What To Watch
Program Your Own Film Festival with These 13 Indie Movies
Get in the independent spirit by watching festival titles of years past.
By Mary Sollosi
Sept. 11, 2023
Best Indie Movies on Netflix to Stream This Fall Festival Season - Netflix Tudum
Between Telluride, Venice and Toronto, fall film festival season is a great time for movie lovers. By the end of September, many of the smaller films trying to break into the Oscar race will have had their festival premieres, hopefully generating enough buzz to launch a viable awards season run.
Indie Movies to Stream Now
But even if you’re sitting on your couch instead of walking an Italian red carpet, there’s a way to fight off the FOMO! You can have your very own film festival at home, no passport required (or dress code enforced). We’ve curated a list of 13 can’t-miss indies to stream, all of which premiered at festivals and many of which went on to score Oscar gold or launch the careers of now-revered artists. Read on for our picks.
Emily the Criminal
ROMA
Alfonso Cuarón’s poetic cine-memoir, which premiered at Venice in 2019, picked up 10 Oscar nominations (including for best picture) and three wins (including best foreign language film for Mexico, marking the country’s first win in the category, and best director for Cuarón). The semi-autobiographical drama, shot in arresting black-and-white, follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), an Indigenous housekeeper who works for an upper-middle-class family in Mexico City in the early ’70s. Haunting and deeply expressive, the film is widely regarded as a masterpiece.
Marriage Story
Prepare for the release of Noah Baumbach’s White Noise — which had its premiere at Venice and will hit Netflix in December — by streaming the writer-director’s last film. Marriage Story (which also had a Venice premiere, in 2019) stars Scarlett Johansson and regular Baumbach collaborator Adam Driver as an artist couple painfully dismantling their broken union. Of the film’s six Oscar nominations (including for best picture and both of its leads), one resulted in gold — for Laura Dern’s supporting turn as a take-no-prisoners divorce lawyer.
Lost in Translation
Happy as Lazzaro
The less we give away about Happy as Lazzaro, the better. But we’ll say this much: Alice Rohrwacher’s strange and captivating drama, which competed at Cannes in 2018, takes place in rural Italy, where the goodhearted farmhand Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) and the rest of his impoverished community are illegally exploited by a wealthy marchesa. When Lazzaro strikes up an unlikely friendship with the marchesa’s moody son, it changes his life forever — you’ll just have to watch it to find out exactly how.
Frances Ha
Just about a decade before Greta Gerwig direct the box office sensation that was Barbie, she danced her way through the black-and-white dramedy Frances Ha. Directed by Noah Baumbach and written by him and Gerwig, the film — which premiered at the 2012 Telluride Film Festival — centers on the titular Frances (played by Gerwig), a 27-year-old trying to make it as a dancer (and make sense of her life) in New York City. When her best friend, Sophie, decides to move out of their apartment, it forces Frances to consider where she should go next, both literally and figuratively, and it leads viewers into a charming story of coming into your own.
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore
If you loved watching Melanie Lynskey in Yellowjackets, show your support for the beloved actor with a stream of this offbeat indie thriller. She stars as an unhappy woman who, after being burgled and then dismissed by law enforcement, teams up with her eccentric neighbor (Elijah Wood) to investigate the crime on their own. The directorial debut of actor Macon Blair, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore was an opening night selection at Sundance in 2017, where it took home top honors in the US Dramatic Competition.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
His House
In this horror thriller, which had a Sundance premiere in 2020, a couple escaping South Sudan find their way to England to seek asylum. As they try to adjust to their new lives, they face both racist neighbors and unsettling happenings, where they’re taunted by a sinister force seemingly living in their new home. Over its taught hour and 33 minutes, director Remi Weekes unspools a chilling haunted house story packed with political undertones.
The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal made her directorial debut with this engrossing psychological drama, an adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name, which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival. Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley both picked up Oscar nominations for their performances as the older and younger versions of Leda, a professor and translator who observes the dramas of a family while on vacation alone in Greece (Colman), and, in flashback, struggles to reconcile her career and dreams with the realities of young motherhood (Buckley). Stream it! Maybe snack on some oranges while you watch!
Mudbound
Based on Hillary Jordan’s novel of the same name, Dee Rees’ powerful historical drama is as emotionally intense as it is visually stunning. Garrett Hedlund and Jason Mitchell play two WWII veterans who return home to rural Mississippi after the war and form a quiet friendship, bonding over their shared experience despite the racism that shapes their environment. The deeply affecting film, which debuted at Sundance in 2017, was nominated for four Academy Awards, including two for Mary J. Blige (best supporting actress and best original song).
We the Animals
The Incredible Jessica James
This charming rom-com and Sundance alum (it premiered at the festival in 2017) stars another Jessica — Jessica Williams — as the titular Jessica James, a struggling New York City playwright having even less success in her dating life. Still reeling from a recent breakup, she forges a connection with a divorcé (Chris O’Dowd) she meets on a blind date, and their opposites-attract courtship initially involves them keeping tabs on the other’s ex. Williams’ charming performance and the film’s winning ensemble make Jessica James a movie you’ll definitely want to meet-cute with.
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