List of avant-garde films of the 2020s
This is a list of avant-garde and experimental films released in the 2020s.
| Title | Director | Cast | Country | Notes | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | ||||||
| KRABI, 2562 | Ben Rivers, Anocha Suwichakornpong | UK | ||||
| Look Then Bellow | Ben Rivers | UK | ||||
| Friend of the World | Brian Patrick Butler | Nick Young, Alexandra Slade, Michael C. Burgess, Kathryn Schott, Kevin Smith, Luke Pensabene, Neil Raymond Ricco | US | [1] | ||
| A Metamorfose dos Pássaros | Catarina Vasconcelos | Portugal | [2] | |||
| Movie That Invites Pausing | Ken Jacobs | US | [3] | |||
| Red Moon Tide | Lois Patiño | Spain | [4] | |||
| The Whole Shebang | Ken Jacobs | US | [5] | |||
| The Eyes of Summer | Rajee Samarasinghe | Shalani Dilasha, Malka Malshani, Lanka Rajapaksa | Sri Lanka / USA | [6] | ||
| Purple Sea | Amel Alzakout | Germany | [7] | |||
| 2021 | ||||||
| 2020 | Friedl vom Grölle | Austria | [8] | |||
| An Approximation of their Barbarous Manners | Christian Serritiello | Italy | ||||
| Citadel | John Smith | United Kingdom | [9] | |||
| Devil's Peak | Simon Lu | Hong Kong | ||||
| Double Wow | Ken Jacobs | US | [10] | |||
| earthearthearth | Daïchi Saïto | Canada/Japan | [11] | |||
| Ember Days | Nathaniel Dorsky | US | [12] | |||
| Emergence Collapse | Rainer Kohlberger | Austria | ||||
| Er is een geest van mij / Hay un fantasma mío | Mateo Vega | Netherlands/Peru | [13] | |||
| Fictions | Manuela de Laborde | Mexico | ||||
| Flowers blooming in our throats | Eva Giolo | Italy | [14] | |||
| Hold Me Tight | Mélanie Robert-Tourneur | Belgium/France | ||||
| Inner Outer Space | Laida Lertxundi | Spain | [15] | |||
| Just Beyond the Trees | Connor Murphy | [16] | ||||
| Light Cemetery | Jonah Mills | US | ||||
| Light Trap | Pablo Marín | Argentina | ||||
| Light Years | Jonah Mills | US | ||||
| Mad God | Phil Tippett | US | [17] | |||
| Manifestarsi | Gianmarco Donaggio | Italy | [18] | |||
| Merapi | Malena Szlam | Chile | ||||
| Milano di Carta | Gianmarco Donaggio | Italy | [19] | |||
| Parenthesis | Vasilios Papaioannu | Greece/Italy/US | ||||
| Petrov's Flu | Kirill Serebrennikov | Ivan Dorn, Chulpan Khamatova | Russia | [20] | ||
| Phosphenes | Andre de Nervaux | UK | ||||
| Polycephaly in D | Michael Robinson | Trisha Paytas | US | |||
| Quarantine | Diana Ringo | Anatoly Bely, Aleksandr Obmanov | Finland, Russia | [21][22] | ||
| R and J | Carey Williams | David Zayas, María Gabriela de Faría | US | [23] | ||
| Rock Bottom Riser | Fern Silva | US | [24] | |||
| School Radio to Major Tom | Chisaka Takuya | Japan | ||||
| SON CHANT | Vivian Ostrovsky | Chantal Akerman, Sonia Wieder-Atherton | US | |||
| Spencer | Pablo Larrain | Kirsten Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing | US, UK | [25] | ||
| Terce | Nathaniel Dorsky | US | ||||
| That Was When I Thought I Could Hear You | Matt Whitman | US | ||||
| Time Flows in Strange Ways on Sundays | Giselle Lin | Peter Yu, Wendy Toh, Iris Li | Singapore | |||
| Titane | Julia Ducournau | Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle | France | [26] | ||
| Tonalli | Los Ingrávidos | Mexico | ||||
| Train Again | Peter Tscherkassky | Austria | ||||
| Transparents, I am. | Yuri Muraoka | Yuri Muraoka, Nonoho Suzuki, Hana Suzuki | Japan | |||
| Vortex | Gaspar Noé | Dario Argento, Françoise Lebrun, Alex Lutz | France/Belgium/Morocco | [27] | ||
| Water from The Tremulous Stream | Javiera Cisterna | Chile | ||||
| What is it that you said? | Shun Ikezoe | Eric Saito | Japan | |||
| When Light is Displaced | Zaina Bseiso | Alaa Bseiso | Palestine | |||
| Worlds | Isaac Goes | Canada/US | ||||
| Show me Other Places | Rajee Samarasinghe | Sri Lanka / USA | [28] | |||
| 2022 | ||||||
| Agnès Varda - Pier Paolo Pasolini - New York - 1967 | Agnès Varda | Agnès Varda, Pier Paolo Pasolini | France | |||
| THE HOUSE WAS QUIET | Ben Rivers | UK | ||||
| Attic Windows of the Infinite | Sapphire Rachael Goss | United Kingdom/Italy | [29] | |||
| Azul no Azul | Gianmarco Donaggio | Portugal | [30] | |||
| Buster Keaton Embossed | Ken Jacobs | US | ||||
| After Work | Ben Rivers, Céline Condorelli | UK | ||||
| Counterfeit Poasts | Jon Rafman | Canada | ||||
| Crimes of the Future | David Cronenberg | Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Stewart | US | |||
| The Demands of Ordinary Devotion | Eva Giolo | Italy/Belgium | [31] | |||
| Epistolary Kisses | Itamar A.C. | |||||
| Fairytale | Alexander Sokurov | Russia | ||||
| Fata Morgana | Tacita Dean | US | [32] | |||
| Festina Lente | Baya Medhaffar | Tunisia/France | ||||
| Herbaria | Leandro Listorti | Germany/Argentina | ||||
| Interval | Nathaniel Dorsky | US | ||||
| Lake Forest Park | Kersti Jan Werdal | US | ||||
| Light Oneiric | Maren Pan, Sy Brand | United Kingdom | ||||
| Lights, Like Angels, Flying | Joshua Peinado | Rodny Aquino | US | |||
| Morvan | Scott Hammen | US | [33] | |||
| A Moth Orchid Flies at Night | Maren Pan, Sy Brand | United Kingdom | ||||
| Naos | Nathaniel Dorsky | US | ||||
| Pigment-Dispersion Syndrome | Jennifer Reeves | US | ||||
| Sea Series 23 | John Price | Canada | [34] | |||
| Softly, the current may bend our bodies | Maren Pan, Sy Brand | United Kingdom/Italy | ||||
| The song nobody knows | Rainer Kohlberger | Austria | ||||
| The Sparrow Dream | Robert Beavers | Ute Aurand | Germany/USA | [35] | ||
| Tchaikovsky's Wife | Kirill Serebrennikov | Alyona Mikhaylova, Odin Biron | Russia | |||
| The Tomb of Kafka | Jean-Claude Rousseau | Jean-Claude Rousseau | France | [36] | ||
| ULTRADREAM | Guillaume Vallée | Canada | ||||
| Umbra | Daniela Muñoz Barroso | Cuba | [37] | |||
| Welcome | Jean-Claude Rousseau | France | [38] | |||
| XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX | Ken Jacobs | US | ||||
| Xilma-xil | Itamar A.C. | |||||
| W | Anna Eriksson | Anna Eriksson, Parco Lee | Finland | |||
| Mangosteen | Tulapop Saenjaroen | Thailand | [39] | |||
| Visão do Paraíso | Leonardo Pirondi | David OReilly, Douglas Goodwin, Jackson Fletcher, Dan Dixon | Brazil / USA / UK | [40] | ||
| Strangers | Rajee Samarasinghe | Sri Lanka / USA | [41] | |||
| Bold Eagle | Whammy Alcazaren | Philippines | [42] | |||
| 2023 | ||||||
| 1984 | Diana Ringo | Finland, Russia | ||||
| Lotus-Eyed Girl | Rajee Samarasinghe | Sri Lanka / United States | [43] | |||
| Coral | Sonia Oleniak | USA / Poland | [44] | |||
| Dildotectonica | Tomás Paula Marques | Portugal | [44] | |||
| and so it came about (A Tale of Consequential Dormancy) | Charlotte Pryce | USA | [44] | |||
| Nocturne for a Forest | Catarina Vasconcelos | Portugal | [44] | |||
| The Rays of a Storm | Julio Hernández Cordón | Mexico | [44] | |||
| Borrowing a Family Album | Tamer El Said | Egypt | [45] | |||
| Distortion | Frederick C.G. Borromeo | Philippines | [46] | |||
| In Visible Light | Gianmarco Donaggio | Norway/Italy | Performative Film | [47] | ||
| In Praise of Slowness | Hicham Gardaf | Khalid Mousmi, Abdellah Ben Messaoud, Fatima Benabbou | United Kingdom / Italy | [48] | ||
| Myanmar Anatomy | Prapat Jiwarangsan | United Arab Emirates / Thailand | Installation Film | [49] | ||
| yours, | Eva Giolo, Rebecca Jane Arthur, Katja Mater, Sirah Foighel Brutmann, Eitan Efrat, Maaike Neuville | Belgium | [50] | |||
| Death Mask | John Greyson | Kong Kie Njo, Spencer Britten, Jera Wolfe | Canada | [51] | ||
| Giant's Kettle | Markku Hakala, Mari Käki | Finland | ||||
| Ijen, London | Ben Rivers | UK | ||||
| When We Encounter The World | Leonardo Pirondi & Zazie Ray-Trapido | Portugal / USA | [52] | |||
| Shrooms | Jorge Jácome | Portugal | [53] | |||
| Last Things | Deborah Stratman | Valérie Massadian, Marcia Bjørnerud | France / USA / Portugal | [54] | ||
| Laika | Deborah Stratman | USA | [55] | |||
| The Wool Aliens | Julia Parks | UK | ||||
| Holographic Will | Mike Stoltz | USA | ||||
| Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke | Nishikawa Tomonari | Japan | ||||
| Dau:añcut (Moving Along Image) | Adam Piron | Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma | ||||
| Nearest Neighbor | Rebecca Baron, Douglas Goodwin | USA | [56][57] | |||
| The Zone of Interest | Jonathan Glazer | Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller | UK | [58][59] | ||
| Sermon to the Birds | Hilal Baydarov | Huseyn Nasirov, Rana Asgarova, Orkhan Iskandarli | Azerbaijan | [60] | ||
| 2024 | ||||||
| Animalia Paradoxa | Niles Atallah | Andrea Gómez | Chile | [61] | ||
| Potenciais à Deriva | Leonardo Pirondi | Brazil / USA | [62] | |||
| Pepe | Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias | Jhon Narváez, Sor María Ríos, Fareed Matjila, Harmony Ahalwa, Jorge Puntillón García | Dominican Republic / Namibia / Germany / France | [63] | ||
| Direct Action | Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell | Germany / France | [64] | |||
| Materia vibrante | Pablo Marín | Argentina | ||||
| Barrunto | Emilia Beatriz | Shanti Lalita, Harry Josephine Giles, Alicia Matthews, Ángela Ginorio | United Kingdom / Puerto Rico | [65] | ||
| Nanacatepec | Elena Pardo, Azucena Losana | Mexico / Spain | Performative Film | [66] | ||
| Remote Occlusions | Utkarsh | India / USA | [67] | |||
| Quebrante | Janaina Wagner | Brazil | [68] | |||
| Sarcophagus of Drunken Loves | Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige | France / Lebanon | [69] | |||
| I Would Rather Be a Stone | Ana Hušman | Croatia | ||||
| O Seeker | Gavati Wad | with Varun Sahni | USA / India | [70] | |||
| Um tropeço em cinco movimentos | Valentina Rosset | Brazil | ||||
| Eno | Gary Hustwit | UK / USA | [71] | |||
| Being (the Digital Griot) | Rashaad Newsome | USA | AI - Film | [72] | ||
| Detours while speaking of monsters | Deniz Şimşek | Germany / Turkey | [73] | |||
| Grandmamauntsistercat | Zuza Banasińska | Netherlands / Poland | [74] | |||
| The Instability of Clouds | Zazie Ray-Trapido | USA | [75] | |||
| Terminal Island | Sam Drake | USA | [76] | |||
| History Is Written at Night | Alejandro Alonso Estrella | Teresita Estrella Careaga | Cuba / France | [77] | ||
| Crazy Lotus | Naween Noppakun | Surat Kaewseekram, Phemsinee Sawangkla, Gorrawiya Aphipobthitikorn, Thongchai Pimapunsri | Thailand | [78] | ||
| Digital Devil Saga | Cameron Worden | USA | [79] | |||
| Break no.1 & Break no.2. | Lei Lei | China | [80] | |||
| My Want of You Partakes of Me | Beny Wagner & Sasha Litvintseva | UK/Netherlands | [81] | |||
| Single File | Simon Liu | Italy/USA/UK/Hong Kong | [81] | |||
| Invisible People | Alisa Berger | France / Germany | [82] | |||
| Appearances | Nicolás Onischuk | Argentina | [83] | |||
| 2025 | ||||||
| A Patriot of These Woods | Karel Doing | UK | [84] | |||
| A Monster with Its Mouth Agape | Steven McInerney | UK | [85] | |||
| Dandelion | Steven Subotnick | USA | [86] | |||
| . . . . Rumene zore | Davorin Marc | Slovenia | [87] | |||
| Extra Life (and Decay) | Stéphanie Lagarde | Isabelle Lagarde, Stéphanie Lagarde, Suzanne van der Schaaf, Rachele Borghi, Teresa Castro | France | [88] | ||
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