Before Election and Sideways made him an indie darling, Alexander Payne kicked off his career with Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy that ripped into the culture wars with zero mercy. Now Film Forum is bringing back his 1996 debut in a new 4K restoration, running October 30 through November 5.

Laura Dern stars as Ruth Stoops, a drug-addicted woman with four kids already taken away by the state. When she gets pregnant again while locked up, a judge gives her an ultimatum: get an abortion or face a felony charge. What follows is a brutal tug-of-war between pro-life and pro-choice activists, both desperate to use her as a poster child for their cause. Ruth doesn’t care about either side. She just wants to survive.

The film premiered at Sundance in 1996 and introduced Payne’s signature style, sharp satire with uncomfortable truths baked in. Critics at the time loved Dern’s performance, calling her “a revelation” and “weirdly lovable” despite playing someone you probably shouldn’t root for.

Payne went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Election three years later, but Citizen Ruth remains a boldly irreverent first swing. The restoration was handled by IndieCollect, working with Criterion and Paramount. If you missed it the first time around, here’s your chance.

Animation Is Film is kicking off its ninth edition with something different: a TV show.

The Los Angeles festival announced its 2026 lineup, running October 16-19 at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres. For the first time ever, AIF opens with an animated series instead of a feature, bringing Dana Terrace’s Knights of Guinevere to the big screen. Terrace, the creator behind one of the decade’s most beloved animated series, returns to showrunning with this psychological thriller from Glitch Productions.

Nine features compete for prizes this year, led by Louis Clichy’s Iron Boy, which swept awards at Cannes and Annecy. Also in the mix: Leah Nelson’s Tangles, starring Abbi Jacobson and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Cartoon Saloon’s latest Julián, and The Violinist, winner of the 2026 Annecy Cristal.

The festival doubles as an awards season preview. Iron Boy has already played Toronto and New York, while Jim Queen caused a stir at Cannes. AIF also showcases first-time filmmakers like Masanao Kawajiri (Cherry and Virgin) alongside returning favorites like Sébastien Laudenbach, whose Chicken for Linda! won both jury and audience awards in 2023.

Special events include a 25th anniversary conversation with Cartoon Saloon founders, a behind-the-scenes look at Disney’s upcoming Hexed, and a work-in-progress peek at Matt Braly’s independently funded Clara and the Below.

For animators and fans tired of studios playing it safe, this festival matters.

Paweł Pawlikowski is back with another black-and-white stunner. His new film “Fatherland” premieres October 23 at Film Forum in New York, and it’s already racking up serious attention.

The film stars Sandra Hüller (fresh off “Anatomy of a Fall”) as Erika Mann, daughter of legendary author Thomas Mann, played by Hanns Zischler. Set in 1949, they’re driving through a bombed-out Germany after years of exile in the U.S. Mann’s returned as a Nobel Prize winner with celebrity status, but the country he knew is gone. Erika’s coordinating his trip while dealing with her own family trauma, trying to break through her father’s distant facade.

Pawlikowski won Best Director at Cannes for this one. It’s also Poland’s official Oscar submission for Best International Feature. If you know his work, the pedigree checks out. “Ida” won the Oscar in 2014, and “Cold War” scored three nominations including Best Director.

The reviews are glowing. Critics are calling it “a perfectly cut jewel” and praising cinematographer Łukasz Żal’s gorgeous monochrome work. At just 82 minutes, Pawlikowski keeps it lean and devastating.

For indie cinema lovers, this is the kind of restrained, visually striking filmmaking that reminds you why arthouse matters. Film Forum’s the place to see it first.

A recent high school grad thinks she’s scored the perfect spot in the Hollywood Hills. Parties, romance, the whole California dream. Then she finds out her landlords are vampires, and her first party ends in a bloodbath.

“The Teenage Vampire” hits VOD and digital platforms October 27 via Lionsgate. The indie horror follows Sandra, who moves into what looks like a chic bungalow only to discover the ancient creatures living upstairs have plans that don’t involve welcoming her to the neighborhood.

The film stars Jazlyn Nicolette Sward alongside Kelly Lynn Reiter (“Deadlock,” “Mojave Diamonds”), James Chalke (“Renegades,” “Don’t Kill It”), and Courtney Akbar (“Boneyard,” “Clown Fear”). It’s directed with an 85-minute runtime and an R rating for language, bloody images, and the kind of teen behavior that tends to attract vampires.

Shot in 2022, the film arrives just in time for Halloween viewing. It’s priced at $5.99 to rent, $9.99 to own.

For indie horror fans, it’s another entry in the crowded vampire genre, but one that swaps castles and small towns for LA’s glittering hills, where even the undead want a piece of the view.

Jordan Firstman is bringing his feature directorial debut to San Francisco before it hits theaters nationwide. SFFILM just announced a special 35mm screening of Club Kid at the Castro Theatre on November 2, with Firstman sticking around for a post-screening Q&A.

The film made waves at Cannes before A24 scooped it up. Firstman wrote, directed, and stars as Peter, a New York City club promoter whose party-heavy lifestyle gets flipped upside down when a 10-year-old son he didn’t know existed shows up at his door. The ensemble includes Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Reggie Absolom, and Colleen Camp.

“The anarchic humor, incredible ensemble, and unexpected tenderness make this a distinctive film,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. She called out the needle drops as “thrillingly precise” to the characters and story.

SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai pointed out the fitting venue. “For decades, gathering to see movies at The Castro has been at the heart of San Francisco’s queer culture and history.”

Tickets go on sale to SFFILM members September 22 at 10 am, with general public access starting September 24. General admission is $35, members pay $30. Club Kid opens in select cities November 6.

A coming-of-age story set during a sweltering Toronto blackout just scored worldwide representation.

Serville Poblete’s feature debut Sunburn has been acquired by MoreThan Films following its world premiere in TIFF’s Centrepiece Program this week. The boutique sales agency will handle international distribution, while Gersh is repping domestic.

The film follows a group of kids in St. James Town, a high-rise Toronto neighborhood, as they wander through the city’s hottest day while phone networks crash and the power stays off. It’s a hangout movie about youth slipping away in real time.

Poblete, a Filipino-Canadian filmmaker, has been racking up festival wins lately. His short In the Morning Sun took the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW 2026 and is currently in Oscar consideration. His doc King’s Court earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination earlier this year.

“Making a movie about my neighbourhood with so many amazing collaborators felt like summer camp,” Poblete says. “I’m so excited to partner with MoreThan Films and Gersh to share this project with the world.”

The cast includes Joshua Obra, Dashawn Blackwood, Arianna Shannon, and Milan Deng. Nicole Dane produces, with Christian Bielz on cinematography and Juno-winning composer Aaron Paris scoring.

For indie filmmakers working hyper-local stories with universal themes, Sunburn is exactly the kind of breakout that still happens at festivals when the work connects.

Parlour Magic is pivoting hard. The NYC synth-pop project just announced “Japanese Bonus Track,” a disco-laced club anthem that ditches the guitar sound of its recent album The Embassy and leans into full electronic mode. It drops September 25.

Producer and composer Luc Bokor-Smith wrote the track with Bailey Kislak, bringing in Fab Dupont to mix and Brian Lucey to master. The result is lush strings, a massive singalong chorus, and a sound clearly aimed at the dancefloor.

The music video, directed by NYC filmmaker Lloyd Lenox, was shot over five nights across Tokyo, from Shimbashi to Nakano Broadway. Lenox pulled heavy inspiration from ’80s and ’90s Japanese variety TV, anime opening sequences, bold typography, and the chaotic energy of that era. The concept started as an attempt to recreate Human Tetris, then got weirder.

Lenox made a point to avoid the typical Western gaze when filming in Japan, steering clear of tourist traps and working with a local crew to keep things culturally grounded.

Parlour Magic has racked up over six million streams and grown from Bokor-Smith’s solo project into a full live band. The group plays a hometown show at Berlin in New York on September 25, then heads to Germany.

This one’s a bridge track, and a loud signal of what’s next.

A film about two friends hiking 330 miles through the Scottish Highlands is hitting theaters next month, and it was made the hard way.

Writer-director Bart Schrijver took his tiny crew onto Scotland’s West Highland Way and Cape Wrath Trail, carrying their own gear and sleeping outdoors. No lighting equipment. Fewer than six people on the trail at any time. They shot chronologically, with Schrijver rewriting scenes at night based on what they encountered that day.

The result is “The North,” which follows Chris (Bart Harder) and Lluis (Carles Pulido), two thirtysomethings who reunite after a decade apart to tackle the grueling trek. It’s a reunion story set against lush, unpredictable terrain, filled with rain, wildlife, and fellow hikers on their own journeys.

There’s no musical score. The sound design relies entirely on wind, rain, footsteps, and ambient noise from the trail.

Picturehouse is releasing the film theatrically on October 9 in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver. But first, it gets a sneak preview on October 5 at over 100 Dolby Cinema locations, where dual 4K laser projection and Dolby Atmos sound will amplify the film’s immersive quality.

The film has already been shortlisted for the European Film Awards. For indie filmmakers trying to capture the raw feeling of being outdoors, this is one to watch.

A new teaser trailer just dropped for “Littermates,” an 88-minute absurdist horror film making its world premiere at Fantastic Fest this week before hitting theaters November 6 as a Drafthouse exclusive.

The feature debut from co-directors Scott Tinkham and Michael Woloson follows two disoriented survivors, Liam and Mel, who wash up bloodied and speechless at an isolated English cottage during a mysterious war. Their caretaker Chester takes them in, teaching them to speak again and rewarding good behavior with “nifties,” tokens they can trade for karaoke sessions, hot tub time, and dance parties.

But while Liam settles into Chester’s carefully controlled world, Mel grows restless. She’s drawn to the woods beyond the locked gate, to the larger world Chester insists is too dangerous. When her curiosity pushes past his rules, their fragile makeshift family starts to crack.

Tinkham, a Minnesota native whose short film “24 Hours After Reading Tuesdays with Morrie” premiered at SXSW 2025, co-directs with Woloson, a Las Vegas-born cinematographer based in LA. The film stars Joey Bader, Oliver Woolf, and Kaylee McGregor.

“Littermates” screens Sunday, September 20 at 2pm at Alamo Drafthouse Lamar in Austin. For indie filmmakers chasing festival buzz and theatrical deals, this one’s worth watching.

A feature debut is headed to one of the world’s most prestigious genre festivals.

Astrolatry, David Gordon’s first feature as director, will premiere at the 59th Sitges Film Festival in Catalonia this October. The film stars Ethan Daniel Corbett as Elliot, an obsessive outcast whose fixation on a beauty cream model spirals into violent delusion.

Gordon wrote, directed, shot, and edited the psychologically driven satire, which blends character study and horror to examine toxic masculinity and the “nice guy” trope. Cole Paxton co-produced.

For Corbett, it’s a career moment. “I had always dreamed of attending Sitges at some point in my career,” he says. “Playing Elliot was surprisingly healing for me, having people close to me who struggle with mental health.”

The film previously made waves at Cannes, where it was selected from a record 124 submissions for the Frontières Buyers Showcase in May.

Sitges, founded in 1968, has launched careers for Tarantino, Raimi, and del Toro. This year runs October 8-18, with Robert Eggers receiving the festival’s Time Machine Award.

Corbett, raised in Santa Clarita with family ties to Warner Bros., has built momentum on the festival circuit with roles in FACES and OUTtv’s Laid Bare. He recently launched vertical western West of My Heart under his production banner Upright Pictures.

Why it matters: Independent genre filmmakers still break through at festivals like Sitges, where bold storytelling finds its audience.