This year is a big one for film, with a number of titles from major industry veterans in the cinematic pipeline. There’s the return of Nolan with The Odyssey, Gerwig’s Narnia and Tom Ford’s long-awaited Cry to Heaven, just to name a few. While looking forward to these all-but-guaranteed successes is gratifying, there’s something more exciting about looking out for the little guys. Every year, alongside the surefire hits, we get some lower-scale indie darlings that capture the hearts and minds of the moviegoing public—think Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby (2025) or Celine Song’s Past Lives (2023). The proceeding ten films are the ones to watch—the underdogs that might just be the daring works that stick with us the longest. 

1. A Place in Hell (dir. Chloe Dormont)

Acquired by Netflix out of Sundance in 2023, Chloe Dormont’s erotic financial thriller Fair Play was one of the most underseen gems of that year. Bypassing the theatrical experience and heading straight to streaming is the most likely cause of the collective oversight, but the film nonetheless deserved far more attention than it received. An intensely gripping script embodied by rising stars Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, it made for one of the most nail-biting watches of that year, Dormont demonstrating an obvious command of the medium with her cinematic debut. With only a vague plot summary to its name, Dormont’s sophomore feature A Place in Hell is set to release this year, with Michelle Williams helming the lead role as a high-profile lawyer whose morals are tested by the interference of a renegade ingenue employee. With a supporting cast featuring names like Daisy Edgar-Jones and Andrew Scott, this title is bound to receive all of the notoriety that Fair Play so unfortunately missed out on.

2. Ancient History (dir. Annie Baker)

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker made her delicate screen debut in 2023 with Janet Planet, a quiet rumination on motherhood and connection in suburban America. Baker’s trial in the cinematic medium proved decisively successful, Janet Planet receiving one of the warmest receptions for a film of its scale in its release year. Reteaming with cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff for Ancient History, Baker directs the wonderful Sophia Lillis in a film whose plot remains unknown. Despite this, all signs point to another poignant and deeply felt release from one of cinema’s most intimate new voices. 

3. A Long Winter (dir. Andrew Haigh)

Andrew Haigh finally hit the mainstream with 2023’s All of Us Strangers, a decidedly tragic work starring Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott at the centre of a tender queer romance. He’s back this year with A Long Winter, a film whose plot seems to focus on a more familial relationship rather than a romantic one. The relationship between Andrew Scott’s character and his mother—a career-defining turn from Claire Foy—was perhaps the strongest aspect of Haigh’s latest film, so seeing a narrative turn into that material is a very promising sign. Starring an ever-excellent Fred Hechinger and Belfast’s Caitriona Balfe as a mother and son preparing for a harsh winter storm in a mountain cabin, this film promises another instance of Haigh’s incredibly heartfelt depictions of human connection.

4. Mimesis (dir. Kaouther Ben Hania)

Kaouther Ben Hania is one of the most important political voices in the contemporary cinema space, with her previous two works—documentary Four Daughters (2023) and dramatization The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025)—speaking to incredibly important issues through a lens that uniquely combined tenderness and intensity. The upcoming Mimesis marks  Hania’s narrative film debut, centering on a young woman who teams up with a cameraman to make a film about the patron saint that protects her family home, which is under the threat of destruction. A tender portrait of the director’s home country of Tunisia, this film is sure to be delivered with a delicately precise hand and a strong message underscoring it. 

5. Her Private Hell (dir. Nicholas Winding Refn)

Director of Ryan Gosling and Elle Fanning in star-vehicles Drive (2011) and The Neon Demon (2016), respectively, Nicholas Winding Refn is known for intense portraits of his central characters in deeply turbulent times. He returns in 2026 with Her Private Hell, a film featuring an inspired ensemble cast of young stars like Sophie Thatcher, Havane Rose Liu and Charles Melton. With no plot details outside of the description “Lots of glitter, sex, and violence”, this film is bound to become the sort of Saltburn-adjacent viral sensation that we come to expect of a cinematic calendar, but this time around with some definite directorial prestige attached to it.

6. Fjord (dir. Cristian Mungiu)

Renate Reinsve delivered one of last year’s best performances in  Sentimental Value, and  the actress shows no signs of slowing down, already poised for further critical acclaim in Fjord, the latest European thriller from director Cristian Mungiu. The Romanian director is known for a slew of high-quality releases shot in his native tongue, Fjord being his first foray into an English-speaking film. Sebastian Stan co-stars Reinsve in this drama/thriller revolving around a couple who move into a new home and begin to suspect abuse taking place in the household of their neighbours. With a backdrop of an icy Romanian landscape, Fjord is set to continue the powerful trend of Mungiu’s films confronting the innermost fears of their viewers.

7. Saturn Return (dir. Greg Kwedar)

Having directed 2023’s prison drama Sing Sing and co-written last year’s intimate period piece Train Dreams, Greg Kwedar returns in 2026 for what appears to be a slight departure from his previous material. This film enjoys a Boyhood-esque narrative structure where one couple are followed across ten years, and whose trials and tribulations are sure to be carefully and thoughtfully depicted by Kwedar’s camera. With Rachel Brosnahan and Will Poulter in the central roles, as well as a supporting turn from Charles Melton, this film promises all the same artful tenderness of the director’s previous works. What exactly Kwedar has to say about contemporary love remains unknown, but if his last two features are any indication, it won’t be themes that are easily forgotten. 

8. The Chaperones (dir. India Donaldson)

India Donaldson’s 2024 indie-drama Good One was a breakout festival hit in its release year, lauded for the quiet intimacy with which it followed its central character on a turbulent coming-of-age journey. The director established herself as a strong filmic voice in the depiction of adolescence, which she builds upon with her next release, The Chaperones. In a The Holdovers-esque film reteaming Cooper Hoffman and Davin Jonsson alongside Paul Dano, three men are tasked with transporting a troubled teen across the country. The central teen is played by Bring Her Back (2025)’s Billy Barratt, whose more grounded role in this film is likely a welcome departure from the intensity of his debut. A significant increase in scale and budget for Donaldson, The Chaperones promises to take the thematic material of Good One and transform it into a wide-reaching crowd-pleaser. 

9. Clarissa (dir. Chuko Esiri & Arie Esiri)

Perhaps the film with the smallest profile on this list, Clarissa is the latest offering from Nigerian directing duo Chuko and Arie Esiri. A contemporary reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, Academy Award-nominee Sophie Okonedo embodies Clarissa, a reinvention of the novel’s titular character, as she embarks on a personal journey that promises to leave both characters and audiences changed for good. With David Oyelowo and Ayo Edibiri in supporting roles, Clarissa is sure to be a rich offering of prestige filmmaking that retains all the quality of the source material, whilst injecting a distinct directorial voice into the classic tale.

10. The Unknown (dir. Arthur Harari)

French director Arthur Harari’s last cinematic outing, a writing credit on 2024’s Anatomy of a Fall, earned him an Academy Award for co-writing one of the decade’s best screenplays, alongside his wife Justine Triet. Harari’s own directorial efforts are nothing to scoff at, having released many critically acclaimed titles that have been confined to the French zeitgeist. This year, he returns with The Unknown, a mind-bending drama that follows a man who wakes up one morning in the body of Lea Seydoux and is forced to reckon with the consequences of this sudden transformation. Seydoux is renowned for her capacity to embody mind-bending roles, such as her turn in The Beast, and combining her physicality with Harari’s masterful pen and direction might just be the boost the filmmaker needs to cross over into the international film conversations.