Ten Grand Indies for Grandparents Month PLUS: A Grant for Senior-Focused Films
While we’re in the midst of Grandparents Month, we wanted to celebrate the great films that spotlight the lives of our seniors. This list includes Spirit Award winning performances, crime dramas, survival films, romances and coming of old-age sagas, that together prove life can be rich, full of surprises, and thrill you no matter your age.
Film Independent is also excited to show our support for senior-centered stories by creating new ones. The Film Independent x Humana Shorts initiative will support five Director and Producer teams to produce and launch original shorts that authentically celebrate the vital roles and contributions of seniors to society and raise awareness around the different issues that affect them today.
This marks a first for Film Independent; rather than serving solely as a supporter of independent filmmakers, Film Independent is stepping into the role of both funder and producer. This new role shows Film Independent’s commitment to be an organization that supports filmmakers throughout the lifecycle of their projects—from production and funding through distribution and celebration—while building the knowledge, networks and community that sustain creative careers.
These shorts will have a $100,000 all-in budget and will be completed by the end of 2027. Film Independent will provide additional support via publicity campaigns, marketing and distribution strategy and consultation, and virtual and in-person screenings through 2028.
If you’re a filmmaker interested in applying, applications are now open, and close on October 26, 2026. There will be an extended deadline for Film Independent Members, which will be on November 2, 2026. To learn more about the program, click here.
NOMADLAND (2020)
Writer/Director: Chloe Zhao
Cast: Frances McDormand
Why We Love It: While it came out in the first year of the decade, Nomadland feels like one of the seminal pieces about the 20s. Frances McDormand plays a seasonal Amazon worker living in her trailer. She’s lived a full life already but still needs the money to keep herself afloat. She communes with the other temporary workers at the campsite she resides in, and they share both kindnesses and heartaches in a country where things keep getting harder and there’s no safety net for them. The film won the Spirit Award for Best Feature in 2021 and writer/director Chloe Zhao is a Film Independent Fellow.
FAMILIAR TOUCH (2024)
Writer/Director: Sarah Friedland
Cast: Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle Smith, H. Jon Benjamin
Why We Love It: Director Sarah Friedland won the Someone to Watch Award at the 2025 Spirit Awards. The Film was also nominated for the John Cassavetes Award and Kathleen Chalfant was nominated for Best Lead Performance for her depiction of a woman transitioning to an assisted living facility. Chalfant’s Ruth deals with cognitive decline and the film shows vignettes of Ruth adjusting to and ultimately accepting her new reality, and the care that family and caregivers show to her. It still creates space for Ruth to explore new memories, and excel at her passion, cooking including a mean pot of borscht.
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME (2018)
Director: Marielle Heller
Writers: Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty (Screenplay) Lee Isreal (Book)
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant
Why We Love It: Richard E. Grant won the Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for portraying the best friend of failed author and forger Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy). After Isreal is caught forging letters from deceased celebrities which she pens herself, and Grant’s character Jack sells to collectors. Grant’s joie-de-vie makes this a delicious, heartfelt crime caper with a deeply heartfelt relationship at its heart.
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLVILLE (2003)
Writer/Director: Sylvain Chomet
Cast: Béatrice Bonifassi, Lina Boudreau, Michel Robin
Why We Love It: Music and motion: cinema’s two secret weapons, and the Triplets of Bellville have them in spades. This animated musical has its heroine, Madame Souza, chasing down gangsters across the Atlantic via a pedal-boat to save her cyclist grandson Champion, with the help of the eponymous triplets. Watching the film might be even odder than its description would make it sound, but the films idiosyncratic logic and its relentless musical pace win you over as you watch the ever-determined Madame Souza fight her way back to her grandson.
TONI ERDMAN (2016)
Writer/Director: Maren Ade
Cast: Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller
Why We Love It: If you love uncomfortable moments, this is the film for you. Peter Simonischek plays the retired Winfried Conradi, who decides to reconnect with his estranged daughter Ines, played by Sandra Hüller, who is an accomplished businesswoman. Winfied, a compulsive prankster, keeps inserting himself into his daughter’s business affairs as ‘Toni Erdman’ a gonzo character of his own creation. Those awkward interactions only make the relationship worse, but there is something about the free spirit of her father that gets to Ines, and she has an unforgettable breakdown at a work party. The film won the Best International Feature Spirit Award in 2017.
HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)
Director: Hal Ashby
Writer: Colin Higgins
Cast: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort
Why We Love It: Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort play one of the most uniquely romantic couples in cinema history in this Hal Ashby classic. The young death obsessed Harold meets the free-spirited mature Maude at a funeral, and the two hit it off first as friends faking murder scenes and playing banjo, then the relationship turns into something more. The morose, dry humor and the Cat Stevens score add to the charm.
THE FAREWELL (2019)
Writer/Director: Lulu Wang
Cast: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen
Why We Love It: Zhao Shuzhen won the Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female in 2020 for her portrayal of Awkwafina’s Nai Nai (grandmother). Nai Nai’s whole family hides the fact that she has terminal cancer and plan a wedding as an excuse for everyone to say goodbye to her without her knowing. Awkwafina’s Billi has issues with how her family is dealing with the situation and clashes with them throughout the trip. The film debates what to do with the time we have, and how much outlook can change quality of life, and in the end, it’s Billi that has some truths to hear from Nai Nai.
SOME KIND OF HEAVEN (2020)
Director: Lance Oppenhiem
Why We Love It: Lance Oppenhiem (Ren Faire, The Python Hunt) takes his keen cinematic eye and points it at the mega-retirement complex The Villages. The community gives residents a hard sell on positivity and the perfect life behind its walls, and the film looks at how residents really feel, and experience life in a designed community.
BEGINNERS (2011)
Writer/Director: Mike Mills
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent
Why We Love It: Winning the Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male in 2012, Christopher Plummer proves it’s never too late to explore yourself in this Mike Mills charmer about an adult son (Ewan MacGregor) coming to grips with his elderly father coming out as gay as he navigates a new relationship his own. The two both learn how to be vulnerable in new ways, and is an exploration on how we can learn to love through both the joyful and painful parts of life. The film was also Nominated for Best Feature Best Screenplay and Best Director.
ALL IS LOST (2013)
Writer/Director: J. C. Chandor
Cast: Robert Redford
Why We Love It: Minimal dialogue, a main character without a backstory or name, and a survival story that puts a at-the-time-of-filming 77-year-old Robert Redford against the open ocean on a sinking sailboat– what is there not to love? You can feel the pounding of the waves as they crash into the wayward sea, just as much as you can feel the wattage of Redford’s star power. All Is Lost is a thrilling tale about the will to live and the fight against the dying of the light. The film won the Spirit Award for Best Cinematography in 2014 and was nominated for Best Feature, Best Male Lead and Best Director.
Applications for the Film Independent x Humana Shorts initiative are now open. The deadline for non-Members is October 26th, while Film Independent Members have until November 2nd.
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.
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