American Independent Cinema: Essential Films
The generation that took American film back from the studios, 1984–2007: the essential independent films, ranked by our composite score across the world's canons.
American Independent Cinema is the New Hollywood's successor — the movement of writer-directors who, from the mid-1980s, made personal, budget-conscious films outside (or on the margins of) the studio system, and turned the festival circuit and companies like Miramax into a second American film industry. Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise (1984) and Steven Soderbergh's Palme d'Or-winning Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) proved a national audience existed for it; Sundance became its marketplace; and the run from Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing through Pulp Fiction to the Coen brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson gave the 1990s and 2000s their defining American voices. The label is loose — many of these films were studio-financed, and the auteurs it minted now work at every budget — so the movement is best read as a generation and a sensibility rather than a funding model.
Pulp Fiction (1994) leads with a composite score of 5.76.
- 1Pulp Fiction1994 · Quentin Tarantino · United States · crime, drama, thriller5.76
Palme d'Or winner 1994 · Empire 500 (2008) #9 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1994
- 2Do the Right Thing1989 · Spike Lee · United States · comedy, drama4.39
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1989 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #24 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #29
- 3There Will Be Blood2007 · Paul Thomas Anderson · United States · drama, western, thriller4.26
Rolling Stone 100 Best of the 21st Century #1 · Film Comment year-end poll 2007 #2 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2008 #2
- 4No Country for Old Men2007 · Ethan Coen, Joel Coen · United States · drama, thriller, western4.20
Oscar Best Picture winner 2007 · Film Comment year-end poll 2007 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2008 #1
- 5Fargo1996 · Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · United States / United Kingdom · crime, drama, film-noir3.02
Ebert's annual top 10 1996 #1 · Siskel's annual top 10 1996 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1996
- 6Stranger Than Paradise1984 · Jim Jarmusch · United States / Germany · drama, comedy3.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1986 #1 · Locarno Golden Leopard winner 1984 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1984 #3
- 7Barton Fink1991 · Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · United States / United Kingdom · film-noir, comedy, drama2.98
Palme d'Or winner 1991 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1991 #3 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1992 #5
- 8Lost in Translation2003 · Sofia Coppola · United States / Japan · comedy, romance, drama2.95
Film Comment year-end poll 2003 #1 · Sarris's annual top 10 2003 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2003
- 9Sex, Lies, and Videotape1989 · Steven Soderbergh · United States · drama2.67
Palme d'Or winner 1989 · Sarris's annual top 10 1989 #1 · National Film Registry (inducted 2006)
- 10Magnolia1999 · Paul Thomas Anderson · United States · drama2.37
Berlin Golden Bear winner 2000 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #185 · Ebert's annual top 10 1999 #2
- 11Before Sunset2004 · Richard Linklater · United States · romance, drama2.36
Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #3 · Sarris's annual top 10 2004 #1 · Rolling Stone 100 Best of the 21st Century #26
- 12Traffic2000 · Steven Soderbergh · United States / Germany / Mexico · crime, drama, thriller2.28
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2001 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2000 · Film Comment year-end poll 2000 #16
- 13Elephant2003 · Gus Van Sant · United States · drama, thriller2.26
Palme d'Or winner 2003 · Film Comment year-end poll 2003 #3 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2003 #9
- 14Sideways2004 · Alexander Payne · United States · comedy, romance, drama2.23
Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2004 · Sarris's annual top 10 2004 #2
- 15Miller's Crossing1990 · Ethan Coen, Joel Coen · United States · film-noir, crime, drama2.13
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1991 #2 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1991 #3 · TIME All-TIME 100
- 16Far from Heaven2002 · Todd Haynes · United States · romance, drama1.77
Film Comment year-end poll 2002 #1 · Ebert's annual top 10 2002 #4 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2002 #5
- 17The Royal Tenenbaums2001 · Wes Anderson · United States · comedy, drama1.73
Film Comment year-end poll 2001 #3 · Kehr's annual top 10 2001 #1 · Rolling Stone 100 Best of the 21st Century #65
- 18Drugstore Cowboy1989 · Gus Van Sant · United States · drama, crime, comedy1.61
Ebert's annual top 10 1989 #2 · Siskel's annual top 10 1989 #3 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1989 #4
- 19Last Days2005 · Gus Van Sant · United States · drama1.50
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2005 #1 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2005 #2 · Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #16
- 20Good Will Hunting1997 · Gus Van Sant · United States · romance, drama1.48
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1997 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1998 #7 · Letterboxd Top 250 #83
- 21Rushmore1998 · Wes Anderson · United States · comedy, drama1.48
Kehr's annual top 10 1998 #1 · National Film Registry (inducted 2016) · Empire 500 (2008) #175
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- 23Welcome to the Dollhouse1995 · Todd Solondz · United States · drama1.41
Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner 1996 · Ebert's annual top 10 1996 #5 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 24Paranoid Park2007 · Gus Van Sant · United States / France · drama, thriller1.33
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2007 #1 · Film Comment year-end poll 2008 #7
- 25Boogie Nights1997 · Paul Thomas Anderson · United States · drama1.30
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1998 #10 · Ebert's annual top 10 1997 #3 · Empire 500 (2008) #152
- 26Kill Bill: Volume 22004 · Quentin Tarantino · United States · action, thriller, drama1.30
Ebert's annual top 10 2004 #2 · Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #8 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2004 #9
- 27Kill Bill: Volume 12003 · Quentin Tarantino · United States · action, thriller, crime1.29
Film Comment year-end poll 2003 #4 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2003 #10 · Kehr's annual top 10 2003 #4
- 28Blood Simple1984 · Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · United States · crime, film-noir, drama1.17
Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner 1985 · Criterion Collection spine #834 · Ebert's annual top 10 1985 #10
- 29Waking Life2001 · Richard Linklater · United States · drama, fantasy, animation1.14
Film Comment year-end poll 2001 #7 · Kehr's annual top 10 2001 #4 · Ebert's annual top 10 2001 #6
- 30Reservoir Dogs1992 · Quentin Tarantino · United States · crime, thriller, drama1.11
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1993 #6 · Kehr's annual top 10 1992 #3 · Empire 500 (2008) #97
- 31Punch-Drunk Love2002 · Paul Thomas Anderson · United States · comedy, romance, drama1.08
Film Comment year-end poll 2002 #8 · Rolling Stone 100 Best of the 21st Century #78 · Kehr's annual top 10 2002 #4
- 32Before Sunrise1995 · Richard Linklater · Austria / United States / Switzerland · romance, drama1.01
National Film Registry (inducted 2025) · Letterboxd Top 250 #165 · Empire 500 (2008) #200
- 33The Squid and the Whale2005 · Noah Baumbach · United States · drama, comedy0.98
Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #6 · Sarris's annual top 10 2005 #2 · Criterion Collection spine #845
- 34Broken Flowers2005 · Jim Jarmusch · United States / France · comedy, drama0.94
Cannes Grand Prix winner 2005 · Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #39
- 35Jackie Brown1997 · Quentin Tarantino · United States · crime, drama, thriller0.93
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1998 #10 · Ebert's annual top 10 1997 #5 · Empire 500 (2008) #215
- 36Sin City2005 · Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino · United States · crime, film-noir, drama0.90
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2005 #8 · Sarris's annual top 10 2005 #4 · Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #41
- 37Dead Man1995 · Jim Jarmusch · United States / Japan / Germany · western, fantasy, drama0.88
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1996 #6 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1996 #3 · Criterion Collection spine #919
- 38About Schmidt2002 · Alexander Payne · United States · comedy, drama0.87
Film Comment year-end poll 2002 #5 · Kehr's annual top 10 2002 #2 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 39Election1999 · Alexander Payne · United States0.86
Kehr's annual top 10 1999 #4 · Sarris's annual top 10 1999 #5 · Empire 500 (2008) #389
- 40Erin Brockovich2000 · Steven Soderbergh · United States · biography, drama0.84
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2000 · Film Comment year-end poll 2000 #18 · Sarris's annual top 10 2000 #8
- 41My Own Private Idaho1991 · Gus Van Sant · United States · drama0.83
National Film Registry (inducted 2024) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Hoberman's annual top 10 1991 #7
- 42Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai1999 · Jim Jarmusch · United States / Germany / France · crime, action, drama0.81
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1999 #9 · Film Comment year-end poll 2000 #17 · Criterion Collection spine #1057
- 43Happiness1998 · Todd Solondz · United States · comedy, drama0.81
Ebert's annual top 10 1998 #5 · Kehr's annual top 10 1998 #6 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 44The Virgin Suicides1999 · Sofia Coppola · United States · drama0.79
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2000 #7 · Empire 500 (2008) #262 · Criterion Collection spine #920
- 45Trust1990 · Hal Hartley · United States · comedy, romance, drama0.78
Sarris's annual top 10 1991 #1 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 46The Man Who Wasn't There2001 · Joel Coen · United Kingdom / United States · film-noir, drama, crime0.75
Film Comment year-end poll 2001 #14 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Sarris's annual top 10 2001 #7
- 47Poison1991 · Todd Haynes · United States · horror, sci-fi, drama0.75
Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner 1991
- 48The Big Lebowski1998 · Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · United States / United Kingdom · comedy, crime, film-noir0.63
Empire 500 (2008) #43 · National Film Registry (inducted 2014) · Roger Ebert's Great Movies
- 49Death Proof2007 · Quentin Tarantino · United States · horror, action, drama0.63
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2007 #2
- 50Out of Sight1998 · Steven Soderbergh · United States · crime, comedy, romance0.61
Sarris's annual top 10 1998 #2 · Empire 500 (2008) #326 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
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- 52School of Rock2003 · Richard Linklater · Germany / United States · musical, comedy0.57
Film Comment year-end poll 2003 #14 · Empire 500 (2008) #188 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 53Down by Law1986 · Jim Jarmusch · United States / Germany · comedy, drama0.55
NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #166 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 54Clerks1994 · Kevin Smith · United States · comedy, drama0.51
National Film Registry (inducted 2019) · Empire 500 (2008) #361 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 55Raising Arizona1987 · Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · United States · comedy, action, crime0.50
Empire 500 (2008) #101 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 56A Scanner Darkly2006 · Richard Linklater · United States · sci-fi, drama0.49
Film Comment year-end poll 2006 #12 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2006 #4
- 57Gray's Anatomy1996 · Steven Soderbergh · United States · documentary0.48
Sarris's annual top 10 1997 #2 · Criterion Collection spine #618
- 58Mystery Train1989 · Jim Jarmusch · United States / Japan · comedy, drama, crime0.47
Hoberman's annual top 10 1989 #6 · Criterion Collection spine #521 · Roger Ebert's Great Movies
- 59King of the Hill1993 · Steven Soderbergh · United States · drama0.47
Criterion Collection spine #698 · Sarris's annual top 10 1993 #8 · Siskel's annual top 10 1993 #9
- 60Safe1995 · Todd Haynes · United Kingdom / United States · drama0.47
Empire 500 (2008) #223 · Criterion Collection spine #739 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 61Dazed and Confused1993 · Richard Linklater · United States · comedy, drama0.46
Empire 500 (2008) #244 · Criterion Collection spine #336 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 62Bubble2005 · Steven Soderbergh · United States · mystery, drama0.46
Ebert's annual top 10 2006 #2 · Kehr's annual top 10 2006 #null
- 63Night on Earth1991 · Jim Jarmusch · United States / France / United Kingdom · comedy, drama0.45
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1992 #10 · Criterion Collection spine #401
- 64Bottle Rocket1996 · Wes Anderson · United States · crime, comedy0.42
Criterion Collection spine #450 · Kehr's annual top 10 1996 #9 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 65I Heart Huckabees2004 · David O. Russell · Germany / United States / United Kingdom · drama, comedy0.40
Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #16 · Sarris's annual top 10 2004 #9
- 66She's Gotta Have It1986 · Spike Lee · United States · comedy, romance, drama0.39
National Film Registry (inducted 2019) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 67Slacker1991 · Richard Linklater · United States · comedy, drama0.39
National Film Registry (inducted 2012) · Criterion Collection spine #247
- 68Bamboozled2000 · Spike Lee · United States · comedy, drama, musical0.39
National Film Registry (inducted 2023) · Criterion Collection spine #1019
- 69I'm Not There2007 · Todd Haynes · United States / Germany · biography, musical, drama0.39
Film Comment year-end poll 2007 #5
- 70Three Kings1999 · David O. Russell · United States · crime, comedy, drama0.36
Ebert's annual top 10 1999 #3 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 71
- 72Chasing Amy1997 · Kevin Smith · United States · comedy, romance, drama0.35
Sarris's annual top 10 1997 #5 · Criterion Collection spine #75
- 73Velvet Goldmine1998 · Todd Haynes · United Kingdom / United States · drama, musical0.33
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1998 #7
- 74Solaris2002 · Steven Soderbergh · United States · sci-fi, romance, drama0.31
Hoberman's annual top 10 2002 #7 · Sarris's annual top 10 2002 #10
- 75Ocean's Eleven2001 · Steven Soderbergh · United States / Australia · crime, comedy, mystery0.28
Empire 500 (2008) #500 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 76The Limey1999 · Steven Soderbergh · United States · crime, film-noir, drama0.27
Kehr's annual top 10 1999 #8 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 774 Little Girls1997 · Spike Lee · United States · documentary, biography0.23
National Film Registry (inducted 2017)
- 78Inside Man2006 · Spike Lee · United States · crime, drama, thriller0.22
Film Comment year-end poll 2006 #22
- 79Fast Food Nation2006 · Richard Linklater · United Kingdom / United States · comedy, drama, romance0.20
Film Comment year-end poll 2006 #31
- 80When the Levees Broke2006 · Spike Lee · United States · documentary0.19
Film Comment year-end poll 2006 #38
- 81Marie Antoinette2006 · Sofia Coppola · Japan / United States / France · drama, biography0.18
Film Comment year-end poll 2006 #47
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- 83
- 84
- 85Dogma1999 · Kevin Smith · United States · fantasy, comedy, adventure0.17
Kehr's annual top 10 1999 #7
- 86
- 87Mala Noche1985 · Gus Van Sant · United States · romance, drama, crime0.16
Criterion Collection spine #407
- 88Kicking and Screaming1995 · Noah Baumbach · United States · comedy, romance, drama0.16
Criterion Collection spine #349
- 89To Die For1995 · Gus Van Sant · United Kingdom / United States · comedy, drama, crime0.16
Criterion Collection spine #1213
- 90
- 91The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou2004 · Wes Anderson · United States · drama, comedy, adventure0.16
Criterion Collection spine #300
- 92The Darjeeling Limited2007 · Wes Anderson · United States · drama, comedy0.16
Criterion Collection spine #540
- 93Citizen Ruth1996 · Alexander Payne · United States · comedy, drama0.11
Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 94The Newton Boys1998 · Richard Linklater · United States · crime, comedy, drama0.11
Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 95Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair2004 · Quentin Tarantino · United States · action, thriller0.11
Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
A second American film industry
New Hollywood ended when its own children — Jaws, Star Wars — invented the blockbuster and the studios rebuilt themselves around it. What came next was not a counter-revolution inside the majors but a parallel industry beside them. Beginning in the mid-1980s, a generation of writer-directors made personal, tightly budgeted films on the margins of the system, and a festival — Sundance, reorganized under Robert Redford's institute in 1985 — became their marketplace. Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise (1984), shot in deadpan black-and-white long takes for almost nothing, proved a national audience existed for a film with no stars and no plot to speak of. Five years later Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape took the Palme d'Or at twenty-six and sold to Miramax, and the template was set: make it cheap, premiere it at a festival, let a specialty distributor turn word of mouth into a theatrical run.
The auteurs it minted
The movement is best measured by the careers it launched. Spike Lee turned a Brooklyn block on the hottest day of the year into Do the Right Thing (1989), the era's most formally alive piece of political filmmaking. Quentin Tarantino rewired American genre memory with Reservoir Dogs and then Pulp Fiction (1994), whose Palme d'Or and box-office success made "independent" a commercial category rather than a compromise. Joel and Ethan Coen ran from Barton Fink to Fargo to the Oscar-sweeping No Country for Old Men (2007). Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and There Will Be Blood, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, Gus Van Sant's Palme-winning Elephant, Wes Anderson's early comedies — the run gave the 1990s and 2000s their defining American voices, and every name on this list now works at any budget the story needs.
The word "independent" gets slippery
The label was always loose, and the deeper the movement went the looser it got. Many of these films were studio-financed or studio-distributed; Miramax, the company that built the boom, was owned by Disney for most of it. No Country for Old Men is a Paramount picture. So "independent" here names a sensibility — authorship, moral ambiguity, formal risk, a suspicion of the happy ending — rather than a funding structure, which is why the list mixes true no-budget debuts with prestige pictures by the same directors a decade later. Ranked, as everywhere on this site, by composite score across the polls, awards and canons rather than by any single verdict, it reads as the New Hollywood's true successor: the last time a generation of American directors was identified by its independence from the studios rather than its place inside them.