The best independent movie you have ever seen.

[Allromanticsmeetthesamefate]

I have never been a huge fan of high budget movies, I can appreciate the escapism, beautiful casts and thrill of them but I much prefer a movie where I can connect, occasionally relate and watch a plot or character unfold. For that reason I prefer smaller/independent movies and absolutely love when I find a gem.

Wondering for this reason if you could recommend me your favourite smaller or independent films.

Submarine
Little Miss Sunshine

Back in the 80s I saw a film late at night. It was a road movie. There was a very feminist woman driving to a feminist meet up in Munich and needed to share the cost and driving, the person that answered her advert was a man who needed to get there for the beer festival. He was a sexist Sun reader etc, it was hilarious but could never find it again.
Of course they argue all the way but fall in love. I think it was a film student film.

Kind of depends on how you are classing 'independent films'. I mean strictly speaking Four Weddings & A Funeral is an independent film if you mean financed and made outside big USA conglomerates.

Muriel's Wedding is great but I'd guess you've seen that.

The best independent films these days tend to be foreign language films like Parasite.

I like Shall We Dance? (a 1996 Japanese film that was later remade with Richard Gere/Jennifer Lopez). The original is really beautiful and has a deeper meaning because of Japanes cultural mores vs USA culture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShallWeDance%3F(1996film)

This is only in my mind because I just watched it - but I would really recommend Get Out. It's on Netflix at the moment. It's a pschological horror film but a cut above most of them. It won an Oscar for best original screenplay. Independent finance but it was distributed by Universal studios so not sure if that meets your criteria.

The Platform is also good if you are in the mood for some dystopian strangeness.

Le-Weekend

Get on Curzon home cinema and take your pick

Ponette. It's awfully sad though.

Years ago I happened to find "The Last Wave" on TV. It's an independent Australian film with excellent reviews and is very different.

@HippyChickMama Fantastic choices. Years ago I went through a phase of watching Submarine weekly!

I don't know if this counts.
I think it was financed by the BBC, but I love, love, LOVE Truly, Madly, Deeply staring the fabulous Juliet Stevenson and the wonderful Alan Rickman 🥀

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Saw it when it was first released and a few times afterwards.

The Substance 😀

Dead Man’s Shoes.

The Doo Dah man

‘The Ballad of Wallis Island ‘is lovely .
’Hidden Figures ‘ , ‘Fighting With My Family ‘ ?

The Ballad of Wallis Island is a lovely film.

Train Dreams on Netflix has been highly recommended to me but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.

War of the Buttons

Two that have stuck with me (as well as some of the others mentioned above):

Together (Swedish: Tillsammans)
Girlhood (French: Bande de filles)

Both subtitled - absolutely BRILLIANT films.

Goodbye Lenin is also good.

Here’s a few:

Longtime Companion
Hoop Dreams
The Crying Game
You Can Count on Me

Commenting to follow as I’d love to see some of these and I know I’ll lose the thread. Thank you :)

Um I think I'd say Rabbit Proof Fence

I think that's an independent film?

The Station Agent.

Whitetail and I

Shiva Baby

City of God.

there's a wonderful animation studio that did a few things, but "the triplets of belleville" is my favourite. Just glorious