Don’t-Miss Indies: What to Watch in October
October is a great time to be a movie lover. The awards contenders are starting to roll out, genre films are obligatory for the Halloween season, and we start to see the indie palate-cleansers to wash away the popcorn hangover of the summer blockbuster. This month we have awards contenders with big stars like We Live In Time, or up-and-comers like Nickel Boys. We have intimate indies like La Cocina and exciting docs like Hollywoodgate and Nocturnes. All treats, no tricks this year. Check out what we’re excited about below.
WE LIVE IN TIME
When You Can Watch: October 11
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)
Director: John Crowley
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Grace Delaney
Why We’re Excited: Directed by John Crowley (Brooklyn, BBC series Life After Life), this decades-spanning romantic drama from scribe Nick Payne (The Crown, The last Letter from Your Lover) follows a couple, Almut (Pugh) and Tobias (Garfield). After award-winning chef Almut accidentally runs Tobias over with her car, they quickly develop a relationship. In this nonlinear story, we see the couple struggling through her ovarian cancer diagnosis and what it means to cherish every moment. The deeply moving love story was shot in London and counts Benedict Cumberbatch as one of the executive producers.
NICKEL BOYS
When You Can Watch: October 25
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)
Director: RaMell Ross
Cast: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Why We’re Excited: Based on the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by the same name, cinematographer-turned-director Ross’ historical drama follows two African-American boys, Elwood (Herisse) and Turner (Wilson). During the 1960s Jim Crow era in Florida, the boys attended the abusive reform school, Nickel Academy, where their friendship helped them survive the pervasive abuse at the hands of the school and its staff. Recently premiering at Telluride Film Festival, the film’s contingent of Film Independent members includes: Producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, and Cinematographer Jomo Fray. Fray is also a Fellow from 2017’s Project Involve and a Grant Recipient in the same year. Part of the Film Independent Presents series, Members in the New York area are invited to a screening at MOMA, followed by a discussion with co-writer/director Ross.
THE APPRENTICE
When You Can Watch: October 11
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Ali Abbasi
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova
Why We’re Excited: Just in time for the U.S. Presidential election hoopla, this drama about former President Donald Trump will surely pique the interest of politically-savvy audiences. Set in New York during the 1970s and 1980s, Abbasi’s (HBO series The Last of Us) take on the 45th President of the United States focuses on Trump’s (Stan, from Captain America: The Winter Soldier) relationship with one of his longtime mentors, Roy Cohn (played by Succession’s Strong), the New York prosecutor who came to prominence during the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s. In partnership with Women in Film, Members are invited to a special screening followed by a Q&A with actor Maria Bakalova and EP Amy Baer, who is a Film Independent Member.
HIGH TIDE
When You Can Watch: October 18
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)
Directors: Marco Calvani
Cast: Marco Pigossi, James Bland, Marisa Tomei
Why We’re Excited: Directed, written, and co-produced by Film Independent Member Marco Calvani, his feature debut follows Brazilian tourist Lourenço (Pigossi) during an eventful summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts. As the summer winds down, he falls in love with an American, Maurice (Bland), as he runs out the clock on his tourist visa. Despite his accounting degree, Lourenço is unable to secure another type of visa to continue his stay legally, thereby forcing him to take on some under-the-table menial jobs while living in a tiny guest house of a friend.
LA COCINA
When You Can Watch: October 25
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)
Director: Alonso Ruizpalacios
Cast: Rooney Mara, Raúl Briones, Anna Diaz
Why We’re Excited: Set in a Times Square restaurant kitchen in New York city during the lunch-hour rush, writer-director Ruizpalacios’ (Narcos: Mexico and Amazon series Outer Range) drama follows the multicultural staff as each deals with the chaos of trying to keep one’s head above water in this city while chasing the elusive American dream. Waitress Julia (Robert Altman Award winner for Women Talking, Mara) has to decide what to do with her pregnancy with the baby’s father—and one of the cooks—Pedro (Briones), while the $800 that went missing from the previous evening’s take exacerbates the tension amongst the crew. Producers Lauren Mann and Ivan Orlic are Film Independent Members.
NOCTURNES
When You Can Watch: October 25
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)
Directors: Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan
Why We’re Excited: Co-produced, co-directed, and co-written by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, this documentary was part of Film Independent’s 2022 Global Media Makers residency program. The observational Indian nature documentary takes us to the Eastern Himalayas, where scientist Mansi and her assistant Bicki follow an eclipse of hundreds of moths, trying to decode the whispering messages. The project took place in the ecological “hot spot” on the border of India and Bhutan.
EMILIA PÉREZ
When You Can Watch: November 1
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited) and Netflix
Director: Jacques Audiard
Cast: Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Édgar Ramírez, Adriana Paz
Why We’re Excited: Selected as France’s entry for Best International Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, the Spanish-language crime musical is already generating significant awards buzz after scoring the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Spirit Awards alum Audiard, the film is based on the writer-director’s own opera libretto and Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Listen. Following four women’s narratives, the narrative’s anchor is on daunting cartel leader Emilia (transgender performer Gascón), who enlists downtrodden lawyer Rita’s (Saldana) help to fake her own death and evade capture, after undergoing gender-affirming surgery.
WOMAN OF THE HOUR
When You Can Watch: October 18
Where You Can Watch: Netflix
Director: Anna Kendrick
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Nicolette Robinson, Tony Hale
Why We’re Excited: Spirit Awards alum for Rocket Science and Camp, actress-turned-director Kendrick has chosen a true crime thriller for her directing debut. Based on the IRL serial killer Rodney Alcala’s story, the film focuses on “The Dating Game” bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw (played by Kendrick, from Pitch Perfect and Up in the Air). In 1978, contestant Alcala (Zovatto, from Penny Dreadful: City of Angels) won a date with Bradshaw on the game show around the time when he had murdered five women. Premiering at last year’s TIFF amidst the dual strikes, the film was shot in Vancouver.
DISCLAIMER
When You Can Watch: October 11
Where You Can Watch: Apple TV+
Creator/Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Lesley Manville, Indira Varma
Why We’re Excited: Two-time Spirit Awards winner for Blue Jasmine and I’m Not There, Blanchett headlines this psychological thriller by director Cuarón, another Spirit Awards winner for Romaand Y Tu Mamá También. Based on Renée Knight’s 2015 novel, the miniseries follows respected journalist and documentarian Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett), who is horrified when she discovers that she is a key character in a novel, one that threatens to expose her own dark past. Following the same release format as other prestige Apple TV+ offerings of late, the first two episodes will be available upon its debut, followed by weekly episodes for the remainder of the series.
*PROGRAMMER’S PICK* HOLLYWOODGATE
When You Can Watch: October 22
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents @ The Film Independent Theater
Director: Ibrahim Nash’at
Why We’re Excited: From Jenn Wilson, Film Independent Senior Programmer: “Hollywoodgate, a documentary by director Ibrahim Nash’at that premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2023, is an observational film with a singularly stunning observation – that upon withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2020-2021 the United States appears to have left a military base filled with over $7 billion worth of supplies, vehicles, airplanes, and military grade weapons and ammo. The entire documentary follows the Taliban as they discover, with glee, the totality of the cache of objects that have been left for them to re-purpose however they wish. The amazing amount of access to the very top military leadership of the Taliban afforded to this filmmaker is indeed, very special, but in addition to that, the film is actually very well-shot (by the director, himself with a handheld camera) and crafted into a story with shocking and far-reaching ramifications about the United States’ very sudden and largely unexplained departure from the war in Afghanistan.”
(Header: Hollywoodgate – members [Diane Becker, Executive Producer; Elijah Stevens, Associate Producer] – Fellow, Shane Boris [Documentary Lab 2018])
KEY
Film Independent Fellow or Member
Film Independent Presents Screening, Q&A
Microbudget
Filmmaker or Lead Characters of Color
Film Independent Spirit Award Winner or Nominee
Female Filmmaker
LGBT Filmmaker or Lead LGBT Characters
First-time Filmmaker
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