50 Best Indie Movies Of All Time Ranked

The most basic, most widely agreed-upon definition of "indie movie" is any film made mostly without the help of a major studio. Many of them eventually have a studio sign on for distribution, but that doesn't automatically exclude a movie from being indie. The fact of the matter is that you generally need at least a little nudge from a major movie company if you want the final product to play in theaters or end up on one of the big streaming services. 

That being said, as with music, the label of "indie" is sometimes applied to movies based purely on their content, style, or aesthetic. Wes Anderson movies are often described as "indie" even though he's been working well within the big studio system for most of his career — his films just have that quirky feel and that character-driven vibe that are typically associated with indie filmmaking. Things get further complicated when a lot of money is spent on a movie but it's the filmmaker's own money. Mel Gibson largely self-financed "The Passion of the Christ" (per The Hollywood Reporter), so it's technically an indie movie, but it's an indie movie that cost over $30 million to make. 

When making a list like this, though, some ground rules need to be laid in order to keep things focused. So, for full disclosure, movies that were considered "indie enough" to be eligible for this list had to have their actual production be fairly low budget and be completed with little or no studio involvement. It's fine if a big studio got on board to distribute or even kick in a little funding on the home stretch, so long as it was primarily just to help the movie as it already existed get finished and released.

It's hard to think of a movie that better demonstrates the concept of "sleeper hit" than "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Its opening weekend gross didn't even crack $600K, but it would go on to bring in nearly $250 million on a mere $5 million budget. It's also worth noting that it's one of the highest-grossing movies of all time to never reach #1 at the box office, which suggests a movie with strong word of mouth and a small but steady audience flow over an extended period of time. 

On its surface, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" seems like a typical rom-com that takes the angle of two people from completely different worlds attempting to get married and start their life together. But what elevates it beyond that first and foremost is the performance of Nia Vardalos, who is an extremely charming lead and isn't the typical one-dimensional rom-com character. And the whole crux of the movie — that she has this huge, traditional Greek family — flawlessly walks the line of portraying them as eccentric while never having them go over-the-top to the point of feeling gimmicky.

There is some contention as to what is the actual "first" blaxploitation film, but there's little denying that the genre got its proper start in 1971 with the releases of "Shaft" and "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." However, as "Shaft" had the benefit of distribution from MGM, "Sweet Sweetback" definitely blazed the trail for the indie side of the blaxploitation movement, which arguably better represented the spirit of what blaxploitation movies were supposed to be about.

Melvin Van Peebles had his hand in every aspect of the production of "Sweet Sweetback," not only playing the title role but also writing, directing, editing, scoring, and co-producing the movie. Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton was so impressed with and affected by the movie that he even made it required viewing for every Black Panther member at the time (per MVPmovie.com). It was also groundbreaking from a technical perspective as well, as its use of split screens, freeze frames, jump cuts, and montages were all techniques that were still considered unusual at the time (via Full Frame Fest). 

The opening scene of the film would see Van Peebles' son, Mario, play a younger version of Sweetback, which would later come full circle when Mario played his father in 2003's biopic "Baadasssss!" about the making of "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song."

Though many of his peers would go on to do at least the occasional mainstream, big budget Hollywood film, writer-director Jim Jarmusch has staunchly remained an indie filmmaker throughout his 40+ year career. Even when one of his movies seems to be flirting with a more traditional format, such as the modern day samurai tale "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai," it doesn't take long before those surface layers of normalcy peel away and reveal the trademark Jarmusch quirkiness underneath. Of course, in this case, the strange title should've given some of that away.

One of Jarmusch's greatest talents is in crafting unique and memorable characters, and the titular Ghost Dog is one of his best. Played by the always excellent Forest Whitaker, Ghost Dog has all of the elements of a classic Jarmusch character: He's often funny but is permeated by a deep well of melancholy, and he's stuck living in a world that he doesn't understand and that makes little effort to try and understand him back. As for the movie itself, like most of Jarmusch's genre pieces, "Ghost Dog" is both a love letter to and also at times a parody of crime/revenge films, and remains one of his most accessible movies — though, make no mistake, it's still super weird.

It generally happens that a filmmaker makes indie movies first before eventually moving on to working with major studios. In the case of Todd Solondz, he went in the opposite direction — a fittingly unconventional start for a maker of extremely unconventional movies. Immediately offered a lucrative three-movie deal with 20th Century Fox right out of college entirely on the strength of his student films (per Collider), Solondz got to work on what would become "Fear, Anxiety, and Depression" and quickly became disenfranchised with how little creative control he had under the eye of studio bigwigs. So he took a few years off, licked his wounds, and reinvented himself as an indie filmmaker with 1995's acclaimed "Welcome to the Dollhouse."

Feeling emboldened by the positive feedback of "Dollhouse," Solondz followed it up with an even more challenging and boundary-pushing effort, 1998's extremely dark comedy "Happiness." The themes explored by "Happiness" were so controversial that the Sundance Film Festival rejected it completely (via CNN), and original distributor October Films dropped it despite having already helped to finance it (according to IndieWire). Indeed, anyone with any sort of sexual triggers should research what "Happiness" is about before they watch it (as should pretty much anyone, really). It's definitely not for everyone, but part of what makes indie films so important is that they allow for movies like this that will challenge (if not disgust) as many people as they will entertain, if not more so. 

After nearly 20 years as an actor, Drew Barrymore finally waded into the production side of things when she co-founded Flower Films and got her first producer credit on "Never Been Kissed." While working on "Charlie's Angels," her second film as a producer, she had a meeting on the set with a filmmaker named Richard Kelly and ended up agreeing to finance his project through Flower Films (per Film Comment). That project: a little movie called "Donnie Darko."

Kelly's first feature film, "Donnie Darko," seemed to announce his arrival as the next big thing. The movie was praised for its complex time loop premise, the exploration of the troubled psyche of Donnie (an excellent Jake Gyllenhaal), and an overall tone and style that was unlike anything else at the time. It hit just as a new generation of budding film nerds were coming into their own, and they flocked to buy it on DVD which gave the film a second life and solidified its cult status (via NME). 

Hollywood seemed to quickly sour on Kelly after "Darko" with the disastrous reception to his follow-up, "Southland Tales." Early champions continued to believe in him, however, with Kevin Smith comparing Kelly to Christopher Nolan (via The Hollywood Reporter). He just needs the big studio support Nolan gets to make the kinds of movies he wants to make and whatever budget he needs to make them. 

Founded in 1974, independent production and distribution company Troma Films first made a name for itself with raunchy sex comedies. As documented by The Austin Chronicle, it wasn't until 1984's "The Toxic Avenger" that Troma first gave horror a shot — and with it, their niche had finally been discovered and they focused on B-movie horror almost exclusively going forward. Not only that, but "The Toxic Avenger" in particular would be the start of its own multimedia franchise, becoming so popular that it even spawned a kids cartoon called "Toxic Crusaders" in 1991.

As for the movie that started it all, "The Toxic Avenger" is the perfect example of how to do this kind of movie right. The effects are terrible, the violence and gore are beyond excessive, and the acting is a joke — but it all comes with a heaping helping of self-awareness, a lot of genuinely funny humor, and a clear sense that it's all been put together by a group of people who clearly have a deep affection for what they're making. The movie also manages to make legitimate, scathing statements on issues like crime, pollution, and political corruption — a layer that's there to dig into if you want to, but is never forced on you and entirely possible to ignore if you'd prefer to just enjoy the hilariously gross ride.

Though it was in the 2000s that filmmaker Darren Aronofsky really made a name for himself with "Requiem for a Dream," "The Wrestler," and "Black Swan," his feature film debut came with 1998's "Pi." Drawing comparisons to the works of David Lynch, "Pi" is a complex and unsettling psychological thriller that has no qualms about making its audience confused and/or uncomfortable. It follows a mathematician who becomes consumed with the paradox of life being governed by both human imperfection and the strict guidelines of numbers and equations.

To finance the film, Aronofsky resorted to the age-old method of simply borrowing money from every friend and relative that would give him some (per The Washington Post). But that was only half the battle, as the post-production work on "Pi" required even more time and money than actually shooting it. As reported by Filmmaker Magazine, Aronofsky shot a whopping 23 hours of footage that then had to be edited down to what became the 84-minute final cut, not to mention all of the tricks and effects (like speeding up and slowing down the frames per second at certain points) that needed to be applied. 

"Pi" also made history in that it was the first film to ever be sold via internet download (via The Wall Street Journal), a move that was years ahead of its time in 1999.

Though student films aren't typically considered when discussing indie movies, "Eraserhead" gets a pass in that it only began as a student film, but took so long to make that David Lynch was no longer attending film school by the time it was finished (via Criterion). Often used as something of a go-to example for how weird indie movies can be — particularly by those making the statement with a negative context — "Eraserhead" is indeed a tough watch and is nearly impossible to fully understand without multiple viewings and reading other people's thinkpieces about it. 

That said, "Eraserhead" benefited greatly from the rise of the midnight movie phenomenon that formed during the 1970s, and is mentioned alongside films like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Pink Flamingoes" as one of the films that helped birth that movement (per Rovi). While panned by many critics at the time, "Eraserhead" has since been reappraised and is now generally considered a classic film, one that The Online Film Critics Society said was second only to "Citizen Kane" in terms of the best debut films by great directors. Not bad for a surreal black-and-white movie that started out as a student project, took five years to make, and was called "sickening" and "murkily pretentious" by critics.

It can be a tricky thing to base an entire film around a gimmick like the one that drives "Run Lola Run." The split-screen, entirely in real time 2000 movie "Timecode" is a prime example of how even with the most intriguing of gimmicks, the movie itself is not guaranteed to be compelling or fully worthy of its novel conceit. On the opposite end of that spectrum is "Run Lola Run," which sees a pivotal 20-minute stretch of time replayed over and over again with slight variations, and fully lives up to the promise of its premise.

The German thriller got a lot of traction in the U.S. at a time when foreign language films still carried a stigma with mainstream American audiences (via DMovies). This is no doubt due to how much the movie relies on action, music, and other visual and non-verbal audio cues to convey most of what's important in any given scene. And whenever it comes time for dialogue to really be paid attention to, the movie typically comes to a stop and there's more opportunity to read the subtitles and take in what's being said. 

The international success of "Rum Lola Run" would also pave the way for star Franka Potente to cross over and appear in American films like "The Bourne Identity" and TV series like "American Horror Story."

1995's "Kicking and Screaming" — no, not the soccer movie with Will Ferrell and Mike Ditka — was to writer-director Noah Baumbach as "Bottle Rocket" was to Wes Anderson: an imperfect debut film, but one that was clearly announcing a new talent primed to do great things. And speaking of Anderson, the two would eventually become occasional collaborators, first as co-writers on "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and then following that up a year later with Anderson producing Baumbach's "The Squid and the Whale."

"The Squid and the Whale" announced the true arrival of Noah Baumbach as one of the best and most consistent filmmakers of the last 20 years. It's also one of the most raw and honest explorations put to film of divorce and what it does not only to the family itself but to some of the people in their general orbit. Co-leads Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are excellent, of course, but it's also worth pointing out the near-career-best performances of Anna Paquin, Jesse Eisenberg, and even William Baldwin — proving that he can be terrific when given the chance. One sign of a great indie filmmaker is their ability to both see and utilize the talent in an actor who is frequently undervalued by Hollywood. 

After a decade of mostly only being a screenwriter (sometimes alongside partner Noah Baumbach) and only being a co-director on 2008's "Nights and Weekends," Greta Gerwig finally went fully solo on writing and directing with "Lady Bird." The 2017 coming-of-age dramedy stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character (well, technically it's a nickname) and the always amazing Laurie Metcalf as her long-suffering mother. And with it, Gerwig proved that she's more than capable of handling things as a filmmaker all by herself.

"Lady Bird" earned much-deserved Academy Award nominations for Ronan and Metcalf, as well as Gerwig for both writing and directing. It was also so well received by critics that it is the current record holder for longest amount of time a movie maintained its 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, beating out previous record holder "Toy Story 2" (per Entertainment Weekly). That Gerwig's next movie is a rom-com based on the Barbie toyline (that she's co-writing with Baumbach) seems like an odd choice, but if there's one filmmaker that we will give the benefit of the doubt to in terms of a Barbie rom-com, it's Greta Gerwig.

Although indie movies are known for going the bittersweet — if not outright tragic — route when it comes to depicting families, "Little Miss Sunshine" was not afraid to let its dysfunctional family enjoy a happy ending that saw them all literally dancing together. After all, there is no rule that says indie movies have to be dark or sad, and it's great that there are entries like "Little Miss Sunshine" to carry the banner for that fact.

"Little Miss Sunshine" is the feature film debut of husband-and-wife directorial team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris — music video directors who had been working almost exclusively with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the few years leading up to the project. The movie helped to kick off a shinier, happier era of indie films that would pave the wave for movies like "Juno." It also served as a breakthrough for both Abigail Breslin and Paul Dano, showed that Steve Carrell could play melancholic, and earned Alan Arkin his first Oscar in nearly 40 years. 

All this from first-time screenwriter Michael Arndt, who proved he was far from being a one-hit wonder with later work on both "Toy Story 3" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

The viral marketing campaign for "The Blair Witch Project" could've only been possible before the era of social media and our current world where you're only guaranteed not to have a movie spoiled for you by the internet if you see it at its initial midnight screening. As chronicled by SyFy, there was a lot of mystery surrounding the movie, with the general public not quite knowing if the movie was "real" or not. Found footage movies weren't a genre unto themselves yet, so the commercials that featured unknown actors being filmed in the woods with a shaky video camera looked like ads for self-shot amateur video rather than scenes from a movie.

The group of people that were lucky enough to see "The Blair Witch Project" in theaters in those first few weeks got to experience something truly special, indeed. While it still remains an extremely effective horror movie even once you know it's not real, being able to experience it completely untainted by that confirmation just elevated it to the next level. It's also a rare horror movie that was just as, if not more, effective at home than at the theater as that plays into its home video style. 

"The Blair Witch Project" remains one of the most profitable movies of all time in terms of production costs vs. box office gross — with its closest competitor, not coincidentally, being "Paranormal Activity" (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Is there anything more indie than literally filming your movie in the off hours of the actual convenience store you work at during the day? That's what Kevin Smith did with "Clerks," using credit cards to pay for most of the $30,000 production budget of his debut comedy (per Dazed). Neither the setting nor the setup are anything special, but "Clerks" succeeds entirely on Smith's snappy dialogue and the surprisingly solid performances of its two complete amateur leads.

Sure, the fact that the movie contains so much vulgarity that it almost got an NC-17 rating for dialogue alone (via View Askew), coupled with the characters' tendency to have philosophical discussions about things like "Star Wars," went a long way in helping the movie become a cult hit with teen and twentysomething dudes. But there are plenty of movies full of dirty jokes and nerdy references that don't launch entire cinematic universes, so there's definitely a lot more to "Clerks" than that. 

There are a lot of movies about the rich and the beautiful, and there are a lot of movies about the poor and the beaten down, but there's an entire area in between of middle class, middle American people who don't have exciting or tragic enough lives to have movies made about them. Unless, of course, those movies are written by someone like Kevin Smith.

The Coen Brothers feel like they've just always been there, but they did indeed start somewhere. And that somewhere is with the 1984 noir "Blood Simple," coming three years before their big breakthrough by way of "Raising Arizona." Those that started with the Nicolas Cage- and Holly Hunter-starring comedy adventure romp might have found it jarring when the Coens followed that up with "Miller's Crossing" in 1990, but they were in fact returning to their noir roots.

As "Blood Simple" didn't get much attention upon first release, much of what is currently written about it is through the lens of retrospect. But that hindsight is basically unanimous in agreement that "Blood Simple" sees that the Coen Brothers' trademark perfectionism and meticulousness was in full effect right from their first movie. Not a single bit of blocking, not a single camera move, and not a single word of dialogue is frivolous — it was all obsessively crafted and expertly implemented. It also marked the first time the Coens used Barry Sonnenfeld as a cinematographer, putting him on the path to his successful directorial career in the '90s with "The Addams Family," "Men In Black," et al.

Another movie that benefited from midnight showings at local theaters, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is the first movie that comes to mind when most people think of the practice. In fact, "Rocky Horror" fans make midnight showings of the movie a live event — dressing as their favorite characters, shouting in unison at specific parts, and even throwing things at the screen and each other.

Beyond just being a delightfully cheesy B-movie musical, "Rocky Horror" has resonated with so many people for so many years in large part because of its celebration of LGBTQ+ culture. Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furter sings of being "a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania" in the movie's first musical number while wearing a corset and thigh-high fishnet stockings. Curtis M. Wong of HuffPost also points out that queer audiences fell in love with "Rocky Horror" because of "its embrace of sexual freedom, [and] its objectification of men for a gay gaze." It's also just a general celebration of and for anyone who has every felt like an outsider for one reason or another, which is just about everybody.

All those midnight showings have helped "Rocky Horror" slowly climb to a $170 million lifetime gross, as well as setting a record for the longest amount of a time any movie has continuously run in theaters (per BBC Culture).

Jennifer Lawrence wasted little time in proving she was a forced to be reckoned with, earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination at age 20 and only four films into her movie career. Not many young actresses would've been willing (or brave enough) to take on a role as challenging as the one she played in the incredible "Winter's Bone," but Lawrence has shown time and time again that she is far from the typical movie star. The film also features a chilling performance from John Hawkes, definitely one of his generation's most underrated actors whose own Oscar nomination for "Winter's Bone" was long overdue.

Featuring a darker, less flattering depiction of the Ozarks than even the Netflix series, "Winter's Bone" follows Lawrence's Ree Dolly on a journey to find her missing addict father that takes her from one dangerous situation to the next. It's the kind of movie that gets darker and more dire as it goes on, but then comes around with a surprising (but slight) ray of hope at the end. Even in a year with incredibly stiff competition from films like "Black Swan," "The Social Network," "Toy Story 3," and "Inception," "Winter's Bone" ended up being the second best reviewed film of 2010 and was picked as #1 by the Associated Press, The A.V. Club, Indiewire, and Time Out New York, among others.

Pay no attention to the tiresome cool kid backlash that followed: Audiences and critics loved "Juno" when it was first released, and they were right to do so. Continuing on the style of hip, colorful, feel-good indie movies that "Little Miss Sunshine" had helped to kickstart the previous year, "Juno" was the better version of that type of movie, and has definitely held up better in the years since both films released. 

First-time screenwriter Diablo Cody nailed the task of bringing in several stale plot archetypes — coming-of-age story, teen rom-com, impending pregnancy drama — and giving them a modern spin. The whip smart and hilarious dialogue was also expertly delivered by an impressive ensemble that includes Elliot Page, Michael Cera, J.K. Simmons, Alison Janney, Jason Bateman, and Jennifer Garner. 

What seemed to sour people on "Juno" was that it was being talked about in the same breath as movies like "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will be Blood" when discussing the best films of 2007. Why can't they just co-exist? There is always so much talk about how comedies aren't taken seriously enough, but then people complain when one finally is. Never mind all that — "Juno" was a treat in 2007 and it's a treat now.

Most budding filmmakers would've tried to pay their dues first with a couple of lighter, safer, less in-your-face films before attempting something like "She's Gotta Have It." But, luckily for all of us, Spike Lee isn't most filmmakers. From his very first feature film, Lee was years ahead of his time in how he portrayed both race and feminism, not to mention that he did so in a movie that laughed in the face of established film conventions — having characters talk directly into the camera as if addressing the audience was something not seen before and rarely seen since, at least not outside of a documentary. 

Such was Lee's confidence right from the start — not having yet done anything to earn that confidence but not really caring, either. It felt like a response to the previous decade's blaxploitation films, which were a double-edged sword of increasing the visibility of Black people and stories on the big screen but also perpetuating a lot of negative stereotypes while doing so. And for what it's worth, the most poorly-aged aspect of "She's Gotta Have it" — the assault that comes near the end of the movie — is one that Lee says he regrets and wishes he would've handled differently. It is definitely a huge blemish on the film's messages of feminism and sex positivity, and at least Lee can acknowledge that even if he can't take it back.

15 years before he made Forest Whitaker into a hip hop samurai, Jim Jarmusch was just settling into his groove as a filmmaker with his second feature, "Stranger Than Paradise." Co-written with jazz musician John Lurie who also stars, the movie is a surreal comedy in which each scene is one long, uninterrupted take that is bookended by a fade-in and fade-out. There is a basic plot revolving around Lurie's hustler character spending time with his friend Eddie and his cousin from out of town, Eva. But it's not important. Nothing in the movie is, really. It's just a series of deadpan, absurdist comedy conversations that are impossible not to get enraptured in. It's a setup that Jarmusch would revisit multiple times throughout his career, with the most recent example being 2003's anthology "Coffee and Cigarettes" — though that one has a completely new set of characters and actors for each scene. 

Karl Williams of AllMovie says that "Stranger Than Paradise" was "an early example of the low-budget independent wave that would dominate the cinematic marketplace a decade later." Indeed, while the indie movies released near the end of the '80s and into the '90s get the most credit for the indie movie renaissance of the latter decade, "Stranger Than Paradise" walked so all of those movies could run — and most of them still never really caught up.

No, "Night of the Living Dead" is certainly not the first zombie movie, nor is it anywhere close to it. But the consensus is definitely that it's the first modern zombie film, the one that establishes most of the tenets used to this day in terms of both zombies as characters and zombie movies as a genre. In the write-up for the Criterion Collection release of George A. Romero's 1968 classic, "Night of the Living Dead" is described as "a midnight hit turned box-office smash that became one of the most influential films of all time."

For a movie that was not only made on a miniscule budget but one made on a miniscule budget in the late '60s, "Night of the Living Dead" is as shocking in its horror and violence as it is in its technical proficiency. That a then-28-year-old first time filmmaker was already so good at his craft is astounding, not only writing and directing but also editing the film himself and proving to be a master in all three jobs. 

After waiting a few years to make a follow-up for fear of being pigeonholed, Romero followed "Night" up with "Dawn of the Dead," which many feel is even better than the original — and would put Zack Snyder on the map with his fantastic 2004 remake. But "Night" remains the definitive indie zombie flick. 

One debate that horror fans spent years having with themselves is whether "Evil Dead II" is a sequel to "The Evil Dead" or if it's more of a remake. There is evidence to support both theories, and Sam Raimi is the type who is content to let fans have such debates without him weighing in. In 2017, Bruce Campbell — star of both films — gave his own take on the debate (via Bloody Disgusting) in the most Bruce Campbell way possible by saying that "Evil Dead II" is a "requel." 

What generally isn't up for debate is which one is better — the consensus is pretty firmly in the camp of the requel being the better of the two (and the best of the whole trilogy). But it's the original that has the more scrappy, homemade, truly indie spirit. Make no mistake: All of Raimi's "Evil Dead" movies feel very indie and were clearly made entirely under his own creative control. But with "Evil Dead II" more or less being an attempt to do what they did with the original only with a bigger budget and a few more years of experience under Raimi's belt (per the book The Evil Dead Companion), the first one remains the best example of what Raimi and Campbell are able to accomplish when they have little more than their own ambition and ingenuity to work with. 

While "Night of the Living Dead" was the template for modern zombie films and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" established several of the tenets of the slasher, it is John Carpenter's 1978 masterpiece "Halloween" that generally gets the bigger overall recognition for — as the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus says — "[setting] the standard for modern horror films." The film debut of Jamie Lee Curtis, one of the original "final girls" (and one of the only ones who got to be the final girl multiple times across multiple films) "Halloween" remains a master class in how to build suspense. In fact, it's fair to say that it's as much of a thriller as it is a horror movie, and that's exactly why it works so well.

"Halloween" was considered the most profitable indie movie of all time for over 20 years (per Parade), until it was ultimately dethroned by none other than "The Blair Witch Project." That's an important point to keep in mind when you learn that the overall "Halloween" franchise has since gone on to gross $750 million worldwide, and is one of the only horror franchises that started in that era that has continued to have hit entries into the 2020s (with more still on the way). Much of that is due to the fact that the original was such an incredibly strong foundation to build upon that its characters and universe are able to stay relevant to modern audiences nearly 45 years later. 

Cited by both The New York Times and The Guardian as one of the best films of this century so far, "Moonlight" was well deserving of its Best Picture win at the 2017 Academy Awards — even if the kerfuffle surrounding the way it was announced stole some of its thunder and is what people remember most about the big moment. It tells the story of a character named Chiron at three points of his life, with the movie clearly labeling each one by what Chiron was known as during that period. It's an extremely powerful film about the complicated nature of Black masculinity and what it does to a person to have to live their entire life pretending to be something they're not.

"Moonlight" also won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and for Mahershala Ali for his incredible performance as the drug dealer who ends up becoming a father figure to young Chiron. In speaking with Out magazine about the movie, actor Trevante Rhodes — who played Chiron as an adult — summed up why it was such an important story to tell: "Being a black person in America right now is s***, being a homosexual in America right now is s***, and being a Black homosexual is the bottom for certain people ... I don't feel like there's a solution for our problems, but this movie might change people."  

"Before Sunrise" feels like the ultimate indie movie, because it's the perfect example of what indie movies do best — the entire film is literally just Ethan Hawke's Jesse and Judy Delpy's Céline talking. That's it. And there isn't a single moment that isn't completely and utterly engrossing or comes anywhere close to boring the audience. Sure, it helps that they're walking around beautiful, historic Vienna while they ruminate about life, love, and relationships, but it would probably still work if the entire movie took place in an empty room with just two chairs.

Another "just people talking" movie from Richard Linklater, "Before Sunrise" puts a lot of the heavy lifting on its two stars, allowing them to help determine what their characters say and the decisions that they make. That was taken much further in the movie's two sequels — Before Sunset and Before Midnight — that see Hawke and Delpy credited as co-screenwriters. What's that? This movie became a trilogy? It sure did, and against all odds, all three movies are amazing and never once betray the concept or the characters. 

To take a movie like "Before Sunrise" and successfully pull off not one but two sequels to it is one of the most impressive tricks than any indie movie ever pulled off.