Modern movie distribution is undoubtedly in flux. Hollywood now rarely greenlights mid-budget adult dramas—a space that prestige television has long since begun to swallow—while independent projects (i.e. those made without guaranteed distribution) struggle to find financing without major stars attached. And yet, indies endure against all odds, providing necessary respite from an increasingly bloated blockbuster scene.
Whether it’s streaming, the arthouse, or even the occasional multiplex making room for offbeat fare, films that don’t fit the increasingly narrow definition of mainstream cinema feel more culturally vital than they have in decades. The more great indies we support in a given year, the more we have a chance of seeing in the future—and 2024 has been an embarrassment of riches when it comes to films that didn’t have guaranteed distribution when their cameras rolled. These are 10 of the best ones.
1. “A Real Pain”
Countries: United States, Poland
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
After premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain” was acquired in what was described by Deadline as a highly competitive “all-nighter” auction. A low-key drama with enormous emotional scope, Eisenberg’s sophomore directing effort follows David Kaplan, an anxious, well-to-do Jewish American played by the director himself—a decision he made early on in the process to help secure funding. David embarks on a European tour alongside his outgoing, volatile cousin, Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin), to visit the site of their late grandmother’s internment during the Holocaust. The film is a powerful tale of generational guilt and trauma, in which thorny nuances are unfurled—gradually, and then all at once—as the duo searches for ways to heal deep-seated pain, while also trying to locate their wounds in the first place.
2. “All We Imagine as Light”
Countries: India, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, United States, Belgium
Distributor: Sideshow, Janus Films
From director Payal Kapadia—whose 2021 docufiction piece “A Night of Knowing Nothing” chronicled Indian students’ protests against government interference in film schools—“All We Imagine as Light” is a luminous and quietly political film about working-class sisterhood in Mumbai. Shortly before its unveiling at the Cannes Film Festival in May (where it would go on to win the Grand Prix), Kapadia’s narrative debut was acquired for release by Sideshow and Janus Films, two distributors who excel at bringing international arthouse fare across the United States—like the Oscar-winning Japanese drama “Drive My Car” and the Latvian feline cartoon “Flow.” With languid pacing that allows viewers to ruminate on its characters’ thoughts and feelings, it uses its leading trio (Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam)—complex migrant women of different generations—to paint a conflicted portrait of Mumbai as a bustling metropolis few can truly call home.
3. “Anora”
Country: United States
Distributor: Neon
Cannes has continued to show the buyers over at Neon love: Sean Baker’s “Anora”—which was acquired after its completion late last year—was awarded 2024’s Palme d’Or, the distributor’s fifth consecutive win at the festival. The film has since become a runaway box office hit, ending its second week with a haul of $2 million from a meager 34 screens. “Anora” is yet another gentle but effervescent peek into the lives of sex workers, a subject the filmmaker has tackled in his previous films “Tangerine” (2015) and “Red Rocket” (2021). This time, his critique of the American dream comes wrapped in lavish fantasy, as Brooklyn exotic dancer Ani (Mikey Madison) enters an intoxicating whirlwind romance with Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the spoiled son of a Russian oligarch. However, when Vanya’s family discovers their relationship, they send goons to break the couple up, resulting in a hilarious and surprisingly thoughtful comedy of errors.
4. “The Brutalist”
Country: United States, United Kingdom, Hungary
Distributor: A24
$10 million is no meager sum, but it almost feels too tiny to be the budget for “The Brutalist,” Brady Corbet’s sweeping immigrant epic that evokes Hollywood classics like “The Godfather.” (They don’t make ’em like this anymore—mostly because studios don’t fund ’em anymore). A24 nabbed Corbet’s audacious period drama out of this year’s Venice Film Festival, where its three-and-a-half-hour runtime on 70mm was the talk of the town. Its story follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jewish architect who flees the Holocaust and moves to Philadelphia. Once stateside, he’s seduced by a world of wealth and power, embodied by Guy Pearce’s ferocious industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. The film, in some ways, feels like a metaphor for its own making: The struggle to stay true to one’s art in a world where money is king has never been easy.
5. “Dahomey”
Country: France, Senegal, Benin, Singapore
Distributor: MUBI
One of the most esoteric works to find U.S. distribution, Mati Diop’s hour-long colonialism exposé “Dahomey” won the coveted Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival. It chronicles the restitution of dozens of stolen ancient African artifacts from a French museum to modern-day Benin—once the kingdom of Dahomey. Diop’s beguiling documentary merges past and future. It intertwines Beninese university students’ debates on their post-colonial identity and the political merits of reclaiming looted treasures, with harsh voiceover from the point of view of one of the artworks, which Diop grants both memory and personality. A statue of King Ghezo—Dahomey’s 19th century ruler—begins whispering in the dark, as it recounts its own plunder centuries ago and ruminates on how Benin has changed. Few films this year have been so simultaneously haunting and invigorating.
6. “Dìdi”
Country: United States
Distributor: Focus Features
Coming-of-age movies are a dime a dozen—especially at Sundance, where “Dìdi” debuted earlier this year—but Sean Wang’s feature debut immediately stands apart. The English- and Mandarin-language drama follows 13-year-old Chris Wang (Izaac Wang), a prickly teen living in 2008. While Chris has misogynistic tendencies born from naiveté, the film approaches his perspective with empathy. His life unfolds at the cross section of volatile teen experiences, from sweet romantic embarrassments to his desire to rebel against his single mother (Joan Chen)—not to mention, the internalized racism that underscores both these lived experiences. In walking this culture tightrope, “Dìdi” yields a gentle story about how being cared for and truly seen is a balm for even the most restless, lonely souls.
7. “Hit Man”
Country: United States
Distributor: Netflix
After rave reactions out of its 2023 Venice premiere, Richard Linklater’s true(ish) story “Hit Man” received a limited big-screen release before hitting streaming. Co-written by star Glen Powell, it takes the tale of a fake hit man and imbues it with ludicrous flair. Powell plays Gary Johnson, a mild-mannered college professor who moonlights for the police as a faux assassin to trap disgruntled spouses who are looking to have their significant others killed. It’s all fun, games, and betrayal—involving numerous wigs and gonzo characters—until he falls for one of his marks, the doe-eyed Madison (Adria Arjona). It’s a funny balancing act of double and triple crosses, as Gary is forced to take stock of his real life, while oscillating between secret identities.
8. “No Other Land”
Country: Palestine, Norway
Distributor: Pending
Independent filmmakers already have to swim upstream, but it’s even more true for the Israeli and Palestinian collective behind the documentary “No Other Land.” Co-directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor, it captures Israel Defense Forces (IDF) land seizures in the West Bank from 2019 to 2023, and sources similar footage of Palestinian displacement from decades prior. Palestine’s Adra and Israel’s Abraham act as primary characters, and their camaraderie is as vital to the film as their discord as Adra’s family challenges Abraham’s beliefs. Despite its critical acclaim and a best documentary award win at Berlin, one of the most riveting and vital works this year is yet to find U.S. distribution. But any fears of political backlash didn’t stop filmmakers from funding their own one-week, award-qualifying release in New York. If indie is, by nature, something contrary to mainstream, then “No Other Land” exemplifies its revolutionary spirit.
9. “Sasquatch Sunset”
Country: United States
Distributor: Bleecker Street Media
Sometimes, a film can alienate potential viewers despite being entirely apolitical. Such is the case with David and Nathan Zellner’s “Sasquatch Sunset,” a dialogue-free comedy-drama in the vein of a nature documentary. It follows a group of four Sasquatches—seemingly the last of their kind—as they traverse the North American wilderness. While it features enough bodily fluid to repel most casual audiences, nestled within its crass, juvenile humor is a poignant human experience. The film stars well-known actors rendered entirely unrecognizable by animalistic gesticulations and layers of prosthetics: Riley Keough, Christophe Zajac-Denek, director Nathan Zellner, and “A Real Pain” star Jesse Eisenberg, whose face doesn’t appear in any of the movie’s promo. Thankfully, Bleecker Street took a chance on it after it premiered at Sundance. The result cuts to the heart of human idiosyncrasies and stands as one of the most touching films of the year.
10. “Things Will Be Different”
Country: United States
Distributor: Magnet Releasing
The charm of low-budget science fiction lies in bringing big ideas to the screen in crafty ways. Case in point: Michael Felker’s “Things Will Be Different,” about a desperate brother-sister criminal pair (Riley Dandy and Adam David Thompson) who hide from cops by escaping through time. The film was snatched up after its South by Southwest premiere, and utilizes simple, timeless locations (like barns and nondescript houses) as settings for its temporal chase. Felker roots his drama in the theoretical—the head-scratching, heart-pounding “what ifs”—as he sketches out a detailed sci-fi world that doesn’t need to be seen to be believed. The film’s core is its estranged sibling pair, whose complicated relationship carries the movie from start to finish. The writer-director proves yet again that a great story can outbest even the most herculean filmmaking obstacles.
