Even though we adore well-made, big-budget productions from Hollywood studios, we're also big fans of offbeat, independent fare. As we look at the year ahead, festivals like Sundance (later this month), SXSW (in March) and Cannes (in May) will change the landscape, but if you're looking for an early indie fix, here's what to check out. Where available, we've gathered trailers. Note that release dates are very much subject to change.
Release date: January 22
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Garrett Hedlund, Walton Goggins, Mark Wahlberg
Tell me more: A suicidal artist meets a homicidal drifter in the desert. Things get very twisted when the drifter follows the artist back to the city.
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Release date: February 5
Cast: Elmer Back, Luis Alberti, Maya Zapata
Tell me more: Veteran filmmaker Peter Greenaway examines famed Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein during his time in Mexico in the early 1930s, though this is far from a conventional biopic. Instead, it's a dark, weird comedy, featuring explicit sex acts and relentlessly focusing on death.
Release date: February 12
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Dean Norris
Tell me more: This surprisingly tense drama follows a retirement home resident with dementia who searches for a former Nazi with blood on his hands, guided by a fellow retiree and concentration camp survivor. Atom Egoyan directed.
Term Life
Release date: March 2016 (Release Date T.B.D.)
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Hailee Steinfeld, Bill Paxton, Jon Favreau
Tell me more: An action-thriller about a desperate man who takes out a life insurance policy on himself, payable to his estranged daughter. Now all he has to do is stay alive until the policy takes effect.
Release date: February 19
Cast: Nilbio Torres, Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolivar, Brionne Davis
Tell me more: A critically acclaimed drama tracks two German explorers who ventured to South America to study indigenous people. Their trips were some 30 years apart, yet they had quite a bit in common, not least their local guide.
Release date: March 4
Cast: Christian Bale, Natalie Portman
Tell me more: Terrence Malick's latest free-floating drama met with divided critical reaction when it debuted at a festival early in 2015, but the all-star cast and the beauty of Emmanuel Lubezki's photography makes this a must-see on the indie movie calendar.
Release date: March 11
Cast: Sally Field, Max Greenfield, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Peter Gallagher
Tell me more: Inspired by a motivational speaker, a sixtysomething woman decides to pursue a romance with her younger coworker, leading to hilarity and possible heartbreak.
Release date: March 18
Cast: Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, Haley Lu Richardson, Sebastian Stan
Tell me more: The raunchy Sundance sensation follows a former gymnast whose local fame rests entirely on a bronze medal. Her status is challenged by a young, rising athlete. Rauch (TV's The Big Bang Theory) wrote the script with her husband. (Note: Trailer is NSFW.)
Release date: March 25
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen
Tell me more: As country music legend Hank Williams, Hiddleston does his own singing, portraying Williams as he deals with severe personal problems and career challenges; Olsen plays his wife.
Release date: April 1
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Mark Webber
Tell me more: A rock band books a gig at a private compound, not realizing it's a haven for secretive white supremacists led by the stoic Stewart. When the band witnesses a horrible act of violence, they find themselves in a fight for their lives. Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) wrote and directed.
Release date: April 8
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper
Tell me more: From director Jean-Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club) comes a bleak yet fascinating tale about an investment banker who struggles with a serious bout of depression after his wife is killed in an automobile accident, eventually plunging into very troubling activity.
Release date: May 13
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ciaran Hinds, Tye Sheridan
Tell me more: At the heart of this imagined chapter about the life of Jesus is a deep meditation on the meaning of spirituality and faith. McGregor plays dual roles: the son of God and the Devil.
