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The Popcorn List Releases Second Annual Survey of 19 Recommended Feature Films
The Popcorn List has released its second annual survey of recommended feature films. From the press release:
The Popcorn List (TPL), an annual survey of acclaimed feature films returns for its second year with 19 film recommendations. TPL was founded in 2024 as a discovery and visibility initiative to amplify independent films that deserve to be seen more widely, highlight the discovery nature of film festivals and the craft of film curation, and respect audiences’ desire for story-driven movies. The result is an open-source database of acclaimed films without U.S. distribution (theatrical, VOD, self-distributed), as recommended by festival programmers across the country.
In addition to compiling the list, a component of the project is tracking and amplifying the films’ distribution pathways. The inaugural list is updated regularly with VOD and theatrical availability and other distribution details. About 50% of the 2024 films are available now in the U.S., or coming soon. Several have taken more traditional distribution routes, while some are engaging in alternative audience engagement strategies. “It was inspiring to be a part of the inaugural cohort of The Popcorn List,” said Egghead & Twinkie director Sarah Kambe Holland. “The road to distribution has been long and difficult, but the Popcorn List was a bright spot in that journey. We felt supported, seen, and heard. It felt like a vote of confidence and a reason to not give up.” The film, which remains the most recommended in TPL history (by four different festival programmers) is coming to VOD April 29th.
As distribution continues to be in flux, frustrations remain around getting sales agents and distributors to look beyond market festivals, let alone limited or no minimum guarantees (MGs), or landing a distribution partner who can actually attract new audiences to the film. Yet TPL has observed many hopeful developments over the last year.
“Indie filmmakers are rewriting the distribution narrative. There’s a pervasive permission in the air, encouraging us all to consider avenues beyond a film school textbook,” said TPL Co-Founder Lela Meadow-Conner. “Despite what clickbait would like us to believe, people are still showing up to independent movie theaters and direct-to-audience platforms for movies like Hundreds of Beavers and No Other Land – two films that bucked tradition.” Both were recommended to TPL by festival programmers, in 2024 and 2025 respectively, but were not included because of resourceful direct-to-audience approaches. Said Meadow-Conner, “There’s never been a better time for filmmakers to take distribution into their own hands. Of this year’s recommendations, more than 50% of filmmakers are thinking about what that looks like.”
Though TPL is currently a volunteer-led initiative, its founders are energized by the interest, support and collaborations that have arisen over the past year. From visibility in Hope for Film’s Subsack, to a panel at The Gotham Week, a spotlight on Portrait Creative Network, and a new sneak-preview screening series in the works with The Film Collaborative, the project has been embraced by aligned organizations, and the independent filmmaking community. TPL is excited to support its next class, encouraging distributors to check out the list, cinemas to book the films and audiences to watchlist them.
In 2025, TPL reached out to 45 film festival programmers, 30 of whom responded with recommendations. 28 films were recommended in total (2 films were recommended twice by two separate programmers) and the final list includes 19 films (2 films didn’t respond, 7 films are Special Mentions not included due to their distribution plans.)
Official Inclusions: Check out the Official List for full film information, festival programmer statement, festival premiere & awards, trailer, reviews, and contact.
ASHIMA, Dir. Kenji Tsukamoto (Crystal Merrill, Festival Director, Mountainfilm)
Ashima is an intimate portrait of elite rock climber Ashima Shiraishi as she travels to South Africa to try to become the youngest person in the world to climb a V14 graded boulder problem. Accompanying Ashima is Poppo, an eccentric, hermit-like, retired avant garde dancer, who also happens to be her father. Emotional and rooted in character, Ashima is a love letter not only to climbing, but to immigrant parents and the realization of the American Dream.
BROOKLYN, MINNESOTA, Dir. Jessica Blank, Erik Jensen (Meira Blaustein, Executive Director, Woodstock Film Festival)
When the grandfather she never knew dies suddenly, headstrong 14-year -old Maisie and her artist dad Kurt leave the confines of their Brooklyn bubble to return to Kurt’s Minnesotan childhood home—where Maisie will upend old family patterns, fall in love, and force her family to confront each other and themselves.
CLOCKED, Dir. Noah Salzman (Jason Hoffman, Programmer, Indy Film Fest)
Adolfo Rivera is an 18-year-old boxer from a conservative Catholic family in Miami, who is secretly saving their winnings for the biggest fight of their life: self-acceptance in their desire to transition into a woman. This journey for self-acceptance fortuitously leads to mentorship from the local drag community, showing Adolfo the importance of having the right people in your corner even outside of the ring.
COLOR BOOK, Dir. David Fortune (Matthew Campbell, Artistic Director, Denver Film Festival & tt stern-enzi, Artistic Director, Over-the-Rhine Film Festival)
Following the passing of his wife, a devoted father learns to raise his son with Down syndrome as a single parent. While adjusting to their new reality, the two embark on a journey through Metro Atlanta to attend their first baseball game.
EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IS YOURS, Dir. Tatyana Tenenbaum (Dan Brawley, Executive Director, Cucalorus)
NYC-based choreographer Hadar Ahuvia interrogates the roots of the Israeli folk dances she grew up dancing with her mother in the U.S. Confronting romanticized stories about her grandparents, settlers in 1930s Palestine, Ahuvia embarks on a personal journey to reckon with the founding mythologies and transgressions of Zionism.
FANTASY A GETS A MATTRESS, Dir. Noah Zoltan Sofian & David Norman Lewis (Barak Epstein, Co-Founder, Oak Cliff Film Festival)
A laugh-a-minute, surrealistic neorealist dark comedy filmed in Seattle starring real-life rapper with autism, Fantasy A, as himself, the story follows Fantasy A after he’s kicked out of his group home for disabled adults. Along the way, he faces off against seedy club owners, hiphop vampires, scummy dojo losers, and a slew of other wack Seattleites who hope to stop Fantasy A in his tracks and crush his dreams of fame, fortune, and a safe place to catch some Zs.
GLORIA!, Dir. Margherita Vicario (Beth Barrett, Artistic Director, SIFF)
Set in a girls’ institute in Venice at the end of the 1700s, Gloria! tells the story of Teresa, a young woman with a visionary talent, who, together with a small group of extraordinary musicians, crosses centuries and challenges the dusty catafalques of the Ancien Régime by inventing rebellious, light and modern music. Pop!
HANAMI, Dir. Denise Fernandes (Mimi Plauché, Artistic Director, Chicago International Film Festival)
On a remote volcanic island – a place everyone wants to leave – Nana has learned to stay. Her mother Nia, who suffers from a mysterious illness, left soon after her birth. When Nana comes down with a high fever, she is sent to the foot of a volcano for treatment. There, she encounters a world suspended between dreams and reality. Years later, when Nana is a teenager, Nia returns.
IF THAT MOCKINGBIRD DON’T SING, Dir. Sadie Bones (Judith Laster, Founder/Director, Woods Hole Film Festival)
After being brutally dumped, 17-year-old Sydnie discovers she is pregnant. Seeing this as an opportunity to get her ex back and give her life direction, she decides to keep the baby. She soon realizes that this won’t be the quick fix she had hoped for and finds herself caught in a complicated love triangle and totally lost.
IT WAS ALL A DREAM, Dir. dream hampton (Faridah Gbadamosi, Senior Programmer, Tribeca & Karen McMullen, Festival Director, Urban World)
An NYU film student when she began shooting in 1993, dream hampton was already a provocative music journalist and critic with access to rap’s emerging superstars including her neighbor The Notorious BIG, Snoop, Mobb Deep and Method Man from Wu-Tang. The film takes viewers inside the studio for the making of landmark albums by rap’s greatest voices. This archive sat in storage for three decades and is a largely vérité journey. hampton’s narration, added 30 years later, is actually text from articles published in the early 90s.
JOIN THE CLUB, Dir. Chris O’Connell, Kip Andersen (Jim Farmer, Festival Director, Out on Film)
When the AIDS epidemic sweeps through his community, Dennis Peron, San Francisco’s biggest pot dealer, realizes that marijuana is more than a good time—it’s medicine. In the wake of his lover’s death, he opens the Cannabis Buyers’ Club, a five-story dispensary complete with rainbow murals, drag shows, and doctors onsite. Law enforcement launch a multimillion dollar investigation into the club, but Peron has even larger aspirations, writing a landmark political initiative and leading the fight for change. Join the Club uncovers the Queer history of marijuana legalization in America.
MALU, Dir. Pedro Freire (Heidi Zwicker, Senior Programmer, Sundance Film Festival)
Malu, a mercurial, unemployed actress living with her conservative mother in a precarious house in a Rio de Janeiro slum, tries to deal with her strained relationship with her adult daughter while surviving on memories of her glorious artistic past.
MICRO BUDGET, Dir. Morgan Evans (Tom Hall, Artistic Director, Montclair Film)
When Terry discovers he’s about to be a father, he does what any other sane person would do: he moves himself and his nine-months-pregnant wife from Iowa to Los Angeles to shoot a low-budget indie movie and sell it to a streamer for a“fuck-ton of money.” Documented by his cousin Devin’s behind-the-scenes camera crew, Terry suddenly finds that his beliefs about diversity, the #MeToo movement, and what technically qualifies as a properly financed film production put him at odds with, well, every single person who meets him.
NEW WAVE, Dir. Elizabeth Ai (Sky Sitney, Co-Founder, Festival Director, DC/DOX)
Mile-high hair. Synthesized sounds. Teenage rebellion. Elizabeth Ai was on a mission to excavate an untold story of rebellious punks in the chaotic world of 80s Vietnamese new wave until she uncovered a hidden past. What begins as an exploration of the rebellion and freedom within this subculture evolves into a profound narrative of identity, loss, and healing.
OKTHANKSBYE, Dir. Nicole van Kilsdonk (Isaac Zablocki, Director/Co-Founder, ReelAbilities)
Shy, deaf Jamie (12) moves to the boarding school for the deaf to start her new school. She is reluctant to make new friends. When she is suddenly unable to go home at the weekend, an unexpected plan develops with her bold classmate Imane (13). Together they set off on a road trip to Paris, but soon things do not go as planned and the trip takes an adventurous turn. Jamie is forced to come out of her shell. The trip full of obstacles and special encounters becomes a journey to remember.
PAPER FLOWERS, Dir. Mahesh Pailoor (Shailaja Rao, Associate Director, Tasveer Film Festival)
After graduating from USC, Shalin Shah sets off for Peru with the Peace Corps, leaving behind his tight-knit family and high school sweetheart. But his dreams of changing the world are shattered when a routine check-up reveals a devastating diagnosis: a rare and aggressive cancer. Forced to return home, Shalin leans on his loved ones for support as he grapples with his mortality. Through their unwavering love, he discovers that the true meaning of life isn’t measured in time, but in the richness of each moment. With a renewed zest for life, Shalin pens a viral manifesto, spreading beyond him and inspiring the world to find beauty in every sunset. Based on a true story.
REAS, Dir. Lola Arias (Nick McCarthy, Director of Programming, NewFest)
Yoseli has a tattoo of the Eiffel Tower on her back and has always wanted to travel, but she was arrested at the airport for drug trafficking. Nacho is a trans man who was arrested for swindling and started a rock band in jail. Gentle or rough, blonde or shaved, cis or trans, long-term inmates or newly admitted: in this hybrid musical, they all re-enact their lives in a Buenos Aires prison.
THE EVERYTHING POT, Dir. Sherise Dorf (Paul Sloop, Director of Programming, Cordillera International Film Festival)
A comedy of errors ensues when empty nester Rachel hastily sends a gift to Charlie, a former colleague, upon receiving his wedding invitation. The young couple’s wedding gets Rachel out of her perpetual state of ennui in her own marriage and brings unexpected excitement that inadvertently causes speculation of infidelity. As one domino falls after another, cracks begin to show in their respective relationships especially while Rachel’s husband Adam becomes obsessed with getting back their wedding gift: The Everything Pot.
TO KILL A WOLF, Dir. Kelsey Taylor (Andre Seward, Programming Director, Tallgrass Film Festival)
On the fringes of the Oregon wilderness, two strangers with troubled pasts are brought together when a reclusive Woodsman discovers a teenage runaway, Dani, hypothermic and barely conscious in the woods. After saving Dani from the elements, The Woodsman begrudgingly agrees to take the teen to her grandmother and the two become unlikely travel companions. As they make their way across the state, they forge an unexpected bond and test their abilities to trust one another. Ultimately, with each other’s help, they come to face the demons that haunt them and discover a way to start their lives anew.
Special Mentions:
A STORY OF BONES, Dir. Joseph Curran, Dominic Aubrey De Vere (Lisa Simmons, Allison Simmons-Uvin, Roxbury International Film Festival)
BRANDO WITH A GLASS EYE, Dir. Antonis Tsonis (Paul Sbrizzi, Slamdance)
DREAMS IN NIGHTMARES, Dir. Shatara Michelle Ford (Nehad Khedar, Blackstar)
FRAGMENTS OF A LIFE LOVED, Dir. Chloe Barreau (Allegra Madsen, Frameline)
NO OTHER LAND, Dir. Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor (Sean Flynn, Camden International Film Festival)
TIM TRAVERS AND THE TIME TRAVELER’S PARADOX, Dir. Stimson Snead (Paris Burris, deadCenter)
WE CAN BE HEROES, Dir. Carina Mia Wong, Alex Simmons (Cara Ogburn, Milwaukee Film)
