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

This engrossing crime thriller, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022, is oceans away from the stunning Italian locales Aubrey Plaza visited in The White Lotus, but her performance as the titular Emily is just as riveting. Emily is struggling with mounting student loan payments and difficulty landing steady work, until she accepts a shady but seemingly easy gig as a “dummy shopper” — someone who buys expensive goods using stolen credit cards — and discovers she’s quite good at it. Soon, though, she gets pulled into a deeper and more dangerous world of crime. Directed and written by John Patton Ford, Emily the Criminal is sure to steal your attention… just be glad she won’t take anything else while she’s at it.

Emily the Criminal

1h 36m   R   2022

Remind Me

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.  

ROMA

2h 14m   R   2018

My List

Watch

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. 

Marriage Story

2h 16m   R   2019

My List

Watch

Lost in Translation

In the 20 years since Sofia Coppola’s 2003 dramedy debuted at the Telluride Film Festival, the Oscar-winning film (for Best Original Screenplay) has cemented itself as an indie touchstone. The film follows a pair of lonely souls, as played by Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray — one the neglected young wife of a photographer, the other a washed-up movie star — who form a tender connection after they cross paths during a stay in Tokyo. 

Lost in Translation

1h 41m   R   2003

Remind Me

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. 

Happy as Lazzaro

2h 7m   PG-13   2018

My List

Watch

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.

Frances Ha

1h 25m   R   2012

My List

Watch

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.  

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

1h 36m   TV-MA   2017

My List

Watch

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

If Thor: Love and Thunder wasn’t enough Taika Waititi for you, why not throw it back to his pre-superhero days? The Kiwi filmmaker’s fourth feature, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, premiered at Sundance in 2016 — the year before his first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Ragnarok, launched his career to new heights. The funny and tender indie follows a delinquent preteen (Julian Dennison) and his foster guardian (Sam Neill), who escape the authorities in the New Zealand bush. 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

1h 41m   PG-13   2016

Remind Me

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.

His House

1h 33m   TV-14   2020

My List

Watch

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!  

The Lost Daughter

2h 2m   R   2021

My List

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). 

Mudbound

2h 15m   R   2017

My List

Watch

We the Animals

Dreamlike and highly imaginative, this Sundance 2018 title, based on the novel of the same name by Justin Torres, was directed and co-written by Jeremiah Zagar (whose Adam Sandler-starring basketball movie Hustle, which came out this summer, is also more than worth a stream). We the Animals is a coming-of-age drama that revolves around three young brothers who live in upstate New York with their parents and struggle with a fraught relationship. As the boys grow up, the youngest, Jonah (Evan Rosado) diverges from his brothers’ mold and explores his own inner life and sexuality.  

We the Animals

1h 33m   R   2018

Remind Me

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.

The Incredible Jessica James

1h 23m   TV-MA   2017

My List

Watch

The Netflix Movies You Love Are on TudumFrom interviews with the stars to behind-the-scenes exclusive content, you’ll find it here.