List of American independent films

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

This is a list of notable American independent films (which are also known sometimes as "specialty", "alternative", "indie", and/or "quality")[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] that were made outside of the Hollywood studio system or traditional arthouse/independent filmmaking yet managed to be produced, financed and distributed by the two with varying degrees of success and/or failure.[8]

Background[edit]

The American independent film, prior to the 1980s and first half of the 1990s,[9][10][11] was previously associated with Poverty Row b movies, exploitation films, avant-garde underground cinema (when it was known as the New American Cinema[12]), social and political documentaries, experimental animated shorts (since the mid-1930s featuring works by pioneer animators Mary Ellen Bute and Oskar Fischinger) and social realist dramas.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]

Throughout the middle of the 1990s, the word "Indiewood" (a.k.a. "indie boom" or "indie film movement")[20][21][4] was invented to describe a component of the spectrum of American films in which distinctions exist, it seemed as if Hollywood and the independent sector had become blurred.[22][23][24][25][26][4]

Differences from Hollywood[edit]

The films are often made for far less money than Hollywood films[27][28] (some films like Robert Townsend's 1987 satire Hollywood Shuffle, Richard Linklater's 1991 countercultural piece Slacker and Kevin Smith's 1994 Gen X comedy Clerks were funded by using credit cards[11][29]) and each aspect of the filmmaking process has to undergo less scrutiny by committees. Additionally, within the Indiewood approach the filmmaker can take as long as they need in the post-production phase of their film - whereas in Hollywood they are contracted to finish the film in a specific period of time (usually 10 weeks). In Hollywood, the film then goes on to show in focus group screenings on the studio lot. In Indiewood, the filmmakers can determine the next steps of the film. They also bear striking similarities to as well as were influenced by the "proto-indies" of the 1960s such as Robert Downey Sr's still image film Chafed Elbows (1966), John Cassavetes's Academy Award-nominated Faces and Brian de Palma's Greetings (each from 1968) which in turn were influenced by the culture of the Beat Generation, the polar opposite to the conformist, gray-flannel conformity of 1950s America.[30][16]

Many indie films were made by small companies that were created daily in the 80s and 90s to the point where most of them went bankrupt.[31]

Most Indiewood films are first shown at film festivals with the hopes of further distribution by being picked up (or purchased) by a larger film company or distributor in order to find broader audiences alongside awards consideration[32][33] (e.g. 2009's A Single Man).[34]

Divisions[edit]

Indiewood divisions gain from expert experience of the niche industry by hiring leading independent personalities such as Harvey Weinstein[35] from the Disney fold after the exit of the Weinsteins,[36][37] and James Schamus, former joint head of Good Machine alongside producer Ted Hope, at Focus Features.[38][39]

Other "mini-major" subdivisions/indie distributors[edit]

Sources[edit]

[41][2][42][20][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]

List of selected notable American independent films[edit]

Pre-1950s[edit]

1950s[edit]

1960s[edit]

1970s[edit]

[47][120][82][73][109][83]

1980s[edit]

[165][71][113][114][16][47][140]

[164][165][14][71][113][114][47]

[113][14][114][140][82][109][65]

[159][46][178][81][188][164][165][71][82][139] [113][172][14][189][114][16][47][73][109]

1990s[edit]

[6][185][165][71][82][73]

[73][193][112][16][47][82]

[6][185][204][165][47][82][205][83]

[178][81][6][185][208][86][82][193]

[204][165][71][113][112][47]

[4][203][163][44][6][71][16][47][65]

[165][113][47][82][192][193]

[6][208][86][47][192][193]

[115][71][86][47][82][73]

2000s[edit]

[81][71][113][112][47][82][237]

[259][204][165][240][71][112][86][47][82][237]

2010s[edit]

2020s[edit]

List of notable American independent filmmakers[edit]

[47][82][7][73]

[9][114][16][47][140][82][73][139]

[221][46][178][81][185][165][16][82][320]

[164][165][16][47]

[159][46][178][164][165][9][114][140][82]

[164][114][16][82][7][73]

[165][114][129][73]

[73][51][90]

[47][184][73]

[165][155][125][139]

[46][81][188][165][112][114][47][82]

[178][81][185][165][114][16][47][73][320]

[217][81][165][82][125]

[122][47][140][82][73]

[21][152][178][81][188][164][165][219][172][16][47]

[21][242][5][207][185][165][16][47][82]

[114][73]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Oscar nominations see shift away from major Hollywood studios - News - University of Liverpool
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Academy Award nominations 2020: The return of the "quality" Hollywood studio film - News - University of Liverpool
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae The Sundance Kids - Google Books (ch."Section II: Indiewood")
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Best. Movie. Year. Ever. - Google Books (chapter: "I'm scared to close my eyes, I'm scared to open them." The Blair Witch Project)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj ck cl cm cn co cp cq cr cs ct cu cv cw cx cy cz Indie - Google Books
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  9. ^ a b c d e f 50 Best '80s Movies to Watch Right Now|Time Out
  10. ^ Louie Maple teams a young Susan Sarandon with an aging Burt Lancaster|The A.V. Club
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  13. ^ a b c Tom Waits and John Lurie helped Jim Jarmusch perfect his indie cool|A.V. Club
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx A Companion to American Indie Film - Google Books
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  18. ^ a b c d Enchanted Drawings - Google Books (pgs.286-293)
  19. ^ a b c d e f An Archive Restores and Resurrects Hollywood's Earliest Indie Films - Hyperallergic
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  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af Colin Marshall › Me on Battleship Pretension: a three-hour course on the nineties' "Indiewood" movement
  22. ^ Home video and Indiewood|Hollywood: A Very Short Introduction|Oxford Academic
  23. ^ 'Indie doc': documentary film and American 'independent', 'indie' and 'indiewood' filmmaking: Studies in Documentary Film Volume 10, 2016 - Issue 1
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  25. ^ The Cinema Book - Google Books (pg.59)
  26. ^ a b c d e f g CANNES 2000: Embracing Indiewood, Cannes 2000 Lineup Selected from Nearly 1,400 Films; 15 Countries|IndieWire
  27. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m How Indiewood gatecrashed the Oscars|Financial Times
  28. ^ a b c d e f How an Unlikely Hollywood Juggernaut Came to Rule Netflix|WIRED
  29. ^ Horton, Robert (1990). "Stranger Than Texas". Film Comment. 26 (4): 77–78. ISSN 0015-119X.
  30. ^ a b c d Proto-Indie - A Companion to American Indie Film - Wiley Online Library
  31. ^ ‘We can’t afford to lose them’: the fight to bring missing movies back|Movies|The Guardian
  32. ^ a b c In 2023, Golden Age of Documentary Films Seemed Like Distant Memory - IndieWire
  33. ^ What's the Difference Between Indie Film and Indie TV? Mark Duplass Explains|Collider
  34. ^ a b c d e Overcoming the Stigma: The Queer Denial of Indiewood on JSTOR
  35. ^ American Indies, 1980-1989|MoMA
  36. ^ Review: Indiewood, USA: Where Hollywood Meets Independent Cinema, by Geoff King|Film Quarterly|University of California Press
  37. ^ Chapter Eight. Maxed Out: Miramax and Indiewood in the New Millennium - De Gruyter
  38. ^ King, Geoff (2009). "Indiewood, USA: Where Hollywood meets Independent Cinema" (PDF). gkindiefilm.com. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  39. ^ [The End of Independent Film As We Know It - The Ringer]
  40. ^ a b What was the first-ever independent movie?|Far Out Magazine
  41. ^ Somewhere Only We Know on Notebook|MUBI
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  44. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Indie Movies, Explained: What is an Independent Film? - MovieWeb
  45. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Indie Reframed - Google Books
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  48. ^ New Yorkers Films, an Independent Distributor, Will Close After 44 Years - The New York Times
  49. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Indie Film’s Breakout Year: Good Movies Gain Traction Amid Strikes & Superhero Fatigue - Deadline
  50. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Screening American Independent Film - Google Books
  51. ^ a b c d e f The Greatest Independent Films of the 20th Century|The New Yorker
  52. ^ a b c d e f THIRTY YEARS OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENT CINEMA ON EXHIBITION (1979) on MoMA.org
  53. ^ a b c The Lessons Are Lost, but Not the Laughs - Los Angeles Times
  54. ^ Paul Strand - Leo Hurwitz
  55. ^ Reefer Madness: an undeserved classic movie - Hall - 2021 - Addiction - Wiley Online Library
  56. ^ Macdonald, Moira (October 27, 2021). "A 20-year-old made a movie in Seattle in the 1930s. This week, it finally makes its TV debut". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  57. ^ Native Land + The Forgotten Village - Film at Lincoln Center
  58. ^ The 50 Most Important Independent Films - Filmmaker Magazine - Fall 1996
  59. ^ a b Watch: How New Hollywood Created the American Indie - No Film School
  60. ^ An Election-Year Campaign Video That’s Kind of Nasty - Macleans.ca
  61. ^ Animated cartoon sponsored by union played role in reelecting Roosevelt - California Labor Federation
  62. ^ "The Unnatural History of Independent Animated Films on 16mm". www.awn.com.
  63. ^ a b An indie film lover's dream: Filmzie is an ode to movie buffs (and it's free) - CQ Australia
  64. ^ Independent Filmmaking in the Studio Era: The Poverty Row Studios (1930–50s)|American Independent Cinema: An Introduction|Edinburgh Scholarship Online
  65. ^ a b c d e URI film professor picks five essential American indie films - Rhody Today
  66. ^ Oskar Fischinger, Motion Painting no. 1, 1947|MoMA
  67. ^ Five - Trailers From Hell
  68. ^ 'Emotion' filmmaker Fuller gets his due - SFGATE
  69. ^ a b c The Criterion Channel's July 2023 Lineup|Current|The Criterion Collection
  70. ^ a b Stanley Kubrick: The Ultimate Guide to the Legendary Filmmaker|Indie Film Hustle
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  72. ^ a b c d e f THE ORIGINAL INDIES: THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENT CINEMA|Austin Film Society
  73. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb Great U.S. Indie Films: 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' to 'Pulp Fiction' - Rolling Stone
  74. ^ Bride of the Monster - Trailers From Hell
  75. ^ a b c d e f THE REAL INDIES: A CLOSE LOOK AT ORPHAN FILMS|Oscars.org
  76. ^ a b c d e When Indie Animation Won Its First Oscar|Animation Obsessive
  77. ^ a b c d Underrated Horror Movies of the 1950s, Ranked - MovieWeb
  78. ^ The Blob - Trailers From Hell
  79. ^ a b A Film That Live Forever|Animation Obsessive
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