Home › Independent DramasIndependent Dramas on Netflix
The Independent Dramas category on Netflix is identified by the secret code 384 . Below are 100 Independent Dramas titles currently traceable on Netflix, sorted by rating. Top picks include Pulp Fiction (1994), Merku Thodarchi Malai (2018), Whiplash (2014).
How to open this category: on a web browser, sign in to Netflix and visit netflix.com/browse/genre/384. On the mobile app or a TV, use the title search below or open the code in a browser. What you see depends on your country and Netflix plan, so some titles may not appear for you.
Last updated: 27 Sep 2021. Independent reference, not affiliated with Netflix.
Pulp Fiction (1994) Quentin Tarantino's stylized crime caper weaves together stories featuring a burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner and a washed-up boxer.
Year: 1994880640 · IMDb
Merku Thodarchi Malai (2018) In southern India, a laborer's dreams of owning a piece of land to farm is complicated by political corruption.
Year: 201881045060 · IMDb
Whiplash (2014) Driven by his demanding music teacher, drummer Andrew is determined to succeed as a jazz musician -- even if it destroys his personality.
Year: 201470299275 · IMDb
Good Will Hunting (1997) When professors discover that an aimless janitor is also a math genius, a therapist helps the young man confront the demons that are holding him back.
Year: 199717405997 · IMDb
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) After learning that his ex-girlfriend had an experimental medical procedure to purge all memories of him, a man decides to do the same with her.
Year: 200460034545 · IMDb
There Will Be Blood (2007) An ambitious prospector strikes it rich and turns a simple village into a boomtown, stoking the ire of a charismatic young preacher.
Year: 200770075473 · IMDb
Trainspotting (1996) Renton and his mates cope with the gritty realities of heroin addiction. But when Renton gets clean, he can't get away from his friends' nasty habits.
Year: 199660037022 · IMDb
Before Sunrise (1995) An American backpacker strikes up a conversation with a woman on the train to Vienna and persuades her to spend his last day in Europe with him.
Year: 1995293391 · IMDb
Udaan (2010) Upon returning to his industrial hometown, a young man must decide whether to follow his own dreams or acquiesce to his father's plans for his future.
Year: 201070139542 · IMDb
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) After coming within one question of winning a fortune on a game show, an uneducated young 'slumdog' is accused of cheating and arrested.
Year: 200870095140 · IMDb
Dancer in the Dark (2000) A Czech immigrant who dwells in a mental world of song and dance performs a haunting act of deliverance when a neighbor steals cash she'd been saving.
Year: 200060002276 · IMDb
Dallas Buyers Club (2013) Refusing to accept a death sentence from his doctor after being diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, Ron Woodroof smuggles medications from abroad.
Year: 201370275751 · IMDb
Ankhon Dekhi (2014) After a dramatic incident, Raje Bauji, a man in his late fifties, decides that he will only believe what he sees with his eyes.
Year: 201470307997 · IMDb
Nightcrawler (2014) A young hustler gets sucked into the sordid but lucrative business of trolling the streets of Los Angeles to film fires, car crashes -- and murder.
Year: 201470295182 · IMDb
The Wrestler (2008) A retired professional wrestler returns to the ring to work his way up the circuit for one last shot at defeating his longtime rival.
Year: 200870095145 · IMDb
Boyhood (2014) After divorcing, a mother and father continue to share the task of guiding their young son through youth and adolescence, and finally to adulthood.
Year: 201470301281 · IMDb
Before Midnight (2013) Years after being reunited, multinational lovers Jesse and Celine struggle with their faded romance in this second sequel to the drama Before Sunrise.
Year: 201370267236 · IMDb
Boogie Nights (1997) A well-endowed busboy is taken in by a tight-knit group of 1970s porn actors and transforms himself into skin flick celebrity Dirk Diggler.
Year: 19971180077 · IMDb
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) In the last days of communism in Romania, a college student wants to end her unplanned pregnancy, but abortion is illegal under the Ceausescu regime.
Year: 200770071602 · IMDb
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) A wild teenage boy and his late foster mother's cantankerous husband get lost in the wilderness after social services threatens to take the boy away.
Year: 201680096995 · IMDb
Do the Right Thing (1989) Director Spike Lee chronicles trivial events that bring festering racial tensions to the surface on a sweltering day in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
Year: 1989448860 · IMDb
For Here or to Go? (2015) A software engineer must decide if he'd rather navigate America's frustrating visa renewal process or simply return to his home country of India.
Year: 201580176707 · IMDb
Call Me by Your Name (2017) In the summer of 1983, 17-year-old Elio forms a life-changing bond with his father's charismatic research assistant Oliver in the Italian countryside.
Year: 201780169498 · IMDb
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) In a backwater Iowa town, young Gilbert is torn between taking care of his troubled family and a girl who shows him new possibilities for his life.
Year: 199360011552 · IMDb
Once (2006) A street musician in Dublin strikes up a friendship with a migrant street hawker, and the duo ends up composing and recording a series of songs.
Year: 200670059661 · IMDb
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) This quirky drama follows the frantic search that ensues in a small New England town when two 12-year-olds fall in love and run away together.
Year: 201270228041 · IMDb
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) A 23-year-old Che Guevara motorcycles across South America with friend Alberto, a trek that crystallizes the future revolutionary's political beliefs.
Year: 200460034802 · IMDb
Mr. Nobody (2009) The last mortal in a world of immortals, Nemo Nobody begins reviewing his life at the age of 120, trying to determine if he made the right decisions.
Year: 200970117580 · IMDb
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) After a stint in a mental hospital, Pat moves in with his parents and tries to win back his wife, until he meets a woman who's as unstable as he is.
Year: 201270244164 · IMDb
Lost in Translation (2003) Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star -- find solace in each other's company.
Year: 200360031214 · IMDb
Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) Determined to fall in love, 15-year-old Adele is focused on boys. But it's a blue-haired girl she meets on the street who really piques her interest.
Year: 201370275600 · IMDb
Beasts of No Nation (2015) When civil war tears his family apart, a young West African boy is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters and transform into a child soldier.
Year: 201580044545 · IMDb
Being John Malkovich (1999) When puppeteer Craig Schwartz discovers a portal into John Malkovich's brain, he decides to sell 15-minute excursions into the esteemed actor's mind.
Year: 199928363298 · IMDb
Billy Elliot (2000) When a boy trades boxing school for ballet lessons, he may take his newfound talent all the way to the top - and win over his disapproving father.
Year: 200060003378 · IMDb
Wind River (2017) A tracker with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assists a rookie FBI agent who's investigating a teen girl's murder on a remote Wyoming reservation.
Year: 201780173524 · IMDb
Vaya (2016) Three youths from rural South Africa set out for Johannesburg, where they're thrust into the seedy underbelly of the city and must fight to survive.
Year: 201680155792 · IMDb
ROMA (2018) Director Alfonso Cuarón delivers a vivid, emotional portrait of domestic life and social hierarchy set against Mexico's political turmoil of the 1970s.
Year: 201880240715 · IMDb
Sin Nombre (2009) Fleeing a violent Central American street gang, a young hood takes refuge atop a moving train and hopes for a fresh start in a new country.
Year: 200970112457 · IMDb
50/50 (2011) An otherwise healthy twentysomething has a comically early midlife crisis when he gets slapped with a cancer diagnosis and a 50-50 chance of survival.
Year: 201170202141 · IMDb
A Single Man (2009) This stream-of-consciousness drama centers on a day in the life of a gay college professor who's reeling from his longtime lover's recent death.
Year: 200970117297 · IMDb
To verdener (2008) Sara and her family have always lived by Jehovah's commandments. But when she falls in love with Teis, she is faced with a very difficult decision.
Year: 200870295564 · IMDb
Philomena (2013) An aging Irishwoman teams with a floundering journalist to find the son she was forced to give up for adoption 50 years ago.
Year: 201370293789 · IMDb
The Piano (1993) Holly Hunter stars as a mute but strong-willed 19th-century Scottish expatriate who arrives in New Zealand with her daughter and her beloved piano.
Year: 1993856048 · IMDb
Victoria (2015) A Spanish girl in Berlin falls in with four young men. When her new friends run afoul of a gangster, she gets caught up in their problems.
Year: 201580043050 · IMDb
Hell or High Water (2016) In a desperate bid to save their family ranch, two brothers stage a series of clever bank robberies with a pair of Texas Rangers in hot pursuit.
Year: 201680108616 · IMDb
The Florida Project (2017) A mischievous 6-year-old finds the magic in her own circumstances while living with her troubled mom in a budget motel near Disney World.
Year: 201780194388 · IMDb
The Blue Umbrella (2005) A charming allegory based on a novella by Ruskin Bond, this visually stunning film from India explores themes of greed, loneliness, longing and loss.
Year: 200570075775 · IMDb
Kuch Bheege Alfaaz (2018) After accidentally connecting over the Internet, two strangers form a tight friendship -- not knowing they already share a bond.
Year: 201881018240 · IMDb
Happy as Lazzaro (2018) Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise's son will change his world.
Year: 201881004245 · IMDb
Instructions Not Included (2013) Unable to locate the elusive mother of a baby girl left on his doorstep, an Acapulco playboy unexpectedly begins to develop feelings for the tot.
Year: 201370284281 · IMDb
Green Street (2005) After a bogus drug scandal, a Harvard newspaper editor is kicked out of school and flies to London to live with his sister and her family.
Year: 200570038792 · IMDb
Beyond the Hills (2012) When Alina tries to rekindle the intense relationship with her childhood friend Viochita, who's now a nun, things spiral out of control.
Year: 201270242559 · IMDb
The Piano Teacher (2001) An emotionally repressed piano teacher begins a tempestuous affair with an attractive student, turning her dark sexual fantasies into obsession.
Year: 200160022939 · IMDb
Rust and Bone (2012) An unemployed kick boxer who's struggling as a single father strikes up a relationship with a whale trainer who survives a terrible accident.
Year: 201270242543 · IMDb
Fruitvale Station (2013) This dramatic rendering of a real-life tragedy recounts the final hours of Oscar Grant, shot by San Francisco transit police on New Year's Day, 2009.
Year: 201370267488 · IMDb
My Life Without Me (2003) When a young mother of two stuck in a dead-end job learns she's dying, she makes a list of important things she wants to accomplish in her short life.
Year: 200360031223 · IMDb
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005) In an effort to reconnect with his dying filmmaker son, an aging Japanese fisherman travels thousands of miles to film an important folk opera.
Year: 200570053127 · IMDb
Taramani (2017) A traditional man and an independent woman share a connection, but they must learn to navigate their vastly different experiences and expectations.
Year: 201781052277 · IMDb
Komola Rocket (2018) As the lives of rich and poor passengers aboard a steamship unfold, buried secrets, lustful affairs and selfish desires are exposed.
Year: 201881048548 · IMDb
Juno (2007) Facing an unplanned pregnancy while in high school, quirky teen Juno devises a plan to locate her unborn baby's perfect adoptive parents.
Year: 200770077553 · IMDb
Babel (2006) When an American couple vacationing in Morocco falls victim to a random act of violence, a series of events unfolds across four countries.
Year: 200670045866 · IMDb
Blue Valentine (2010) As Cindy and Dean muddle through their languishing marriage, they hearken back to the golden days when life was filled with possibility and romance.
Year: 201070122316 · IMDb
Cafe de Flore (2011) Set decades apart in Paris and in Montreal, two dramatic narratives share subtle yet profound links, weaving together in a meditation on human love.
Year: 201170209141 · IMDb
I Wish (2011) Young lad Koichi and his kid brother hatch a wildly imaginative plan to use a new bullet train to reconnect their estranged parents.
Year: 201170209136 · IMDb
Child's Pose (2013) When her son Barbu kills a child with his car, wealthy Romanian Cornelia hopes that spreading money around will make Barbu's problem go away.
Year: 201370270821 · IMDb
Reprise (2006) Close friends Erik and Phillip each await news on their first novels. But when Phillip's book is published before Erik's, he's unprepared for fame.
Year: 200670066353 · IMDb
Imagine (2012) A spatial-orientation instructor sees results with unorthodox methods that require his blind patients to put themselves at considerable risk.
Year: 201270261027 · IMDb
Begin Again (2014) When a down-on-his-luck music producer discovers a promising singer-songwriter in a bar, he resolves to launch her career -- and save his own.
Year: 201470307852 · IMDb
Howards End (1992) When a husband, acting in his family's 'best interest,' does not accept his wife's deathbed wish, providence dictates that he pay for his duplicity.
Year: 199260029366 · IMDb
Moonlight (2016) In a crime-infested Miami neighborhood, a gay African-American boy with a drug-addicted mother grows up with the help of a mentoring drug dealer.
Year: 201680121348 · IMDb
Mudbound (2017) Two Mississippi families -- one black, one white -- confront the brutal realities of prejudice, farming and friendship in a divided World War II era.
Year: 201780175694 · IMDb
Bad Education (2004) A film director reunites with his childhood friend, who shares a short story he's written about being molested by their Catholic school teacher.
Year: 200470011205 · IMDb
Lady Bird (2017) An intrepid high schooler in Sacramento undergoes the trials of love, family and self-discovery as she dreams of escaping to college in the East Coast.
Year: 201780205227 · IMDb
Paterson (2016) A week in the life of Paterson -- a simple, routine-oriented New Jersey bus driver and poet -- and his whimsical, loving wife.
Year: 201680112361 · IMDb
What Will People Say (2017) When a teenager is caught with her boyfriend, her parents send her away from their home in Norway to live with strict relatives in their native Pakistan.
Year: 201780209793 · IMDb
Manto (2018) The controversial and troubled Indo-Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto finds his artistic choices challenged by censors.
Year: 201881039383 · IMDb
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009) Visciously abused by her parents, Harlem teen Precious has an unexpected chance at a different life when she enrolls in an alternative school.
Year: 200970112456 · IMDb
Fish Tank (2009) The life of a hot-tempered teen outcast takes an unexpected turn when her mother brings home a handsome and mysterious boyfriend.
Year: 200970118769 · IMDb
Blue Jasmine (2013) The high life leads to high anxiety for a fashionable New York City homemaker in crisis who finds herself forced to live a more modest lifestyle.
Year: 201370270362 · IMDb
The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) A violent confrontation between a motorcycle-riding bank robber and a rookie cop spirals into a tense generational feud.
Year: 201270241757 · IMDb
Monster (2003) When emotionally scarred highway hooker Aileen Wuornos shoots a sadistic client, she begins a journey to become America's first female serial killer.
Year: 200360032559 · IMDb
The Fundamentals of Caring (2016) In this inspirational buddy comedy, a young shut-in and his caregiver take a road trip in search of landmarks, but end up finding hope and friendship.
Year: 201680097349 · IMDb
Blue Jay (2016) Two former high school sweethearts unexpectedly reunite in their old hometown, where they rediscover their magical bond and face a shared regret.
Year: 201680117746 · IMDb
The Squid and the Whale (2005) This insightful drama looks at the crumbling marriage between a self-centered novelist -- whose career is waning -- and his up-and-coming writer wife.
Year: 200570020750 · IMDb
Graduation (2016) A morally conflicted father wrestles with what’s best for his college-bound daughter when she’s brutally attacked right before an important exam.
Year: 201680107018 · IMDb
Good Time (2017) After spearheading an ill-fated bank robbery, a man must get his mentally challenged younger brother out of jail while eluding his own capture.
Year: 201780191344 · IMDb
Love and Shukla (2017) A sexually inexperienced rickshaw driver struggles to build intimacy with his shy new wife in their tiny, overcrowded quarters.
Year: 201781013710 · IMDb
Croupier (1998) A would-be writer lands a job as a croupier to make ends meet. But when he becomes involved with a gambler, he is lured into taking part in a heist.
Year: 199860000960 · IMDb
Shame (2011) Sex-addicted Brandon struggles to control his ever-desperate behavior when his younger, unstable sister invades his life.
Year: 201170211042 · IMDb
Winter's Bone (2010) In this unflinching noir drama, a resilient teen goes on the trail of her missing, drug-dealing father when his absence threatens the family's safety.
Year: 201070129374 · IMDb
Tracks (2013) Mia Wasikowska is affecting as adventurer Robyn Davidson, who crossed the Australian desert alone -- and on foot -- in 1977.
Year: 201370292997 · IMDb
The Story of Luke (2012) Though the world expects little from him, an autistic 25-year-old is determined to find a job and take care of himself after his grandmother dies.
Year: 201270272288 · IMDb
Tsotsi (2005) After shooting a woman and driving off in her car, a ruthless thug is surprised to discover a crying infant in the back seat.
Year: 200570041142 · IMDb
sex, lies, and videotape (1989) When an intriguing visitor arrives with videotapes of women confessing their sexual secrets, he turns the lives of three people inside out.
Year: 1989952082 · IMDb
American Hustle (2013) In this fictionalization of a true story, a con man and his lover assist an eccentric FBI agent in exposing corruption in Congress in the early 1980s.
Year: 201370281530 · IMDb
Shor In the City (2011) When three small-time Mumbai crooks steal a bag on a train, they find that it's filled with weapons and realize that their lives may be in danger.
Year: 201170185023 · IMDb
Broken Embraces (2009) In this indie drama, an aging filmmaker recounts his life before the accident that left him blind, when he became entangled with an aspiring actress.
Year: 200970117230 · IMDb
Margarita, with a Straw (2014) An Indian woman with cerebral palsy decides to study in New York, where she becomes involved in a life-changing affair with a blind female activist.
Year: 201480018695 · IMDb
Columbus (2017) When his architect father falls into a coma, Jin travels from Korea to Columbus, Indiana, where he and a young woman share an unexpected connection.
Year: 201780173707 · IMDb
Private Life (2018) Struggling to conceive, a couple in their 40s are almost out of options -- until a sliver of hope arrives in the form of their visiting step-niece.
Year: 201880168222 · IMDb
