Hard to believe that we are entering the month of April and a quarter of the 2016 film year has already gone - but boy have we been treated to some great indie films in that time.
Black Mountain Poets
And that trend looks set to continue over the next few weeks as April is set to be another great month if you are an independent film fan.
We take a look at some of the top indie films that you cannot afford to miss April - which movies are you looking forward to?
- Black Mountain Poets - out now
Writer and director Jamie Adams has already brought us - and enjoyed success with Benny & Jolene and A Wonderful Christmas Time in recent years, and now he is back with Black Mountain Poets.
Black Mountain Poets is a movie that has already been winning over critics and audiences on the festival circuit and sees the director work with Alice Lowe, Dolly Wells, and Tom Cullen.
Lowe and Wells are set to play sisters in the improvised piece and it is great to see these two fab actresses - and good friends - tackling two interesting female characters.
Two professional con artist sisters Lisa and Claire go on the run after being caught trying to steal a JCB. They decide to lie low by assuming the identities of the owners of their escape vehicle and become The Wilding Sisters, guest stars of the Poet's Poetry Society retreat in the depths of the Black Mountains.
Thinking this will be an easy task, they don't count on the presence of handsome poet Richard and his jealous girlfriend Louise. Competing for a large cash prize, the two sisters are forced to confront not only their relationship but also their place in the world. Can they survive the competition and learn to appreciate the powerful beauty of the Black Mountains?
It is Lowe and Wells who really steal this film and it is their central relationship that pushes it forward and draws in the audience. The improvised format works well as you never know what is going to happen next or where the next joke is going to come from.
Adams has proved with Benny & Jolene and A Wonderful Christmas Time that he is a writer and a filmmaker to watch out for and Black Mountain Poets really is a gem of a film.
- Dheepan - released 8th April
There are a whole host of exciting filmmakers on show this April and Jacques Audiard is another to watch out for as he returns with Dheepan.
Audiard has already brought us the critically acclaimed A Prophet and Rust & Bone and it is exciting to see him at the helm of a new film project. As well as being in the director's chair for Dheepan, he has also teamed up with Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré to pen the film's screenplay.
Dheepan is a movie that caused quite a stir on the festival circuit last year as it went on to win the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival - it is exciting that the movie is finally being released in UK cinemas this month.
Jesuthasan Antonythasan takes on the title role of Dheepan and is joined on the cast list by Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby, Vincent Rottiers, Faouzi Bensaïdi, and Marc Zinga.
Dheepan is a Sri Lankan Tamil warrior who is forced to flee to France to escape the civil war, posing as a family with a woman and young girl he has never previously met.
Finding work as a caretaker of a housing block in the suburbs of Paris, Dheepan works to build a new life and home for his 'wife' and 'daughter', but the daily violence he confronts quickly reopens the violence from his past, and he is left fighting for their livelihood, and eventually their lives.
Dheepan is an engaging, powerful, and moving film that is driven by three wonderful central performances. This is a timely story about immigration and it is no surprise that it is striking a chord with critics and audiences.
- Louder Than Bombs - released 22nd April
Jesse Eisenberg may be enjoying huge box office success with new blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but the in-demand actor is set to return to the indie genre this month with Louder Than Bombs.
Louder Than Bombs will be the third feature film for director Joachim Trier, who is set to make his English speaking debut with his latest project. As well as being in the director's chair, Trier has also teamed up with Eskil Vogt to pen the screenplay.
Eisenberg is set to take on the role of Jonah, a young man who is grieving the loss of his war photographer mother. He is joined on the cast list by Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, David Strathairn, Amy Ryan, Rachel Brosnahan, and Devin Druid.
Two years after her sudden death, the family of famed photographer Isabelle Reed (Huppert) is still trying to cope with their loss. Gene (Byrne) struggles as a single parent. Jonah (Eisenberg), the elder son, has just had a baby of his own and finds the transition from child to parent daunting. The younger son, Conrad (Druid), is a typical teenager, wearing his alienation as a badge of honour and resisting his father's attempts to connect.
On the occasion of a major retrospective of Isabelle's work, Jonah returns home to help his father. All three men are flooded with memories, and secrets are unearthed - most notably the truth behind the mysterious circumstances of Isabelle's death. Shifting between past and present, Louder Than Bombs is an intimate portrait of parents and children and the many things that tear them apart and bring them together.
- Miles Ahead - released 22nd April
Every year we see some actors make the leap into the director's chair for the first time... 2016 is no different and Don Cheadle is one of the most high-profile actors turned directors.
Miles Ahead, which focuses on jazz musician Miles Davis, has been a real passion project for Cheadle, who has also penned the film's screenplay and will take on the central role in the film.
Cheadle is no stranger to the director's chair with a couple of television project under his belt, but this is the first time that we have seen him at the helm of a feature film. I have to say, I am excited to see what he delivers with this music biopic.
Ewan McGregor and Emayatzy Corinealdi also take on the central roles of Dave Brill and Frances Taylor and they are joined on the cast list by Michael Stuhlbarg and Keith Stanfield.
All Rolling Stone reporter Dave Braden (McGregor) wants is an exclusive interview with the jazz legend himself, Miles Davis (Cheadle). What he gets instead is a wild and dangerous ride-along with a recording artist living at his edge, rife with shootouts, car chases, and a tale of lost love to the singer Frances (Corinealdi).
Inspired by events in Miles Davis's life, Cheadle boldly brings his vision, both in-front-of and behind-the-camera in Miles Ahead. Wildly entertaining, impressionistic, no-holds-barred portrait of one of twentieth-century music's creative geniuses.
- Son Of Saul - released 29th April
Son Of Saul is another movie that has been causing a stir on the festival circuit since premiering at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
The Hungarian drama marked the feature film directorial debut for László Nemes - who made the leap from shorts for the first time. This is a movie that has really helped put him on the map as a filmmaker and writer.
October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination.
While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child's body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner's Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.
Son of Saul has been met with critical acclaim so far this year and picked up a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination. While the movie did miss out on the Oscar, it did win the Golden Globe in the same category. The movie went on to pick up awards and nominations at a string of ceremonies and festivals.
Other indie films to watch out for include Motley's Law, Couple In A Hole, I Am Belfast, and Our Little Sister.
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