The A.V. Club's 50 most important American independent movies
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What makes an independent film? The question has never had a straightforward answer, and the cultural criteria that define an indie has changed over the decades. But by and large, it has always been something that couldn’t have been made within the Hollywood system. In our attempt to assemble a list of the most important American indies, we have included works by mavericks, film school grads, and true outsiders; productions with multimillion-dollar budgets and labors of love financed through part-time jobs; movies that played the arthouse, the grindhouse, or barely anywhere at all.
Some were massive box office hits, while others languished in obscurity for decades. Not all of our selections would rank among the best American independent movies ever made. Instead, the films on this list are the ones that broke new ground, created genres, or first introduced important artistic voices and subjects into American film.
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1 new
Little Fugitive
1953, in 4 top lists Check -
2 new
Plan 9 from Outer Space
1957, in 6 top lists Check -
3 new
Shadows
1958, in 12 top lists Check -
4 new
The Connection
1961, in 2 top lists Check -
5 new
Blood Feast
1963, in 4 top lists Check -
6 new
Nothing But a Man
1964, in 5 top lists Check -
7 new
The Trip
1967, in 3 top lists Check -
8 new
I Call First
1967 — a.k.a. Who's That Knocking at My Door, in 0 top lists Check -
9 new
Night of the Living Dead
1968, in 20 top lists Check -
10 new
Easy Rider
1969, in 17 top lists Check -
11 new
Wanda
1970, in 11 top lists Check -
12 new
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
1971, in 12 top lists Check -
13 new
Two-Lane Blacktop
1971, in 13 top lists Check -
14 new
Pink Flamingos
1972, in 13 top lists Check -
15 new
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1974, in 15 top lists Check -
16 new
Eraserhead
1977, in 20 top lists Check -
17 new
Killer of Sheep
1978, in 14 top lists Check -
18 new
Halloween
1978, in 17 top lists Check -
19 new
Return of the Secaucus Seven
1980, in 3 top lists Check -
20 new
Losing Ground
1982, in 4 top lists Check -
21 new
El Norte
1983, in 5 top lists Check -
22 new
Stranger Than Paradise
1984, in 14 top lists Check -
23 new
Blood Simple
1984, in 10 top lists Check -
24 new
Desert Hearts
1985, in 3 top lists Check -
25 new
She's Gotta Have It
1986, in 6 top lists Check -
26 new
Dirty Dancing
1987, in 10 top lists Check -
27 new
The Unbelievable Truth
1989, in 3 top lists Check -
28 new
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
1989, in 11 top lists Check -
29 new
Drugstore Cowboy
1989, in 7 top lists Check -
30 new
Slacker
1990, in 7 top lists Check -
31 new
Poison
1991, in 4 top lists Check -
32 new
Daughters of the Dust
1991, in 9 top lists Check -
33 new
El mariachi
1992, in 4 top lists Check -
34 new
Pulp Fiction
1994, in 38 top lists Check -
35 new
Clerks
1994, in 9 top lists Check -
36 new
Kids
1995, in 5 top lists Check -
37 new
Boogie Nights
1997, in 12 top lists Check -
38 new
The Blair Witch Project
1999, in 14 top lists Check -
39 new
Memento
2000, in 27 top lists Check -
40 new
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
2002, in 3 top lists Check -
41 new
Funny Ha Ha
2002, in 1 top list Check -
42 new
Lost in Translation
2003, in 19 top lists Check -
43 new
Garden State
2004, in 2 top lists Check -
44 new
Primer
2004, in 6 top lists Check -
45 new
The Passion of the Christ
2004, in 4 top lists Check -
46 new
Little Miss Sunshine
2006, in 7 top lists Check -
47 new
Paranormal Activity
2007, in 3 top lists Check -
48 new
Frances Ha
2012, in 5 top lists Check -
49 new
Moonlight
2016, in 13 top lists Check -
50 new
Get Out
2017, in 16 top lists Check
Last updated on Sep 17, 2020 by Teproc; source