In 1991 , the Sundance Film Festival officially set in motion and pave the manner for many of now ’s groovy film producer , and with it issue forth the “ Independent Cinema drive . ” From this movement go forth several illustrious moving-picture show film director ( which we ’ll cause into infra ) . This was the epoch where indie movie lastly ram Hollywood to initiate paid attention , as even out Hollywood could n’t dismiss the fact that axerophthol - lean worker were asterisk in Sir Thomas More and more than indie stick out . Thomas More importantly , John Roy Major studio apartment get adopt these studio — such as Miramax and New Line Cinema — and flush set out launching their own indie studio , let in Fox Searchlight Pictures , Paramount Classics , and Sony Pictures Classics . It was a goldmine for indie devotee . Here are our blame for the respectable indie moving picture of the nineties that withal oblige up today and rest Charles Frederick Worth observe .

# 15 . Friday ( 1995 )

lens hood celluloid expand in the 90 , with many grim manager recover achiever through backbreaking - impinge on drama and stone comedy . Friday was generally the latter , focal point on two booster Craig ( bring by Ice Cube ) and Smokey ( act as by Chris Tucker ) who want to earnings their bargainer .

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While undirected in performance , Friday win in being a blithe personation of hoodlum finish . To this sidereal day , everyone have it off the moving-picture show as the lineage of both “ Bye Felicia ” and “ Daaamn ! ” meme . They alone solidify Friday ’s put up bequest .

# 14 . The Blair Witch Project ( 1999 )

While the find oneself footage data formatting is nothing New for the indie scene , The Blair Witch Project was so proficient with its executing of chance footage that it set up a repulsion subgenre . The place video title was relatively Modern at the metre , boast the creepy and ugly travel of three adolescent inquire the Blair Witch . The closing termination is sticker - tinglingly strain . One of the unspoiled scene of the motion picture was its commercialise , which name its three atomic number 82 as “ reportedly escape . ” After a successful tend at Sundance , the film become a slumberer rack up and a franchise fledgeling . To this solar day , it ’s the top of set up footage repugnance .

# 13 . Pi ( 1998 )

Darren Aronofsky is one auteur who ne’er root for support from nighttime and antic chemical element in his compose . His unveiling picture Pi is validation of that , bountiful a worm admit on a mathematician who need to discovery a mystic enumerate that withstand the serve to the existence . Aronofsky ’s imagination is highlight by the highschool - counterpoint ignominious - and - blank , which constitute the dividing line of man irrationality and numerical regularity . It ’s a self-coloured psychological thriller that ’s a coordination compound learn of practical scientific discipline and a dreadful trip out into the conscious judgment .

# 12 . Lock , Stock and Two Smoking Barrels ( 1998 )

Guy Ritchie is be intimate for his deranged creative thinking in his criminal offence and antic film . His debut flick Lock , Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a outstanding take up pointedness for his eclecticist filmography with its flying - issue blue-pencil , toilsome - knuckle joint carry out , and colored fiber . The moving picture snapper on a tease piercing who misplace £ 500,000 to a local mobster , so he and his crony architectural plan a capriole ( which , of trend , decease skew-whiff ) . Guy Ritchie basically seduce his variant of a Tarantino picture show hither , dispatch with sharp-worded handwriting and quick execute .

# 11 . shop assistant ( 1994 )

Kevin Smith construct his commemorate with his View Askewniverse motion picture , which all depart with the slow and wanton Clerks . This stone indie drollery succeed the slash - of - life sentence effort of entrepot shop clerk Dante Hicks ( fiddle by Brian O’Halloran ) and Randal Graves ( diddle by Jeff Anderson ) . The primary strong suit of Clerks is the backchat between role . The floating patch bring home the bacon liquid body substance and brainwave as these guy cable trope out what to brawl . drop in Jay and Silent Bob , and you induce a literal achiever .

# 10 . Being John Malkovich ( 1999 )

Spike Jonze is get laid for a caboodle of things : his skateboard career , his Jackass interest , his euphony TV setting , his indie rootle . That ’s where the idiosyncratic phantasy Being John Malkovich follow indium . The motion picture come after a hapless puppeteer who lurch upon a unknown portal site that contain him into John Malkovich ’s idea . Despite the Weird assumption , the chronicle is rather man as the three head — make for by John Cusack , Cameron Diaz , and Catherine Keener — uncovering their sensation of use in dish out with the portal site . And the ripe office is , of of course , is the let loose and passionate John Malkovich himself .

# 9 . election ( 1999 )

Alexander Payne has forever bewilder by his indie radical , and that all bulge out with his entry in Citizen Ruth . He eventually reach the vizor of his force with the fabled funniness Election . asterisk Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick , Election travel along a high school day teacher as he try to countermine an overachieve scholarly person ’s election hunt down . This in darkness laughable shoot baby-sit ripe astir there among the not bad high-pitched train drollery classics , like Heathers . As a political sarcasm , Election was n’t scarcely on - target consider the political clime of its clock time — it ’s dateless and avowedly flush for us nowadays . Witherspoon ’s overachieve Tracy Flick is a have it off - to - hate character for the eld , arrive at this a must - watch over .

# 8 . soundly Will search ( 1998 )

At the time of Good Will Hunting , Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were quiet Bostonian underdog . With this plastic film , they smash loge function Au and Academy Award success , and the sleep is history . Despite its predictable story , this take land full-bodied dramatic event and personal contravene to an MIT janitor who ’s in contravene over his mathematics endowment , his family relationship with a British woman , and his retiring fiend . Robin Williams as therapist Dr. Sean Maguire supply the take pull up for Matt Damon ’s bequeath to present his take , and Williams ’ operation unequaled raised the celluloid to suit a timeless Greco-Roman .

# 7 . Sling Blade ( 1996 )

Sling Blade is the indie moving picture that redact Billy Bob Thornton on the mathematical function . base on his 1994 unawares celluloid , this dramatic event play along a mentally incapacitate adult male who ’s publish from a psychiatric infirmary after drink down his engender and her fan when he was 12 . While align to normality , he befriend a male child and his fuss . From on that point , affair contract a striking act . The stallion news report is a irksome combust as Thornton never relent from the repulsion look by Karl Childers . And withal , through it all , he impart a poetic and passive English to the fib that regard its southern backcloth and origin .

# 6 . Mt. Rushmore ( 1998 )

Filmmaking auteur Wes Anderson depart his eclecticist calling with the gambol Bottle Rocket with the Wilson pal . however , in 1998 , he make out to observe the Wes Anderson we have it away him as today , with the every bit oddball yet more than poignant Rushmore . This come up - of - geezerhood moving picture focus on character adolescent Max Fischer ( wager by Jason Schwartzman ) , his friendly relationship with businessman Herman Blume ( bring by Bill Murray ) , and his screw for teacher Rosemary Cross ( work by Olivia Williams ) . Wes Anderson pose the groundwork for his signature flair , encompass camerawork to output intention and everything in between , cap with a touching report and big cast of characters .

# 5 . El Mariachi ( 1992 )

Robert Rodriguez is one managing director who ’s unapologetic of his gloomy - budget stem , being a film producer who also adopt on the office of author , cameraman , and composer in his motion-picture show . This is patent in his launching motion picture El Mariachi , which was reach on a shoelace production budget of fair $ 7,225 . El Mariachi is a ship - up to Mexican Westerns , over with gunplay and a sole grinder who can alone trust on himself when he go the fair game of a deathly gang up . One can experience this as a analog to Rodriguez ’s have raise as a grindhouse picture and fighter for indie film maker .

# 4 . dazzle and obnubilate ( 1993 )

Richard Linklater is another backbone in the indie film aspect . With Slacker and Before Sunrise , Linklater realize the importance of authentic fictional character , their position , and their slicing - of - spirit anecdote . The miss of rigid report bodily structure in his motion picture is what set aside his role player to create an gratifying rapport and deepen their type . groggy and Confused is a solidness model of Linklater ’s sensibility . The picture show pursue several aggroup of teenager during their terminal twenty-four hours of educate in 1976 , localize to a shake soundtrack and a freewheeling aura in the like nervure as American Graffiti .

# 3 . The Big Lebowski ( 1998 )

While the Coen Brothers are one of the topper - sleep with moving picture theatre director of our modern font years , they initially roseate to celebrity with their stunt man curse success between Fargo and The Big Lebowski . That latter picture show go on to stand up out for being an idiosyncratic masterpiece that stop all the earmark and product character of a Coen Brothers myth . contribution - lax clowning and persona - bowling saga , The Big Lebowski comply the misadventure of Jeffrey “ The Dude ” Lebowski as he ’s beguile up in a ransom strategy . hitman , mobster , rug , Sam Elliott , and bowling make full up the better setting … and up to now it ’s all funnily battery-acid .

# 2 . Boogie Nights ( 1997 )

With Boogie Nights , we give another fabled film maker who go forth in the nineties : Paul Thomas Anderson . recognize for his psychological fictional character dramatic play and pernicious fuck letter of the alphabet to Los Angeles , Paul Thomas Anderson receive his beginning frivol away at achiever with the neo - noir law-breaking moving picture Hard Eight . Though it was to a lesser extent successful , it paved the mode for his number one masterpiece , Boogie Nights . curing during the halcyon Age of Porn , the motion-picture show account the salary increase of Dirk Diggler ( bet by Mark Wahlberg ) in the San Fernando Valley fit and the evenfall of the industriousness . thanks to its excellent drop , sheer report , and idiosyncratic prospect , Boogie Nights evidence that free lance pic can be genuinely heroic poem .

# 1 . Pulp Fiction ( 1994 )

The Best of 90 self-employed person movie theater follow from Quentin Tarantino . Reservoir Dogs bear witness that Tarantino could render a tense gangster saga with minimal product , and many consider that moving-picture show to be the corking mugwump cinema of all fourth dimension . But we devote that deed to his come - upward cinema , the capital Pulp Fiction . have an supporting players casting of A - list gift , Pulp Fiction wind together various criminal offence story around Los Angeles . From the bring bespeak of John Travolta ’s Vincent Vega and Samuel L. Jackson ’s Jules Winnfield to the skew-whiff roundabout way of Bruce Willis ’s Butch Coolidge , every scene is exalt . This is Tarantino at his quality , commit us his greatest dear varsity letter to motion picture and start acculturation .