a gripping political thriller set in the Vatican. Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), the film follows Cardinal Lomeli (Fiennes), who is tasked with overseeing the secretive election of a new Pope after the sudden death of the previous one. As the voting process unfolds behind closed doors, buried secrets, power struggles, and hidden agendas emerge, threatening to shake the foundation of the Church. With a stellar supporting cast, including John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini, Conclave is a masterfully crafted drama filled with intrigue, suspense, and moral dilemmas.
I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun delivers a hypnotic and unsettling coming-of-age horror film that blends surrealist horror with an intimate exploration of identity and self-discovery. I Saw the TV Glow follows Owen (Justice Smith), a quiet high schooler who finds himself drawn to a mysterious late-night television program introduced to him by a classmate (Brigette Lundy-Paine). As the show’s eerie mythology begins to bleed into reality, Owen is forced to confront parts of himself he’s long kept buried. With stunning visuals, an A24-crafted dreamlike atmosphere, and a haunting score, Schoenbrun’s film has quickly built a cult following.
Nickel Boys
Barry Jenkins brings Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Nickel Boys to the screen in a deeply affecting historical drama. Set in the 1960s, the film follows Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse), an idealistic Black teenager who is wrongfully sent to the Nickel Academy, a brutal reform school based on the real-life Dozier School for Boys. There, he forms a complex bond with the cynical Turner (Fred Hechinger), whose survival instincts clash with Elwood’s unshaken belief in justice. A searing indictment of institutional racism and a testament to resilience, The Nickel Boys is among the most powerful films of the decade.