Don’t Miss Indies: What to Watch in December
‘Tis the season for generosity, humankindness, and curling up with a good flick – the last of which, according to Film Independent’s mission, ideally will serve all the rest. A good flick offers more than an entertaining pause in December activity, but actually enlightens and expands the potential to inhabit it. To simply be here for it.
Human stories that make you feel more human. Let’s dig in.
PREDATORS
When You Can Watch: December 4
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: David Osit
Cast: Bryce, Chris Hansen, Dani Jayden
Why We’re Excited: Seventeen years after the popular TV series To Catch A Predator, Emmy- and Peabody-award winning David Osit (Thank You For Playing) asked himself, “Why don’t I make a film about how much true crime bothers me?” – quoted in an interview with Documentary Magazine. The result explores the phenomenon of the show’s success, and how it handled people’s stories, using young-looking decoys to lure child predators to a house full of cameras. There Chris Hansen would confront them, then release them to a waiting police team. Featuring interviews with some of the series decoys as well as imitators of the show, the documentary raises more questions than it answers, leaving us to do business with what we’ve seen and draw our own conclusions about ethical documentation.
100 NIGHTS OF HERO
When You Can Watch: December 5
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Julia Jackman
Cast: Emma Corrin, Richard E. Grant, Nicholas Galitzine
Why We’re Excited: Isabel Greenberg’s 2016bgraphic novel haunted the imagination of Julia Jackman long before she considered herself a filmmaker. In Jackman’s first foray into features, Spirit Award nominee Emma Corrin (A Murder at the End of the World) plays the title role, a charismatic servant in the castle of a fantasy kingdom defined by its god, BirdMan (Spirit Award winner Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?). In the center of the castle predicament, a queen’s responsibility to produce an heir is complicated by a love triangle involving Hero herself and a charming visitor whom the king has enticed to seduce his wife. The light-hearted tone and endearing characters make this epic seem intimate, political, and human.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER
When You Can Watch: December 5
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Kristen Stewart
Cast: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Jim Belushi
Why We’re Excited: This pain-becomes-art memoir is the directorial debut for Academy Award nominee Kristen Stewart (Spencer), who spent eight years getting it made. The screenplay is adapted from the 2011 bestseller by Lidia Yuknavitch. “Not every book can become a movie,” Stewart told Numéro, “but this one swept me away. I immediately wanted to turn it into a collective experience.” Lidia (Imogen Poots, Hedda) and Claudia (Thora Birch, The Midway Point) are sisters who share an abusive past at the hands of their father. As Lidia channels her trauma into competitive swimming, drugs and then writing, she embarks on a poetic exploratory mission to mine her own memories and find her story. The crew includes Film Independent members Rebecca Feuer (Producer) and Olivia Neergaard-Holm (Editor).
MAN FINDS TAPE
When You Can Watch: December 5
Where You Can Watch: Theaters and Streaming
Directors: Paul Gandersman, Peter S. Hall
Cast: John Gholson, Kelsey Pribilski, William Magnusen
Why We’re Excited: Co-creators Paul Gandersman and Peter S. Hall wanted their first feature to have the emotional truth and compelling mystery of Sarah Polley’s 2012 documentary, Stories We Tell. “[Stories is] not a horror film,” said Hall in an interview with Creepy Kingdom, “but it was a huge influence on us because it’s a movie that makes you question the reliability of the person telling the story.” The resulting found footage horror mockumentary premiered at Tribeca, following a documentary filmmaker (Kelsey Pribilski, Landman) who returns to Larkin, Texas to help her brother (William Magnusen, House of Abraham) investigate the tape he found. Between the elusive memories of locals, disturbing supernatural phenomena, and the arrival of a menacing stranger, the siblings’ loyalties are put to the test.
ROSEMEAD
When You Can Watch: December 5
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Eric Lin
Cast: Lucy Liu, Lawrence Shou, Orion Lee
Why We’re Excited: Cinematographer Eric Lin takes his first turn in the director’s chair to bring to life this true story of a widowed mother and her son, who is plagued with violent impulses after the death of his father. Action star Lucy Liu (Kill Bill, Vol. 1) worked on this as a producer for 7 years, embracing the role of Irene and the visceral experience of acting in her first language of Mandarin. Irene is a first generation Chinese-American woman struggling to cope with cultural obligations while caring for her son and facing cancer. The topic of mental health in Asian communities is important to Liu. “It’s about how things can distort when people are living in shame and isolation,” she said in an interview with Parade, commenting on the unique secrecy of family life in Chinese culture and the desperate need for connection. Film Independent members on the production team are Andrew Corkin (Producer), Mynette Louie (Producer), and Tony Yang (Co-Producer).
THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO
When You Can Watch: December 12
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Writer/Director: Diego Céspedes
Cast: Tamara Cortes, Matías Catalán, Paula Dinamarca
Why We’re Excited: As the son of a hairdresser that employed gay men, this story of a queer Chilean community at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic sprang from the heart of Diego Céspedes – even though its 1982 setting is well before his time. Céspedes was 30 when Flamingo won the “Un Certain Regard” at Cannes, capturing hearts with 12-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortes) and her family of mothers made up of transvestites like Flamenco (Matías Catalán, Bitter Gold) and trans women like Mama Boa (Paula Dinamarca, Naomi Campbel). We experience all this from Lidia’s perspective, as local miners impose blindfolds on her chosen family in an attempt to block the transmission of a mysterious disease through their gaze. Through Lidia, the film explores prejudice and love with fresh eyes.
RESURRECTION
When You Can Watch: December 12
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Writer/Director: Bi Gan
Cast: Jackson Yee, Shu Qi, Mark Chao
Why We’re Excited: Resurrection poses a riddle – “What can one person do that two people can’t?” Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night) explores the importance of dreams in this surreal odyssey in six parts, unfolding a century of cinematic storytelling through individual senses. Jackson Yee (Better Days) is the social outcast who dares embark on this journey through time and perception. The sense of sight is represented in silent film, followed by sound, taste, smell, touch and mind. Gan observed how the storytelling style evolved significantly in the 7 years since he released his previous film. He told THR, “My creative process hasn’t changed much, but the world has. And that made me feel like I had to finally make this film now. I hoped it could bring some comfort to the audience.”
FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER
When You Can Watch: December 24
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Writer/Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik
Why We’re Excited: Spirit Award nominee Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive) wasn’t trying to say anything with this poignant observation of three different families of adult children. In fact, he was deliberately trying to say nothing – hoping to simply let the stories unfold. Inspired largely by the actors he works with, and almost not at all from his own life, Jarmusch started the script by imagining Tom Waits (The Dead Don’t Die) as the father of Spirit Award winner Adam Driver (Marriage Story). When Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) surfaced as his favorite Jeopardy host, Jarmusch filled out the ensemble of distant parent-child relationships. The other two families feature a British mother and her wildly different daughters, then a recently bereaved pair of Parisian twins. The minimal, humorous and cinematic result is a fitting reflection on life and relationships that will leave you to your own reflections.
SILENT FRIEND
When You Can Watch: December 25
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Ildikó Enyedi
Cast: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm
Why We’re Excited: A conceptual journey through time, as the titular friend – a gingko tree in the center of a German university garden – observes human activity during the 2020 pandemic, where a neuroscientist played by Spirit Award nominee Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Lust, Caution) takes an interest in the tree. In the 70’s and early 1900’s other stories of discovery unfold, a student conducting experiments on plant sensation and a female scientist meeting resistance in a male-dominated field. Director Ildikó Enyedi (On Body and Soul) is intentional about how each time period is portrayed, reflecting distinct attitudes and perceptions through her stylistic choices. The cumulative effect is enchanting, lending to an overarching journey for humanity and nature to connect, as each person lets the natural world inform and then transform them.
PROGRAMMER’S PICK: THE PLAGUE
When You Can Watch: October 25
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Writer/Director: Charlie Polinger
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Everett Blunck, Kenny Rasmussen
Why We’re Excited: From Film Independent Lead Programmer Jenn Wilson:
“Charlie Polinger’s debut feature is set at a water polo camp for 12 and 13 year old boys, and it’s the perfect environment to help him invoke the terrors of adolescence. A young newcomer named Ben (Everett Blunck) seems to be making friends with the popular gang of boys, that is, until he starts to show empathy for Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), another boy at the camp. The cool kids bully Eli about his skin condition. They call it the plague, and theorize that anyone who gets touched by him will catch his condition. Ben quickly learns that remaining popular will come at a high cost as even he begins to be terrified that he’s caught ‘the plague.’ Polinger does an amazing job at directing this terrific cast of kids and Joel Edgerton as their coach, and the cinematography by Steven Breckon is absolutely stunning.”
Produced by Film Independent members Lizzie Shapiro (Producer) and Lexi Tannenholtz (Executive Producer).
KEY
Film Independent Fellow or Member
Film Independent Presents Screening, Q&A
Microbudget
Filmmaker or Lead Characters of Color
Film Independent Spirit Award Winner or Nominee
Female Filmmaker
LGBT Filmmaker or Lead LGBT Characters
First-time Filmmaker
LA Film Festival Winner or Nominee
Want to vote for the winners in the 2026 Spirit Awards? Join Film Independent today! Before you know it, you’ll be knee-deep in screeners and attending in-person screenings, special events, workshops, and more. The 2026 Spirit Award nominations will be announced on December 3.
Keep up with Film Independent…
