20 Best Indie Movies Of 2018

2018 has been another great year for movies, but with cinemas and streaming services offering more content and choice than ever before, it's not easy to keep on top of every "must-see" film that hits screens both big and small.

Indie films, in particular, tend to suffer with their minimal marketing campaigns and borderline-invisible releases, where only the most studious film buffs might even realise they actually exist.

These 20 indie releases from the last 12 months, then, represent the best and most diverse low-budget filmmaking out there, and absolutely need to go to the top of your watch-list.

Though there's no concrete criteria for defining an indie film, we've settled on low-budget films with a generally limited theatrical release (if at all), distributed by a smaller studio (or Netflix) often after playing at a couple of film festivals first.

If you've had your fill of all those glossy Christmas-period tentpoles, these 20 indies should serve as welcome palate cleansers, presenting smaller-scale yet no-less absorbing drama...

Thoroughbreds is a restrained yet delightfully bleak comedy following two strung-out young women, Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Amanda (Olivia Cooke), as they scheme to murder Lily's step-dad (Paul Sparks).

A stellar debut from writer-director Cory Finley that instantly puts him on the map as a filmmaker to watch, Thoroughbreds deftly plays its potentially kooky premise straight with lashings of deadpan humour while benefiting enormously from the chemistry between its well-matched leads (both of whom turn in arguably their best work to date).

The catty put-downs are as hilarious as they are scathing, and that's not to forget a welcome performance from the late, great Anton Yelchin as the shady drug dealer they rope into carrying out the murder.

The suburban satire doesn't seem much new on the surface, but through Finley's lens, it nevertheless feels positively fresh, exciting and even a little bit dangerous.