Upcoming Underground Movies of 2020

Not only blockbusters are worth waiting for, but also the low-budget productions, indies, arthouse films and festival favorites. These are the films that often don’t reach the general public’s attention, but for true cinema fans, these motion pictures are the highlights of the year. In this article we have collected the most anticipated underground movies.

How to Build a Girl (2020)

We love heartwarming coming of age comedy films like Juno, Lady Bird, Booksmart or Love, Simon. The film tells the story of Johanna Morrigan, a teenage girl living with her working-class family on a council estate in Wolverhampton, who becomes a popular but conflicted music journalist. The film is an adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s novel and the screenplay was also written by her. The film is available on Amazon, but we’re also hoping for a wide-range premiere.

Director: Coky Giedroyc

Stars: Beanie Feldstein, Paddy Considine, Michael Sheen

Falling (2020)

Falling is Viggo Mortensen’s debut feature film as writer and director. The film stars Mortensen as a gay man whose conservative and homophobic father (played by Lance Henriksen) starts to exhibit symptoms of dementia, forcing him to sell the family farm and move to Los Angeles to live with his son and his son’s husband. The film had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: Viggo Mortensen

Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Lance Henriksen, Laura Linney

The French Dispatch (2020)

Wes Anderson is one of the best known authorial filmmakers working today. Every aspect of his films, from humor and music to camera treatment represents his style. The story is about an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth century French city. In addition to Anderson, the film is a must-watch because of the incredible cast. The film would have had its original premiere at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, but given the missed event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film has been rescheduled for release on October 16, 2020.

Update: The film currently has no release date.

Director: Wes Anderson

Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Aaron Sorkin is one of the best screenwriters in the industry who proved with Molly’s Game two years ago that he is a very good director. His latest film is about a protest against the Vietnam War at the 1986 Democratic National Convention, which eventually culminated in violence. The “Chicago 7” that organized the protest — including Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) — were later accused of incitement and conspiracy. The film is likely to be released on Netflix in November 2020.

Director: Aaron Sorkin

Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen

Promising Young Woman (2020)

This film is already special in the fact that Carey Mulligan plays the lead role, who is always a pleasure to see on screen because of her extraordinary acting talent. The film is about a young woman with a trauma in her past, who swears revenge for men who exploit and abuse women. This is Emerald Fennell’s first feature film. She has written episodes of series such as Killing Eve and Drifters and has also starred in several major productions such as The Crown. Based on the trailer, we can expect a feminist revenge story filled with dark humor. The film had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: Emerald Fennell

Stars: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Laverne Cox

Mank (2020)

David Fincher hasn’t directed a film since 2014’s Gone Girl. However, he started to have a very good relationship with Netflix, as he made 3 series for the streaming company(House of Cards, Mindhunter, Love, Death & Robots). His latest film will be released on Netflix, which will be about Herman Mankiewicz, the co-writer of Citizen Kane, the circumstances in which the film was shot, and his disagreements with Orson Welles.

Director: David Fincher

Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Gary Oldman

Ammonite (2020)

Fans of historical romantic dramas will not be neglected, as there is a good chance that Ammonite will not only dazzle fans of the genre, but will also seem like a serious contender at the film festivals and awards. The story takes place in England in the 1840s, where a famous paleontologist, Mary Anning (Kate Winslet), and a young woman, Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) fall in love with each other, changing the lives of both of them forever. The film was directed by Francis Lee, who also wrote and directed the excellent film God’s Own Country. The film will be presented at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.

Director: Francis Lee

Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Kate Winslet, Fiona Shaw

Possessor (2020)

We can rarely watch really well-done sci-fi horrors these days, but it seems worth waiting for the Possessor to come out, because based on the first reviews, we can expect a really twisted, exciting and brutal Cronenberg body horror. The story of the film is about an agent(Andrea Riseborough) who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of a secret organization. This is the second feature film of Brandon Cronenberg, the son of the famous horror legend David Cronenberg. The film had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: Brandon Cronenberg

Stars: Christopher Abbott, Andrea Riseborough, Gabrielle Graham

Saint Maud (2020)

Nowadays if someone wants to watch a quality horror, then it is worth looking at the productions of A24 Films. Their horrors are the ones that don’t just scare the viewer with cheap jump scares, but are able to evoke a really shocking dread from even the most experienced horror fan that gets under your skin and remember it years later. A similar film seems to be Saint Maud, which premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and received a particularly positive reviews. The story is about Maud, a religious nurse who becomes obsessed with her dying patient.

Director: Rose Glass

Stars: Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Lily Knight

Cherry (2020)

Anthony and Joe Russo are currently Hollywood’s most successful directors, and even brothers. After directing their initial films (Welcome to Collinwood; You, Me and Dupree) and series episodes (Arrested Development, Community), Marvel contracted them to direct Captain America: The Winter Soldier, then came Civil War and Infinity War, and finally the studio’s most successful film was made with Endgame. Then, instead of directing another blockbuster, they made a movie with far less budget, starring Tom Holland with whom the Russo’s worked on 3 films. Cherry adapts Nico Walker’s biography book, and Holland plays a military medic suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who starts robbing banks because his drug addiction puts him in debt. Cherry will hopefully hit theaters this year.

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Stars: Tom Holland, Kelli Berglund, Thomas Lennon