Top 10 Independent Movies of All Time | A CineFix Movie List

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It’s harder than you might think to pin down what it means to be an independent film. Is a true Indie one that’s made without money from the studios? If that’s the case then Terminator 2 and The Fellowship of the Ring are “indies” and Rushmore and Mean Streets are not. We’re digging in to some of the best indies in cinema history to find out exactly what defines independent cinema and there are at least (even though we’re sure there are more) 10 categories worth of defining traits, so here are our picks for the 10 best indies of all time.

We could start by looking at indies that don’t have Sony or Disney or Warner Brothers anywhere in their company org charts, which would give us gems from Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock with Rebecca on up to A24 and Bo Burnham with Eighth Grade. Or maybe it’s just an vibe in the subject matter, Call Me By Your Name, En Bruge, Adaptation, they all FEEL indie, but had major studio money behind them. Perhaps, it’s a fresh and new style and structure, something that’s truly unique in the vein of Pulp Fiction or Moonlight. The point here is, “indie” is a near impossible thing to define, but you’ll know it when you see it!

This Movie List was written and edited by Billy Jackson.

The Picks

10 – Indie Studio – Reservoir Dogs (1992) dir. Quentin Tarantino
9 – Studios Indie Division – Lost in Translation (2003) dir. Sofia Coppola
8 – Exclusively Self Funded – Night of the Living Dead (1968) dir. George A. Romero
7 – Low Budget – Slacker (1990) dir. Richard Linklater
6 – Indie out of Sundance – Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989) dir. Stephen Soderbergh
5 – Indie By Audience It’s Made For – Killer of Sheep (1978) dir. Charles Burnett
4 – Indie By Subject Matter – Pink Flamingos (1972) dir. John Waters
3 – Indie By Style – Easy Rider (1969) dir. Dennis Hopper
2 – Indie By Structure – Memento (2000) dir. Christopher Nolan
1 – Something Utterly New – Shadows (1959) dir. John Cassavetes

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27 thoughts on “Top 10 Independent Movies of All Time | A CineFix Movie List”

  2. Reservoir Dogs

    He began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992, a crime thriller in part funded by the sale of his screenplay True Romance (1993); Empire hailed Reservoir Dogs as the "Greatest Independent Film of All Time". how does cinefix miss that? and also its number 1 not number 10 duh lol

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  19. I think the best period of movie making was before the 2000s, mostly due to the independent film studios. Now, everything is so CG heavy, reboots, and comic-book fantasy.

    I think, it's good to find directors/actors that you like as they will probably have a style you like. For example, mostly anything from Kubrick, Tarantino, Coen brothers.

    I like Terminator2, Back to the Future series, Clerks, Green Mile, Things to Do When You're Dead in Denver
    Glengarry Glen Ross, Shawshank Redemption

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  20. Top 'Indie' films you forgot to mention but everyone should watch…
    Go (1999)
    Monsters (2010)
    District 9 (2009)
    Iron Sky (2012)
    Bubble Boy (2001)
    Terminal (2018)
    Russian Ark (2002)
    A Grand Day Out (1989)
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
    Wizards (1977)

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  22. This is pretty flawed. Most of the movies and categories are totally opposite of the concept of an indie film in itself. Starting by not mentioning the French New Wave or Dogma.
    When i think of indie, comes to my mind Cassavetes and Shane Carruth, or early Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith… But Sofia Coppola or Christopher Nolan?!… LOL

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  27. I love this channel. Watching any of your offerings is like taking a master class in film making. Gotta disagree (for the first time ever) with one of your pics in this list though. I know I'm in the minority, but Lost in Translation was just bad.
    -The (almost) relationship between the aged Bill Murray and the ultra young Scarlett Johansson was creepy.
    -It was difficult to have any sympathy for Murray's character. He was rich already, but had accepted a huge payday to shoot a commercial in Japan, and yet was oh so angst-ridden. Everything caused him to ooze world weariness; his wife called, those silly Japanese people just wouldn't speak English properly, they sent a hooker to his room, but even she had a funny accent, and the only person who 'really got him' was the young and beautiful ScarJo. Poor old Bill's character had rich white people issues.
    -Despite being filmed in Japan, it displayed no curiosity of that country or its people. On the contrary, everything Japanese was depicted as being odd and foreign, and every Japanese person in the flick was stereotypical and was primarily there for comic relief, annoying poor Bill's character with their silliness.
    If I were Japanese, I would've been insulted by it.

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