As 2023 draws to a close, it feels like the right time to look back on the year in movies, specifically those buzzy festival hits that we haven’t had the chance to see yet. For months, most of us have had to watch critics gush about independent films that came from nowhere and blew the minds of audiences at Sundance in January, Cannes in May, and Venice in August. Now, if you live in London, you have the chance to catch them as part of the BFI London Film Festival. And if you don’t, fret not — most of these will be making their way to international cinemas and streaming services in the coming months.
From Argentinian heist-comedy-romances to sweet tales of trans youth, these are seven indie movies that you add to your watchlist.
The Delinquents
This oddball drama by director Rodrigo Moreno opens in a bank, and quietly follows a man so disillusioned by his job that he steals $650,000, knowingly on camera, in a plan to stash the cash with his colleague and ride out his short prison sentence knowing they can both retire when he’s released. But what feels like a dry comedy transforms into something touching, about romance and living without the tethers of responsibility. It’s three hours long, and moves at a pace that lets you feel it, but it’s so stunning and rewarding; like hitching a ride on a handsome and lazy tortoise.
Bonus Track
A modest new work from Challengers star Josh O’Connor, this film is about a teenage musician who aspires to make it professionally one day. In order to try and get himself seen, he teams up with a schoolmate — who just so happens to be the son of a rockstar — to take part in his school talent show. Josh, interestingly, came up with the story for this film directed by Julia Jackman, and has a small part in its cast.
20,000 Species of Bees
A Spanish film that made its 10-year-old lead Sofía Otero the youngest-ever winner of the Berlin Film Festival’s Best Lead Performance prize this year, this touching drama takes place over a summer in a beekeeping commune. We spend time in the company with a mother and her transgender daughter, who both find themselves there. Together, along with the other women working in the beekeeping commune, they reflect on the experiences of being a woman.
Lubo
Based on the 2004 novel Il seminatore, Passages heartthrob Franz Rogowski leads up this drama about a man searching for his children in wartime Europe. Franz plays the titular Lubo, a Yenish street artist who gets conscripted to protect the Swiss border as the Nazis invade Europe. But when word gets back to him that his children have been taken into a re-education programme influenced by eugenics, he embarks on a revenge trip, hoping to find the men who stole them from him.
The Sweet East
Sean Price Williams, the cinematographer of Good Time, marks his directorial debut with this truly wild road movie, about a teenage girl running away from her high school class in Washington and meeting impressionable paedophiles, Hollywood actors and filmmakers convinced that she’s the industry’s new star. Talia Ryder is the film’s magnetic lead, and she’s joined by a stupidly large supporting cast that includes Jacob Elordi, Ayo Edebiri, Simon Rex, Earl Cave and Jeremy O. Harris. Read our full review here.
High & Low – John Galliano
Kevin Macdonald, the director who helmed the 2018 documentary about Whitney Houston, turns his talents to retelling the tale of John Galliano, through his controversies and successes. Made with Galliano’s involvement, as well as a handful of his closest industry friends, it promises to be a brutally honest and compelling story of his life.
The Pot-au-Feu
The closest thing in mood that you might get to a live-action Studio Ghibli film, this moving, gentle masterwork from Trần Anh Hùng is set in 18th century France, and focuses on the relationship between a gourmet and his chef, played by Juliette Binoche. It might look bone dry from the outside, but living inside its mallow-soft shape for two-and-a-quarter hours will be one of the most therapeutic and regenerative cinema experiences you’ll have all year.