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40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

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An independent film, traditionally speaking, is generally referred to as a movie created entirely outside the traditional Hollywood system. It is usually the kind of production where the actors double up as camera men, friends and family provide the bankroll and the director’s mom is in charge of craft services.

Over the last few years, however, the “indie” film has taken on a whole new face. Large productions houses have formed specialty divisions that focus exclusively on “limited run” titles. These are movies that may not have the broad appeal of a summer blockbuster, but still enough demand worth releasing in a limited capacity – often to critical acclaim.

Of course with a limited run comes a limited budget. Luxuries such as wide-spread marketing campaigns are slim-to-none for the indie gem. It is for this reason that poster art plays an particularly significant role in an independent film’s marketing strategy.

Like the movies themselves, poster art for independent films can be especially beautiful and most certainly stand out from the crowd. These posters are imaginative and thoughtful while not forgetting the fundamentals such as color and typography. The result is more often than not an eye catching work of art that sparks your interest and curiosity – which is exactly what it’s supposed to do.

It is in tribute these wonderful works of art that Smashing Magazine has collected 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters for your enjoyment. We hope they are as inspiring to you as they are to us.

40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Zoo (2007)

Zoo in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Paris, Je T’aime (2006)

Paris Je Taime in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Primer (2004)

Primer in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

Taxi To The Dark Side in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Machinist (2004)

Machinist in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Funny Games (2007)

Funny Games in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Brick (2005)

Brick in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Birds Of America (2008)

Birds Of America in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Paranoid Park (2007)

Paranoid Park in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Descent (2005)

Descent in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Son of Rambow (2007)

Son Of Rambow in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Bug (2006)

Bug in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Half Nelson (2006)

Half Nelson in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Proposition (2005)

Proposition in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Eagle vs Shark (2007)

Eagle Vs Shark in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Science of Sleep (2006)

Science Of Sleep in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Lost in Translation (2003)

Lost In Translation in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Cooler (2003)

Cooler in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Red Road (2006)

Red Road in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Dancer In The Dark (2000)

Dancer In The Dark in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Whale Rider (2002)

Whale Rider in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Savages (2007)

The Savages in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Walker (2007)

The Walker in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Broken Flowers (2005)

Broken Flowers in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Being John Malkovich in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Transamerica (2005)

Transamerica in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Junebug (2005)

Junebug in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

Akeelah And The Bee in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)

Before The Devil Knows Youre Dead in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Grizzly Man (2005)

Grizzly Man in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

My Blueberry Nights (2007)

My Blueberry Nights in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Tideland (2005)

Tideland in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Sideways (2004)

Sideways in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Requiem For a Dream (2000)

Requiem For A Dream in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

The Squid And The Whale in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Motel (2005)

Motel in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)

Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

Lars And The Real Girl in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

Hard Candy (2005)

Hard Candy in 40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

References

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Andrew Lindstrom is a freelance web designer, blogger and inspiration junkie. Say hi to him on Twitter or read his ramblings on his design inspiration blog at WellMedicated.com.

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    1. 1
      LydiaG
      November 19th, 2008 2:14 pm

      Nice. Love it! Since I am newly introduced to the design world this site has been a breath of fresh air in helping me not be so overwhelmed….Thanks!

    2. 2
      Jidah
      November 19th, 2008 2:21 pm

      The Motel poster is nice. Never thought something like that would look good for a poster. Great compilation btw

    3. 3
      Amanda
      November 19th, 2008 2:40 pm

      More lovely inspiration! These are my favorite posts from you guys.

    4. 4
      Joann Sondy
      November 19th, 2008 2:42 pm

      Love it! Love ‘em all. Great collection of posters and creativity.

    5. 5
      GoodBytes.be
      November 19th, 2008 2:44 pm

      Great stuff. Not really webdesign related, but always nice to get some extra inspiration!

    6. 6
      Ben
      November 19th, 2008 3:17 pm

      Love them all. The Motel and Broken Flowers are favourite, Broken Flowers especially since it doesn’t look like a traditional movie poster. But why did you use that version of the Being John Malkovich poster? The mask one is much better.

    7. 7
      Okibi
      November 19th, 2008 3:26 pm

      Nice collection but it seemed more devoted to well known independent films (with a slight Bill Murray fetish) rather than well designed posters.

    8. 8
      Rob
      November 19th, 2008 3:46 pm

      I really don’t see the exquisite in most of these posters.

      Come on Smashing Magazine, Once you get a decent fanbase of strong rss readers doesn’t mean you can get lazy and make articles like this. I would of preferred 30 or even 15 well researched and exquisite posters rather then 40 which seem random with no thought into what makes them exquisite.

    9. 9
      Nathaniel
      November 19th, 2008 3:52 pm

      Define “independent film”because “Son of Rambow” is produced by a huge media company. Nice posters though.

    10. 10
      Azizur Rahman
      November 19th, 2008 5:48 pm

      Glad and really surprised to “Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)” given its due recognition it deserves. Well done smashing Magazine! Hopefully the publisher will get their acts together and so finally we can see it in our local high street soon.

    11. 11
      Colin
      November 19th, 2008 6:40 pm

      To much bloat! Some of these are average at best.

    12. 12
      David
      November 19th, 2008 6:58 pm

      Exquisite, beautiful, excellent, you guys love your thesaurus.

    13. 13
      keepitmassive
      November 19th, 2008 10:17 pm

      Stunning article!

    14. 14
      Raj
      November 19th, 2008 10:57 pm

      Exquisite …? Not really …. Only few are impressive.

    15. 15
      Claire Giordano
      November 19th, 2008 11:09 pm

      My favorite is the poster for The Proposition. The most disturbing is the poster for The Zoo. And the poster for Sideways is gorgeous. Hmmm, they’re all great. Thanks.

    16. 16
      speedcu
      November 20th, 2008 12:05 am

      I like most of the posters which are shown here, e.g. Paris je t’ aime, Bug, The Machinist, Broken Flowers, … where can one buy them? Would be nice to have the one in my flat.

    17. 17
      Mr Katz
      November 20th, 2008 1:10 am

      I love independent movies, but most of the posters are poor copies. E.g. The Descent is a copy of the Philippe Halsman and Salvador Dalí Project called The Skull.

      Hm, maybe i sould write an article about that…

    18. 18
      jim
      November 20th, 2008 1:37 am

      Honestly these are a very poor and undistinguished selection of posters (with the exception of ‘Birds of America’ and a couple of others). Maybe you can point us to what you thought was special about each of them?

    19. 19
      LOFer
      November 20th, 2008 1:53 am

      Ahhh, some of these are really “exquisite” but some are not. That is the beauty of opinion and of course, the subjectivity of art in and of itself.

      Smashing Magazine is a great resource and has some wonderful collections of stuff, images, ideas and what-not. I don’t like them all. Entitled as we all are to our opinions about whether this is a good article or not it seems a little churlish to make a point of criticising the editors of this blog for doing something “you” don’t like or think worthy of your time.

      Some articles I like, some I don’t but why bad-mouth an article like this – why not move and leave it alone?

      Meh – there is a delicious irony in my comments I think…moving on….

      @15 (Claire) I find myself in agreement with your choices :)

    20. 20
      Paul
      November 20th, 2008 2:20 am

      This kind of post seems to split opinion every time you publish one. I originally subscribed to Smashing Mag because it was a great resource for web developers, with thoroughly researched and well written technical or design related posts, and I must say I think that you still do that very well.

      But now it seems like these posts are becoming overshadowed by the 50 most stunning/beautiful/inspiring/… photos/posters/album covers/cereal boxes… posts. Personally, I’m very interested in photography, but I think there are other blogs out there which do this kind of thing better. But I appreciate that a lot of your readers love this kind of thing…

      Have you considered publishing two or more feeds to keep these things separate. That way your readers could choose to subscribe to the one that most interested them, or to several posts if their interests spanned more than one subject area.

      That way you might avoid all the negative posts that dominate the comments after every article.

    21. 21
      verheesj
      November 20th, 2008 4:03 am

      Very good :)

    22. 22
      Rob
      November 20th, 2008 5:26 am

      Bill Murray gets around a bit eh?!

    23. 23
      madeofsquares
      November 20th, 2008 5:48 am

      Some great posters (and films) here. I especially like the poster for Birds of America, reminds me of the classic old Penguin book covers.

    24. 24
      Andris
      November 20th, 2008 6:05 am

      Nice posters and good films, as well.

    25. 25
      pica-ae
      November 20th, 2008 6:12 am

      nice collection

    26. 26
      Leo Ferreira
      November 20th, 2008 6:19 am

      Double A for Smashing!
      They’re great movies, someones very confuse and bizarre. It could be interesting inform who create them.

    27. 27
      DDDepressionnn
      November 20th, 2008 7:01 am

      There has come winter :(
      It became cold and cloudy!
      Mood very bad :(
      Depression Begins

    28. 28
      Dibergio
      November 20th, 2008 7:01 am

      Nice.

      Does anyone know the font for the title on The Savages?

      Thanks!

    29. 29
      devsoft.mobi
      November 20th, 2008 7:52 am

      Very nice Film Posters

      devSoft.Mobi

    30. 30
      Arthur Brown
      November 20th, 2008 8:36 am

      Great set of posters. Never seen many of these movies but the posters look awesome.

    31. 31
      Jaybert
      November 20th, 2008 8:54 am

      Filthy Richmond

    32. 32
      cheeba
      November 20th, 2008 8:54 am

      I myself am a fan of “independent” films, especially those featuring indie greats Matthew Perry, Lauren Bacall, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

    33. 33
      Lanz Mraz
      November 20th, 2008 8:56 am

      great list.love it!

    34. 34
      Jessica
      November 20th, 2008 9:02 am

      Great collection!

      Lars and the Real Girl is a hilarious movie. I highly recommend it.

    35. 35
      Ravi Vora
      November 20th, 2008 10:06 am

      Love this post. Great indie posters deserve credit.

    36. 36
      Rhagen
      November 20th, 2008 10:40 am

      My Blueberry Nights was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a long, long time. I didn’t even get all the way through it. Yuck.
      The second and third posters on this list are awesome.

    37. 37
      Andrew
      November 20th, 2008 11:17 am

      The Descent is a rip off of an old Salvador Dali work: http://www.planetperplex.com/en/item89

    38. 38
      R Rothchild
      November 20th, 2008 12:52 pm

      I’m not quite sure how the “Akeelah and the Bee” (worst title for a movie ever) poster makes this list. Can someone please explain?

    39. 39
      Ivo
      November 20th, 2008 1:59 pm

      love it!

    40. 40
      Yahir Vite
      November 20th, 2008 2:14 pm

      What have happended to the Font of the month?

    41. 41
      Jhay
      November 20th, 2008 9:02 pm

      Awesome poster design!!

    42. 42
      yaara
      November 21st, 2008 5:51 am

      What about Big Fish?
      http://www.impawards.com/2003/big_fish.html
      Amazing poster & a movie.

    43. 43
      heather van de mark
      November 21st, 2008 7:25 am

      Definitely seems like SM started strong and the got weaker. I know nothing about The Machinist but that poster alone makes me want to watch so I can fill in the blanks. The flag as the shadow of Taxi to the Dark Side is brilliant.

    44. 44
      Mel
      November 21st, 2008 8:36 am

      helpful as always! I just worked on a movie poster for an independent film for a friend and I always find great inspiration here. There is something about the independent films that I love. The style, writing and everything down to their creative posters. Me gusta! :)

    45. 45
      leigh ann
      November 21st, 2008 8:42 am

      that transamerica poster is quite possibly the worst photoshop job ive ever seen. that woman is completely out of proportion – how does that make for an exquisite poster?

    46. 46
      Elle Driver
      November 21st, 2008 12:23 pm

      It’s too bad you didn’t include the names of the designers who created these posters – but I suppose that would have required some extra sleuthing.

    47. 47
      c wylie
      November 21st, 2008 6:16 pm

      i haven’t seen a lot of these.. which is good b/c my netflix queue is getting low.

    48. 48
      Ann
      November 22nd, 2008 1:05 am

      That is a really interesting collection. Honestly I did not know all these films yet, but will try to do so the soonest. Was also interesting to see the posters for such films also I knew, as I did not really remember the belonging poster picture. Anyway, great idea, congratulations!
      Ann

    49. 49
      Kola
      November 22nd, 2008 2:47 am

      I’ve watched all those films. :<

    50. 50
      Jeff
      November 22nd, 2008 5:53 pm

      Why are these great? Cause I’m not all that impressed with most of them. How about some explanation please? Seems like all they did was a Google search for “indie film posters”, and put the first 40 results up here.

    51. 51
      Sara
      November 23rd, 2008 5:38 am

      I’m so happy to see Hard Candy up there… that’s one awesome poster with one awesome actress on it! (Ellen Page). Love the posters. They’re so inspiring for all different kinds of artists. Thanks!

    52. 52
      WilhelmR
      November 23rd, 2008 7:00 pm

      My favs from the list:

      Birds of America
      Whale Rider
      Before the devil knows you’re dead
      Sideways (also the cover of the book = great)
      Requiem for a dream (GREAT movie)
      Hard Candy = bad-ass

      I’m not really impressed with the Brick poster, but I’ll check the movie just because the poster is hand made (or so it seems!)

      I like much better the other posters of Eagle vs shark, this one is a bit more out of the box, but not as attractive i think.

      That’s it, longer comment than usual.. :)

    53. 53
      Moqbali.com
      November 24th, 2008 7:07 am

      Very nice powerful posters design.
      Thank you.

    54. 54
      lenny
      November 24th, 2008 1:31 pm

      Beautiful Losers def needs to be on this list:

      http://www.impawards.com/2008/posters/beautiful_losers.jpg

    55. 55
      nick
      November 24th, 2008 8:39 pm

      For “Funny Games”, I would have expected the 1970’s throwback poster with Naomi Watts instead.

      http://www.impawards.com/2008/posters/funny_games.jpg

    56. 56
      nona sheila
      November 25th, 2008 3:19 am

      hey, the descent poster looks alike silence of the lamb unreleased poster.

    57. 57
      eoin
      February 11th, 2009 12:43 pm

      The Funny Games poster featured is rubbish. The one with just Naomi Watts’s face is much better and possibly best poster of last year!
      Is the Savages one illustrated by Chris Ware?
      P.S. Would love to see the designers names for each poster.

    58. 58
      duduhrened
      July 7th, 2009 6:23 am

      Nice Post ! www

    59. 59
      max
      September 13th, 2009 12:42 pm

      Anyone got an idea where I could get the Funny Games Poster? Searched so many postershops, but couldn’t find one selling it.

    60. 60
      Corin
      September 18th, 2009 5:36 pm

      I loved that poster for ‘Zoo’ from the first time I saw it. Awesome artwork, and so very evocative.

    61. 61
      Ryan Harper Gray
      October 31st, 2009 8:22 pm

      Wish you had listed who made each poster.

    1. 00

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