The Best Indie Movies on Netflix You Shouldn’t Miss

Independent films on Netflix cover a broad spectrum of styles, voices, and storytelling traditions, from intimate character dramas to inventive genre swings. The platform’s library includes international standouts, festival discoveries, and studio-defying passion projects that found a global audience through streaming. Whether you’re in the mood for a lyrical family portrait, a razor-tense thriller, or a wry look at everyday life, there’s a wide range to explore.

This list spotlights indie titles that built their reputations at festivals, awards bodies, and through strong word-of-mouth. You’ll find films made in multiple languages, projects from celebrated directors alongside breakout debuts, and stories grounded in specific places and communities. Each entry below includes key details—filmmakers, cast, where it was made, and what it’s about—so you can quickly choose what fits your next movie night.

‘Roma’ (2018)

Alfonso Cuarón’s black-and-white drama follows a live-in domestic worker in Mexico City as she navigates work, family, and upheaval in the Colonia Roma neighborhood. Shot with long takes and immersive sound design, the film uses Mixtec and Spanish dialogue and blends non-actors with professional performers to recreate everyday routines with documentary precision.

Produced by Esperanto Filmoj and Participant, the film premiered at major festivals and went on to receive multiple Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Cinematography. Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira lead the cast, and the production reconstructed entire streets from memory to capture period detail.

‘Marriage Story’ (2019)

Noah Baumbach’s drama traces a New York theatre director and a Los Angeles actor working through a bi-coastal divorce and co-parenting. The film features extended dialogue scenes, courtroom sequences, and rehearsal-room interludes that map how creative partners divide their lives.

Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson star alongside Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta. The film was nominated across major categories at the Oscars and Golden Globes, with Laura Dern winning multiple awards for supporting performance.

‘The Power of the Dog’ (2021)

Jane Campion adapts Thomas Savage’s novel about a charismatic rancher whose rigid world is disrupted when his brother brings home a new wife and her son. Filmed in New Zealand to evoke Montana’s wide plains, it emphasizes landscape, quiet gestures, and the rituals of cattle work and music practice.

Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee headline the ensemble. The film earned widespread recognition at festivals and awards, including Best Director at the Academy Awards, and features a score by Jonny Greenwood noted for its spare, tension-building motifs.

‘Beasts of No Nation’ (2015)

Cary Joji Fukunaga’s war drama follows a boy forced into a rebel army in a West African nation, charting recruitment, training, and the psychological toll of conflict. The film draws on Uzodinma Iweala’s novel and was shot on location in Ghana with local crews and extras.

Abraham Attah delivers a breakout lead performance opposite Idris Elba, who portrays a commandant shaping the boy’s path. Premiering at a major fall festival, the film put Netflix’s original-film strategy on the map and received multiple industry accolades, including honors for Elba and Attah.

‘Mudbound’ (2017)

Dee Rees’ epic set in the Mississippi Delta follows two families—one Black, one white—whose lives intertwine around farming, returning veterans, and the social order of the Jim Crow South. The script adapts Hillary Jordan’s novel and intercuts multiple points of view to build a community portrait.

The ensemble includes Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Mary J. Blige, Jason Mitchell, and Garrett Hedlund. The film received Oscar nominations for cinematography, supporting performance, original song, and adapted screenplay, and was noted for Rachel Morrison’s landmark nomination as a cinematographer.

‘The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)’ (2017)

Noah Baumbach’s New York family dramedy centers on adult siblings confronting the legacy of their sculptor father, with chapters titled as short stories that jump between characters. The film uses museum spaces, campus galleries, and apartments to place art-world anxieties alongside everyday obligations.

Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Dustin Hoffman lead a cast that also includes Emma Thompson and Elizabeth Marvel. It premiered at Cannes in competition, where it drew attention for its performances and structure, and continued Baumbach’s long-running interest in parents, children, and creative ambition.

‘Private Life’ (2018)

Tamara Jenkins focuses on a middle-aged couple navigating fertility treatments, adoption agencies, and the bureaucracy around starting a family. The film observes clinic visits, support groups, and extended family dynamics, with much of the action unfolding inside cramped New York apartments.

Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti star alongside Kayli Carter, whose character becomes central to the couple’s choices. Jenkins draws from meticulous research into medical protocols, and the film was celebrated at Sundance before reaching a wider audience through streaming.

‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ (2018)

Joel and Ethan Coen present six frontier tales linked by themes of chance, performance, and mortality. Each chapter has its own cast, setting, and visual palette, ranging from saloon musicality to wagon-train hardship and a stagecoach debate.

The anthology features Tim Blake Nelson, Zoe Kazan, Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, and Brendan Gleeson. With production by Annapurna and Netflix, it premiered at Venice and earned nominations from major guilds and academies, including recognition for adapted screenplay and costume design.

‘I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore’ (2017)

Macon Blair’s off-kilter crime story follows a nursing assistant who, after a burglary, teams up with a neighbor to track down stolen items, stumbling into a small-time underworld. It mixes home-invasion details, amateur sleuthing, and mismatched-partner dynamics.

Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood anchor the film, which won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The production was shot in Oregon neighborhoods and uses practical stunts and locations to keep the action grounded.

‘Dolemite Is My Name’ (2019)

Craig Brewer dramatizes the DIY rise of entertainer Rudy Ray Moore as he creates the persona ‘Dolemite,’ records comedy albums, and independently mounts a kung-fu-flavored blaxploitation feature. The film recreates storefront studios, record-pressing sessions, and improvised sets to chart micro-budget filmmaking practices.

Eddie Murphy leads a large ensemble including Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, and Wesley Snipes. The film earned top nominations at major awards shows, with significant recognition for costume design and Murphy’s comeback performance.

‘The Two Popes’ (2019)

Fernando Meirelles stages a series of conversations between Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Pope Benedict XVI, alternating between Vatican interiors and memories from Buenos Aires and Germany. The narrative blends languages, archival-style recreations, and football-stadium scenes to trace personal histories alongside church governance.

Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins star, with the production using sets and European locations to replicate areas of the Apostolic Palace and Sistine Chapel. The film collected nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs, including acting and screenplay recognition.

‘The Platform’ (2019)

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s Spanish-language dystopia is set inside a vertical prison where food descends on a platform, forcing inmates to strategize for survival. The contained setting relies on production design and a strict set of rules that change as cellmates and levels rotate.

Ivan Massagué leads the cast, with the film gaining international attention after festival play and a global Netflix release. It became a breakout genre hit, spurring wide discussion of its metaphorical structure, multilingual dubbing, and the director’s precise use of a single location.

‘Da 5 Bloods’ (2020)

Spike Lee follows four veterans returning to Vietnam to recover the remains of their squad leader and locate a cache they left behind. The film intercuts present-day travel with combat sequences, using different aspect ratios and formats to distinguish timelines.

Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Jonathan Majors, and the late Chadwick Boseman comprise the core ensemble. Terence Blanchard’s score and Newton Thomas Sigel’s cinematography were widely recognized, and the film appears in multiple critics’ surveys of the era.

‘Athena’ (2022)

Romain Gavras stages a community-wide uprising in a French banlieue after a family tragedy, unfolding in extended takes that follow characters through courtyards, stairwells, and rooftops. The production coordinated large-scale pyrotechnics, crowd choreography, and handheld camerawork to maintain real-time momentum.

The cast includes Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, and Anthony Bajon. Premiering at Venice before a streaming rollout, the film drew attention for its opening sequence, which tracks a police-station confrontation into a high-speed getaway in a single shot.

‘Pieces of a Woman’ (2020)

Kornél Mundruczó’s drama examines grief and accountability after a home birth, focusing on legal proceedings, family tension, and a couple’s diverging paths. The film features a long opening take, practical midwifery staging, and close-quarters acting that emphasizes gestures over exposition.

Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf star alongside Ellen Burstyn, with production support from Hungarian and Canadian partners. Kirby received top acting prizes at Venice and subsequent nominations across major awards bodies, and the film spurred wide discussion of birth-care protocols and courtroom strategy.

Have a favorite from this list—or one we missed? Share your picks in the comments so everyone can add more indie gems to their Netflix queue.