137 Indie Films Quotes

Following is our list of indie films quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about indie movie.

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Famous Indie Films Quotes

Independent films are where you really get to cut your teeth and have some fun and do the things that mainstream Hollywood doesn't want to do. — Anthony Anderson

Movies will end up being this esoteric art form, where only singular people will put films out in a small group of theaters. — M. Night Shyamalan

When a film like Chris Nolan's Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It's dead. — Steven Soderbergh

I rarely see one of the 'summer blockbuster' movies. I'd like to see a stronger focus on smaller, smarter movies. — Christopher Meloni

When you start out as a filmmaker, you do parodies, because you can't really compete on a studio level. — Bill Paxton

That's my advice for indie filmmakers: Marry a supermodel. — Edward Burns

Of course, I'd like to produce and direct a blockbuster, but you gotta build up to that. So now I'm learning from a bunch of little movies. And it's more fun with smaller pictures. It's more creative. — Lea Thompson

The Hollywood movies are more like novels, and the kinds of films I make are more like poems. — Stan Brakhage

I like serious films, the moneymaking blockbusters that don't make any kind of sense and John Carpenter films. — Pam Grier

I don't see a lot of films. I'm quite choosy, but there's certain films that stick out. — Christopher Eccleston

I like the idea of making big budget films with a heart. I like graphic novels more than comic books. — Matthew Vaughn

We need Netflix. We in the independent sector more than anybody need Netflix, because they care about what we do. — Harvey Weinstein

There are no rules in filmmaking - Frank Capra

There are no rules in filmmaking — Frank Capra

I make little movies, you know, they need all the help that they can get. - Campbell Scott

I make little movies, you know, they need all the help that they can get. — Campbell Scott

I seem to have a knack for picking movies that go on to be cult favorites. — Kurt Russell

Short Indie Films Quotes

  • Movies are a big part of our Indian culture. — Mahendra Singh Dhoni
  • If you just love movies enough, you can make a good one. — Quentin Tarantino
  • I like films where the music and the sound design, at times, are almost indistinguishable. — Christopher Nolan
  • Films are getting expensive by the day. They are making more money by the day. — Rakesh Jhunjhunwala
  • You work hard making independent films for fourteen years and you get voted best breasts. — Scarlett Johansson
  • When I do short films, I try to do something completely out of my comfort zone, out of my element. — Brett Ratner
  • There's such good people out there where there filmmaking world is alive. — Josh Lucas

Indie Films Image Quotes

Indie films quote I'm not interested in a realistic look - not at all, not ever. Every film should look the way I feel
I'm not interested in a realistic look - not at all, not ever. Every film should look the way I feel.

Indie Film Quotes

There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness. - Frank Capra

There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness. — Frank Capra

I just filmed a movie with my boyfriend, an indie film called 'Conception.' And it's kind of like an R-rated version of 'Valentine's Day.' So it's like all about eight couples, and me and my boyfriend play one of them together. And that was a lot of fun. — Sarah Hyland

Im gonna try to pay for CLERKS III myself. As much as I love the crowd-funding model, thats an advancement in indie film that belongs to the next generation of artists. I started on my own dime, and if Im allowed, I should finish on my own dime. — Kevin Smith

Indie films quote Great moments are born from great opportunities.
Great moments are born from great opportunities.

Television in the last few years has been where all the great writers are going. TV now is what indie film used to be. — Jeff Daniels

It seems like the studios are either making giant blockbusters, or really super-small indies. And the mid-level films I grew up on, like 'Back to the Future' and all those John Hughes movies, the studios aren't doing. It's hard to get them on their feet. — Chris Evans

I always feel I could be like Toni Collette, going between big studio things and indie films. That would be feasible. — Chloe Sevigny

Indie films quote To make a great film need three things - the script, the script and the script.
To make a great film need three things - the script, the script and the script.

I really feel like indie films are where I learn to be a better actor, especially because they always give you a bit more freedom to collaborate. — Dave Bautista

You gain and lose different things in different mediums or different sectors of different mediums. There are liberties you get on tiny indie films in terms of not having to be designed toward a marketing demographic. — Anna Paquin

All the jobs I've gotten in the last two years are because directors have seen the work I've done - indie films, plays, short student films, TV - since I moved to the states in 1996. I mean, I have an entire career in Canada that nobody has seen. — Sandra Oh

I was never really a child actor. I was working sporadically in indie films in Pennsylvania, but I was still living at home. — Charlie McDermott

Indie Movie Quotes

Even the shows or movies that we know are not going to change the world, I love this. I love 'em. I'm a movie fan. I'm a nerd of any kind. I love a big studio comedy as much as I love the teeniest tiniest of indie. I'm not a snob in that way. I really do like a big, big studio comedy. — Kathryn Hahn

I retired from acting the same time they stopped hiring me. But following my own thing of making these small indie movies has been the happiest I've ever been. — Bobcat Goldthwait

I think as long as there are folks on the fringe who want to make movies, the indie scene will still be around. I do think it's getting harder to get them seen though. — Joshua Leonard

In the '90s, indie movies could get financing, because financers gave money straight to directors... Now it's a different system. Indie movies got co-opted by the studio system. — Parker Posey

It's... it's such a weird thing. After Garden State, so many companies wanted to make my movies, and after The Last Kiss, I realized people would make anything I was in. As long as I keep this up I'll be swimming in chubby indie girl pussy. — Zach Braff

I feel like I'm long overdue for a "one for me" movie, so I've got two low-budget indy personal things I'm working on. — Greg Mottola

It gets super dark. I did a bunch of intense indie movies when I was starting out in my career and I was always in a bad mood because, when you're dealing with the subject matter of losing your baby, getting raped and all that stuff, it's not fun to go through. You really have to go there. — Busy Philipps

The good thing about the studio is that, when the movie comes out, they will put their marketing and their money behind it, which isn't necessarily true with indie movies, just by the nature of it being an independent film. — Jamie Linden

My aunt was a fashion model and I happened to go to her agency with her, one day, when I was five. A talent agent said, "You should come talk to us." I did a few things. I did an indie movie and commercials, and stuff. — Ellar Coltrane

Independent film is such a huge deal in the UK. There aren't many big budget studio movies that get greenlit at all. The indie film industy is a great opportunity that I'm trying to seize. — Aml Ameen

Independent Film Quotes

I teach at USC. I have a big class of 360 kids, only about a fifth of whom are film majors. I don't just show the Hollywood blockbusters. I show independent films, foreign films, documentaries. — Leonard Maltin

Since Star Wars, that film's success led to bigger budgets, more hardware, that the great movies like the ones I did, which were studio movies, are now independent movies. They range from half a million to several million, and a lot of those have very interesting roles. — Faye Dunaway

Doing that, then doing a lot of theater, which I love. Doing guest stars, did two independent films that are going around to all these festivals. Both of them are going to be at the Lake Tahoe Film Festival. — Austin Peck

Independent films in this country are in the same position. Miramax and Fine Line are not independent - they're with Disney! Come on. Or they're with Warner Brothers. They're all with somebody. — Dennis Hopper

When I hear the word independent I reach for my revolver. At this point, what the hell does that mean? The English Patient is an independent film... Hootie and the Blowfish are alternative music. I'm the Queen of Denmark. I don't know what it means anymore. — Jim Jarmusch

Independent film is for actors that love to act. — John Leguizamo

I knew nothing about the independent film industry. I didn't know much about the industry itself. All I knew was how to watch movies, how to enjoy them, how to hate them, how not to like them. — Michelle Rodriguez

The lifeblood of my career has been independent film. — James Woods

It's very difficult to break into motion pictures, but it's oddly easier for directors today because of independent films and cable, who have inherited for the most part those films of substance that the studios are reluctant to finance. — Mark Rydell

Right now my career is totally schizophrenic, because when an American production like Hitchcock Presents asks to see my work I would never dream of showing them my independent films. — Atom Egoyan

Indie Quotes

What we committed in the Indies stands out among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind and this trade [in Indian slaves] as one of the most unjust, evil, and cruel among them. — Bartolome de las Casas

Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life. — Marcus Garvey

For the execution of the voyage to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. — Christopher Columbus

HURRICANE, n. An atmospheric demonstration once very common but now generally abandoned for the tornado and cyclone. The hurricane is still in popular use in the West Indies and is preferred by certain old- fashioned sea-captains. — Ambrose Bierce

I watched the Indy 500, and I was thinking that if they left earlier they wouldn't have to go so fast. — Steven Wright

Indy, I have lots of great memories from there, and probably the part of me that doesn't feel quite as longing for it is that there is still a chance that I could do it again. It's not gone. — Danica Patrick

Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500. — John Milius

The idea of, 'The journey is the destination' is put into action by browsing in an indie record store. Besides, a human being is a much better guide than a 'More Like This' link on the internet. — Patton Oswalt

I want to win a championship and to win the Indy 500 makes me want it so much more. — Scott Dixon

When I was designing, I had in mind Jimi Hendrix, and I could hardly find skinny indie black kids to wear my clothes. I remember one telling me he had to swap his skinny jeans for baggy ones in the subway before going home, so he wouldn't get in trouble in his neighborhood. — Hedi Slimane

Independent Filmmaking Quotes

But if you, as an independent filmmaker or a "serious" filmmaker, think you put more love into your characters than the Russo Brothers do Captain America, or Joss Whedon does the Hulk, or I do a talking raccoon, you are simply mistaken. — James Gunn

I couldn't sleep one night and I was sitting in my office and I realized that I was an independent filmmaker. — Darren Aronofsky

A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. — Stanley Kubrick

We are here predominantly to support independent filmmakers and their needs. We are also here to assist people actually in their production, non-commercial people in their production. — Ann Macbeth

Most independent filmmakers in Britain and North America work for commercial crews and then have their own projects when they've got enough money saved up to do so. — Ann Macbeth

I love independent filmmaking. I don't agree with a lot of it, but that's the point. — Gena Rowlands

I've spent a great deal of my life doing independent film, and that is partly because the subject matter interests me and partly because that is the basis of the film industry. That's where the film-makers come from, it's where they start and sometimes its where they should have stayed. — John Hurt

There's a tremendous intellectual fervor among independent filmmakers, and that has to be cultivated. — Dan Glickman

Whereas money is a means to an end for a filmmaker, to the corporate mind money is the end. Right now, I think independent film is very confused, because there's excess pressure in the marketplace for entertainment to pay off. — Robert Redford

Dancer, bride, runaway wife, radical filmmaker and pioneer - Shirley Clarke is one of the great undertold stories of American independent cinema. — Manohla Dargis

Indie Music Quotes

It's important to keep indie record stores alive because their unique environments introduce music lovers to things in a very personal way. — Norah Jones

Generally I try to read anything but indie rock journalism or anything about music at all, especially in the summer. — Emily Haines

Indie rock is just as susceptible - if not more susceptible - to all the gross things about people becoming total ass clowns in music, and only worrying about money and image. I'm not interested in being a part of that. — Justin Vernon

I'm into indie music. I think indie is going to bring back the spirit in music. There was a time when it was all about accommodating the music business, the music was getting tasteless, but the spirit is back. — Yoko Ono

I really do listen to all types of music, not only rock, but everything from good pop music - which is usually older pop music - to RB and indie rock. I love indie rock more than a lot of the commercial stuff that you'd expect. — Amy Lee

I listen to all those kinds of music, from classic soul to hip-hop to Brazilian music to, you know, jazz to indie to alternative. So whatever. I listen to all if it. Classic rock and classic pop, all of that. — John Legend

You really think all of those indie music dorks go to SXSW every year to check out music? They go there to wear their laminates and act important and try to get laid. — Mark Kozelek

Now that the generation that grew up on '80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day. — Michael Azerrad

The American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive. — Michael Azerrad

I've always seen myself as the person listening to alternative music and all that - generic indie person. I always tried to be the least pretty I could be. — Jenny Hval

Indie Rock Quotes

The second 'Postal Service' album is threatening to become the 'Chinese Democracy' of indie rock. It will come out eventually, or maybe it won't. — Ben Gibbard

In the beginning I was just a makeup artist and I never really pictured myself doing anything else. But now that I have so many doors open, I kind of want to be that indie rock Paris Hilton - but with actual intelligence - she's just stupid. — Jeffree Star

You kind of have to be like " What have you been working the last five years for? Why are you complaining?" It's essentially me talking myself out of being a crybaby indie rock butthead. — Mac DeMarco

Even the indie rock world - which is supposed to be about truth and independence from corporate mindfulness or something - is totally subject to the paraphernalia of celebrity. — Justin Vernon

When I was a kid, you listened to a certain genre. Now it's like, "I love indie rock, I love hip-hop, jazz, funk." Also, we knew it couldn't be the same thing each year. — Jonathan Rhys Meyers

But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there will always be some real good new bands. — Stephen Malkmus

I like the glamorous indie rock look, like The Libertines. But you know, without the heroin needle sticking out of my arm. — Ed Westwick

I'm so disconnected from an indie-rock community that I am the hermit people used to guess I was. — John Darnielle

You have to be open-minded, because it's so diverse nowadays. I used to be a deep trance DJ, and now I've transformed into something eclectic. So you can expect any kind of music, from house to electro to indie-rock to techno and trance. I have very wide musical tastes nowadays. — Tiesto

I'm real critical of myself. I think a lot of what I've done is boring indie rock. I didn't intend it to be that way, but somehow milk gets added to everything. — Bradford Cox

People Writing About Indie Films

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Read quotes by Anthony Anderson

Anthony Anderson
quotes on leadership, life and politics

43 249
Read quotes by M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan
quotes on love, night shift and night sky

65 165
Read quotes by Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh
quotes on leadership, love and life

159 260
Read quotes by Christopher Meloni

Christopher Meloni
quotes on life, culture and education

48 283
Read quotes by Bill Paxton

Bill Paxton

18 239
Read quotes by Edward Burns

Edward Burns
quotes on education, life and love

38 47

More Indie Films Quotes

I started with commercials - for shampoo, pancakes, insurance, Volvo. I did a Lux soap commercial with Sarah Jessica Parker. And I got a role in an indie film called Satellite that did well in festivals. — Stephanie Szostak

I did a short film called 'Disco' and won an award for Best Supporting Actor at an indie film festival, and that was nice. Hopefully there's lots more to come. — Charlie Rowe

I think the work is the same in Indie films or blockbuster. It's just a difference when you do all the publicity. It's like another job. I remember the first time I did The Dreamers. I went to Venice; quite a good amount of publicity, a lot of round-tables and TV. I was just not expecting that. I thought I was going to visit Venice, but actually no. — Eva Green

Humanizing good people is kind of boring and I don't really see the value in it... humanizing tricky characters is exhilarating, and making audience films out of indie subjects excites me. — Jason Reitman

People don't know where to place me. Terry Gilliam used me as a quirky cop in 'Twelve Monkeys', and then he hired me again to be an effeminate hotel clerk in 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'. Another time, I was shooting this indie film 'The Souler Opposite' and six days a week, I'm playing this big puppy dog, then I come to the 'NYPD Blue' set and become this scumbag. — Christopher Meloni

With indies, all they have is their script and it's very important to them. The characters are better drawn, the stories more precise and the experience greater than with studio films where sometimes they fill in the script as they're shooting. — Mark Ruffalo

Indie film isn't dead, it just grew up. — Kevin Smith

Look: You're not gonna become a millionaire doing this, but that was never the point. And I think a lot of people in the indie film business kind of took their eye off of that. — Edward Burns

There are roles out there I want to play that I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to. But I'm not going to waste time waiting for those phone calls, passing up the chance to do these sorts of things. I'm more likely to go see a smaller, darker indie film, like Felony for instance, than I am to see an Avengers or perhaps even a Terminator. — Jai Courtney

It's not like it's not fun to work on big studio pictures. It is. But I can't say that's more fun than working on some little indie for scale. Look at The Amateurs, that's probably the best time I ever had working on a film. With that group of guys, it ended up being an experience I'll never forget. I'll always have the fondest memory of that shoot. — William Fichtner

There's something different about an indie film than a TV show that has a huge infrastructure that's in place already for you - at least financially and in terms of distribution. Whereas an indie film is just a total dare. — Alessandro Nivola

When you're on a lower-budget film, with one guy who maybe has a camera strapped to him, you're a much bigger part of that pie. You can be a sliver in a big Hollywood movie, but you can be a quarter of that indie movie pie. And I feel like, first of all, there is a real freedom that you feel from that, because it's like, you know what, if this is terrible, nobody's gonna ever see it, so I can be more brave. — Cynthia Nixon

If you do an indie film, where it's like, "We don't have a lot of money to give you, but we'll really give you a lot of freedom," that's really a luxury to have in this business. At least for myself, because I'm still kind of earning my acting credibility. — Dave Bautista

It's really a great luxury to have, to be able to go from big films to indie films, too. Because I'm on the job learning as an actor, and independent films is where I'm learning to act. — Dave Bautista

I've always done indie films, but things started picking up more for, for a lack of a better word, more professional things. — Eddie Jemison

We thought by setting the film ["Selling Isobel"] in the cloak of... let's call it an indie-Hollywood thriller, it would appeal to a wider range of young women who would see this cautionary tale and say, "Hang on, I've got to think twice about what I get myself into." — Rudolf Buitendach

I did a film [about a con-artist mom and son] called Bringing Up Bobby that Famke Janssen wrote and directed. No one's gonna hire me for their [big-budget] romantic comedy, so it's up to me to look out for great indie comedies and show people a different side of myself - even if it's for three people outside of my family. — Milla Jovovich

If you're doing an indie and you have time, sometimes you can do take after take after take, but if you're working in television on that filming schedule, you don't always have the time to do that. You learn very quickly, I think, how essential it is to come in with the strongest choice that you have. — Aja Naomi King

The only reason an indie gets made is because someone has a burning passion to do it and won't take no for an answer, as opposed to a big film, which is like a train that starts rolling down the tracks and nothing can stop it. — William H. Macy

Licensing is how indie rock people make a living these days, so whatever about that. But I want good films and good placement for the songs because I want to be exclusive. I don't want to just sign it away because I don't want songs to lose meaning, but I'm also...I don't care [that] Wilco sold songs to Volkswagen. That's great. They probably drive Volkswagens. — Justin Vernon

I grew up in the indie world and that's what I'm used to, but there's something really incredible about having money behind a film and having the time to do as many takes as you want. — Maika Monroe

My biggest difference with our film and those kinds of science fiction films is that they are going from one special effect set piece to the next, what we were doing was more of a character study. And I think that is the freedom that you get by doing an Indie film. You can only really do that with a lower budget. So I understand where the conflict is between those two priorities. — Duncan Jones

We rehearsed for a bit for an Indie film, which is kind of unusual, we had a week of rehearsals before we actually shot the films so we were able to really break down the script and kind of work through all of the improvisational things that he wanted to do, so he had a chance to really feel his way through before we actually shot it and I think that helped a lot. — Duncan Jones

Generally, an indie film in the U.K. is put together much like in the states. We got a tax credit. You sell the domestic rights, which can be quite low, but it's enough to push you over the line. And you get a tax credit on top of that, and then you cobble it together with private equity or gap financing and things like that. — Noel Clarke

Well, that's the great thing about indie film, in general. If it's not subject to the constraints of too much pressure from the studio or marketing, and all of that, you get to actually present fuller characters and you get to have the dark side of the characters. That's usually what gets cut out. — Ty Burrell

I would be perfectly happy doing an indie film that had some really cool creative ideas. — Robert Stromberg

I've done a lot of very low-budget indie films, so it was just really exciting and fun to be doing a film where there's a lot more time and these huge, vast sets. I was like a kid in a playground. It was amazing! — Felicity Jones

Maybe I could do some indie film and get my kit off. I'd never say never. — Konnie Huq

Most indie shoots, or any kind of film shooting, even TV, it's out of Los Angeles, unfortunately. I wish that would change, that people could work where their families are, across the board - crew, cast. I wish we could all stay here. — Jeanne Tripplehorn

I believe in Mexico there's a big culture of moviegoing, both studio and indie. I think here in the US that's not the case because Latino communities don't have access to indie films. If you go into communities of color you will only find the big theater chains which only play the blockbuster genre films. — Aurora Guerrero

I think people are willing to take more of a risk on an indie film, about character, etc...but at the same time, when I work on projects that are substantially bigger, in a way they do feel small. Even though the catering is way better and we actually have someone shooting with real film.... The budgets are bigger but the story still feels small, like an indie film. — Adam Driver

It is hard to come up with ideas that are achievable on a scale that you know you are going to have for an indie film but it also have some kind of hook. — Jake Schreier

Digital also had this evolution that came out of post-production. And George Lucas did it because he wanted to make a big movie with special effects. Sort of the opposite of what you'd think is an indie film. So it's coming from both these angles. — Christopher Kenneally

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