I didn’t intend to start this rundown of my favourite independent films of the year with a rant, but it feels like the most honest way to start my preamble.
Of course, I could start by saying what a diverse year it has been for a wide array of titles, genres and shooting styles, many of which ordinarily extend beyond the remit of this little site, but deserve love and attention from appreciative viewers – the right audience. This is true; 2025 has been a gift for all sorts of reasons, offering up some brilliant, inventive films across the course of the year. I could also semi-apologise for the fact that I know very well that, just like last year and for years before that, I’ve missed out on lots of titles which may have charmed and entertained me; time is always a factor, and the day job prevents me from doing a fraction of the reviews and articles I’d love to do. If you are a filmmaker and/or a promoter and you had hoped for a review here without receiving one, I can only apologise. So far, so familiar.
But the fact remains that, at this point in the year, we are being confronted by the ever-broadening remit of streaming giants, run by people who refer to film audiences as ‘consumers’ and believe that cinema – that is, the whole experience – is an outmoded artform. How people like this wheedle their way into positions of power and authority over the very mediums they apparently despise – or at least, fundamentally misunderstand – will be a question for the historians of the future. You can, certainly, be good at sums and not very good at lots of other things. But speaking as someone who, day job or not, devotes hundreds of hours to watching indie cinema every year, and always in the cinema if I can, this kind of dismissive wave of the hand is a real concern. This isn’t only true because handing over access to your entire film library to companies which can remove it based on their own, occasionally mystifying criteria seems like a colossal gamble; it’s also because a world in which only Netflix (et al) money is real is a very narrow kind of place, shaped by boardroom decisions and shot through with algorithmic criteria which more than occasionally get it wildly wrong.
Already, and for some years now, it’s become harder and harder to support film and filmmakers on their own terms, in a world run by and for the magnificently, shamefully wealthy people who’d prefer it if you just engaged with their products in your own homes, often paying for the privilege of access and then paying again, for a bit more access. And don’t get me wrong – there are lots of times that vast, moneyed corporations get it absolutely right, making the most of their money to bring alive worlds which require the kinds of SFX denied to even the most innovative independent directors. Disney did superb work on Alien: Earth; Netflix facilitated Guillermo del Toro building an entire ship to feature in a few minutes of screentime in Frankenstein. A stopped clock is right twice a day. But do we want to leave ourselves in a situation where we are entirely at the mercy of the heft of the mainstream? I’d caution against it. Keep your physical media movie libraries; go and see films; support independent film, new and old, by supporting some of the excellent film labels out there (such as 88 Films, 101 Films, Second Sight, Umbrella Entertainment, Mondo Macabro, Arrow Video); keep an eye on the likes of Alter; talk to one another, find out what’s good and spread the word; support film festivals, in person if you possibly can; take a chance on the ones you’ve never heard of. I’d never pretend to love every independent project that I see and I’ll never flatter a film I don’t like, but my god, I’d rather live in a world where people are making and writing and creating their own films than a world curated for me by people who don’t even understand what the cinema is for.
As such, I’m not mixing my favourite independent films in with the bigger budget titles this year. All of the films on this list are independently made; many of them were put together for next to nothing, but all of them hold their own against the big hitters of 2025. Keep an eye out for them: wherever possible, I’ll add viewing details below.
VULCANIZODORA
This film has a sense of crisis hanging over it throughout, as much as the conversation between main characters Derek and Martin seems affable enough, if a little fixated on a past now lost to them as they hike out into the woods for a special occasion, shall we say, in their friendship. But there’s more than nostalgia afflicting these two men in Joel Potrykus’s existentialist, occasionally hand-over-mouth funny, but more often unbearably moving tribute to a fucked-up friendship. One of the greatest tributes you can pay a no-budget film like this is to say that you keep returning to it, mulling it over and feeling that same investment in the characters that you felt at the time of viewing: that’s where I am with Vulcanizadora (2024). You can check out my full review here (with some viewing details here and details on purchasing a physical copy here).
HEAD LIKE A HOLE
It’s the simplest, even the most reductivist idea, but yet the beginning of Head Like a Hole (2025) feels oh-so familiar to anyone who’s ever had to swallow down their misgivings because they need to take the job, a job, any job. It’s only somewhat later that levels of weirdness overtake the general levels of weirdness inherent in any situation where you have to pretend to be as excited about some kind of corporate goal as the guy getting paid more than you seems to be. Asher (Steve Kasan) is down on his luck, reduced to applying for the kind of job which would advertise with those tear-off strips affixed to a ‘help wanted’ poster. He gets the job, but the job consists of watching a hole – sorry, an ‘anomaly’, in the wall of a residential basement, noting down its dimensions in exact detail and never letting his concentration drift. But why? What could possibly happen to a hole in a wall? Gradually, we glean that there may be something strange going on in the world outside, details of which were clearly lost on Asher at the start of this situation (sleeping in your car will do that to you) but which likely influence events inside the house – eventually.
Head Like a Hole is a low-key, clever and absorbing piece of…sci-fi? In some respects it’s a sci-fi, but in other respects it refuses to rest comfortably in any genre, focusing instead on Asher and his responses to the world he finds himself in. My full review is here. The film is not currently available for streaming or physical media purchase, but Warped Perspective will say so when it is.
SEW TORN
Seamstresses don’t figure hugely in independent cinema, or really cinema at all, much less in strange fusions of crime drama and horror-ish fantasy, but step forward Sew Torn (2024), an intricately-constructive tale of a girl who gets caught up in a situation far, far beyond her expectations. The very shy and wouldn’t-say-boo protagonist Barbara (Eve Connolly) is struggling to both live alone and maintain her late mother’s family seamstressing business, and a bad day turns into something far more threatening when, as she returns home from visiting a client, she stumbles upon a road accident, two injured (and armed) men and a mysterious briefcase. In a panic, Barbara picks it up and takes it, prompting a strange course of events which unfold in various, fourth-wall teasing ways. Sew Torn is economical, knows exactly how to get the best out of its plot, actors and runtime, and offers something ingenious: it’s all in the writing.
You can take a look at my review of the film here – and if you’d like to take a look at the film itself, there are some virtual viewing options here. I can’t find any legitimate physical media purchase options currently.
PEACOCK (AKA PFAU – BIN ICH ECHT?)
Peacock is definitely an outlier on this list, but in its tale of personal identity gone awry, modern alienation and the search for what matters in life, it belongs, even as a comedy of manners, because it deals with its plot points so very adroitly. Matthias (the intimidatingly handsome Albrecht Schuch) works for a company called My Companion, where he enacts whatever his clients want from him – dutiful son, doting dad, charming date. Yes folks, why wait for humanoid robots, when the real thing will do the same things and elevate your personal status just as well? There’s never anything sexual here (or in his own, real-life relationship for that matter) but it’s clear that Matthias is starting to struggle with the divide between real life and his wage-paying, fantasy world. It’s sober, smart and provocative without spilling a drop of blood, or even so much as really raising its charming protagonist’s eyebrow; Matthias unfolds events differently to that, as the film questions our love of keeping up appearances in its own, quaint style. I reviewed the film when it featured at this year’s WatchAUT festival, and whilst it doesn’t seem to be available in the UK at the moment, there are some viewing options.
MERMAID
Appearing at this year’s SXSW, Mermaid (2025) is a “love letter to Florida”, and yeah, even having never visited Florida, that feels like it fits. The likes of Disney have sanitised the mermaid in the same way as it’s Tinkerbelled the fairy; these supernatural beings actually have a long, provocative history of far more sinister folklore and that’s explored – obliquely, but it is – in Butt Boy director Tyler Cornack’s singular vision: boy (Doug) gets fired, boy enjoys smashing down handfuls of prescription medication, boy seeks failed vengeance on the heavies who are poised to ruin his life and boy finds…a real-life mermaid, and decides he’s going to put all of his kind, nurturing energies into looking after her – a bit like trying to look after a rare tropical plant as your own house and all your possessions burn around you. As I said in my original review, this isn’t Splash and the mermaid in question is in fact a fearsome creature, but that’s also not really the point. This is Doug’s story, and this is his bizarre, touching, Florida-weird redemption arc. This, to my mind, is indie cinema in all its bizarre, chance-taking glory. Sadly, at the time of writing I can’t find any viewing details: over to you, distributors.
A DESERT
It’s time for some Americana-tinged gloom and loss in the visually arresting film A Desert, with its magnetic, mysterious characters and its burgeoning sense of a hidden world out there in the back of beyond, waiting to swallow up the unwitting. Or not quite unwitting, perhaps; photographer Alex (Kai Lennox) has deliberately got himself lost in the boonies, relishing the chance to forget all about bills, family and obligations for a while as he photographs old, moribund buildings and remote spaces – his modus operandi, and once key to a successful project he called the ‘Death of the New West’. However, a chain of events draws him into the orbit of some hedonistic, rootless locals who initially ask him to take their portraits; a night together ensues, in which Alex feels like he’s amongst new friends. But as his memory and certainty begins to fragment, Alex finds himself lost and alone in a world he has only ever really experienced from the other side of the lens, and he’s in danger – never control – here. This is great work from first time director Joshua Erkman, with a screenplay which blends discourse around poverty and privilege into its heady world-building. Please check out my original review, and happily there are some opportunities to stream the film.
TERRESTRIAL
Another film on the list which belies its more-than-modest budget with clever writing, inventive edits and abundant ideas, Terrestrial (2025) was one of this year’s standout Fantasia titles, a story about a man, Allen (the fabulous Jermaine Fowler) who is doing rather well for himself. His old friends are astonished when they see what his writing career has bought: a stunning home in the Hollywood hills, a vintage car, all the obvious trappings of new wealth. So why is Allen acting so…off? Isn’t he happy? This was what he always wanted…
They find out the answers to these questions in a film which doesn’t miss a single beat. As I mentioned in my original review, the title Terrestrial suggests a sci-fi film, but although science fiction is contextually very significant here, this is far more a film about a young man whose aspirations – as a sci-fi author – launch him into an increasingly discomfiting and complex situation, one which he dare not share with his friends because that would shatter his hard won sense of self. It really is a brilliant piece of work, which deserves to be seen spoiler-free (which my review, promise, is). Sadly, at the moment I can’t see any viewing options but I hope that changes.
F*CKTOYS
A glorious, whole-hearted love letter to John Waters and all things camp, crazy and bold, director (and writer, and star) Annapurna Sriram has achieved something pretty wonderful here: it’s the story of a young woman who has been told she’s the victim of a curse, so off she goes, on her moped, into the strange underbelly of the city and the Deep South to raise cash (and guess how!) for a psychic to get rid of that pesky hex. It’s a candy-coloured, but never candy-coated bildungsroman where every moment is a revelation: sweet visual touches, believable character relationships and a barrage of ideas keep things just the right balance of tough and charming. It really is something else. Will that impertinent title get in its way? I certainly hope not, though it certainly does interesting things to an internet search and, for now, as I’ve just gleaned, it doesn’t look to be available to watch online. If there’s any justice, it should get a floral-print box set release.
THE EGO DEATH OF QUEEN CECILIA
You know what? The more I think about this modest, no-budget independent crime drama, the more I think it’s tantamount to a tragic play. Though the real tragedy would have been if I hadn’t have requested to review it; it landed in the site inbox when I happened to have more than usual spare time, and had I not, I may well have passed on a film which didn’t immediately suggest a great fit for Warped Perspective. It just makes you think of what you miss, if you get offered a film at the wrong time or have other reasons for declining to view.
But back to the tragic play reference: in The Ego Death of Queen Cecilia, we follow the fortunes of a woman one at the top of her game as an influencer with a successful YouTube channel and a devout following. There’s the hubris. But when we meet her, she’s a delivery driver, reduced to stealing parcels so she can give away their contents as prizes on her now-ailing channel – keeping up the appearance of fame and success. The Ego Death is already underway, then, but circumstances overtake Cecilia much more rapidly when she spots an old acquaintance of hers, now seemingly up to no good of his own and potentially – given her clear animosity towards this man – a means for her to regain her status and admiration, if she can only arrange things the right way. This spiralling, but always plausible and suitably humane story teases out lots of our modern predilections for online fame and fortune: what would an influencer do to regain old glories? Here’s a link to my review, and there’s an official website for the film, plus what looks like a streaming option, although from a platform I don’t know, so exercise caution.
THE SEVERED SUN
I’m not here to claim that British folk horror The Severed Sun (2024) sets out to utterly reinvent the genre to which it clearly belongs, but it does great work with its selection of plot points, visuals, performances and elements, toying with age-old ideas of religious mania, persecution, closed communities, sexuality and sin. Nor would it typically be for me to question the viewpoints of other reviewers, but where some critics have happened upon the inclusion of modern-day features (such as visible road markings) and made the assumption that this is some kind of mistake, for me this is one of the film’s best elements, and I don’t feel for a minute like director and writer Dean Puckett messed up by leaving them in. Instead, this provides a kind of rootless, timeless quality, detaching the film from a concrete timeline, but hinting that this may be some kind of dark, coming future, some unspecified point where what we would see as progress has been undone. Its story of the rebellious Magpie (Emma Appleton), recently-widowed daughter of a small community’s rod-of-iron pastor (Toby Stephens) allows a heady, close examination of a fracturing community, where visions of some dark Beast of the soil (James Swanton) begins to undermine an already-fraught existence. Filmed during a heatwave, The Severed Sun’s glorious sunlight belies its dark, unspoken nights. It’s a visual and atmosphere-laden treat and I really loved it: you can read more here and hallelujah, there are lots of online viewing options.
THE UNDERTONE
As a lifelong horror fan, I am always chasing the high of skin-crawling terror, and The Undertone certainly delivers that. Again, as above, this film doesn’t obviously seem to reinvent a genre, but it executes its storyline with such confidence and care that it works incredibly well. It feels modern, even a tad overfamiliar – a podcaster investigates a strange series of recordings – but it brings immense skill to how it unfolds its story, with director Ian Tuason knowing exactly how to elevate this aural nightmare into a scream-into-the-back-of-your-hand ordeal for audiences.
In the film, podcaster Evy (Nina Kiri) undertakes to investigate a series of recordings now belonging to her fellow podcaster Justin (whom we never see; this is a lonely ordeal of a film, centring upon a traumatised, isolated Evy). As they piece together a timeline of events for the subjects of the recordings, a young married couple called Jessa and Mike, phenomena begin to spill out of headphones and screens into Evy’s home. Why, and what does Evy have in common with Mike and Jessa? Answers come slowly, ratcheting up the sensory horrors and relying on the very human tendency to find faces in the darkness, words in the static and stories in chaos. My full review of this fantastic horror film is here and all being well, the film will receive a release in 2026.