CULTURED Editors Pick 9 Indie Films for Summer 2026

CULTURED magazine's editors have selected nine independent films to watch in summer 2026, ranging from horror to comedy. Highlights include Kane Parsons' 'Backrooms' (May 29), a two-hander starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve about a man disappearing into an impossible room; Annapurna Sriram's 'Fucktoys' (May 29), a John Waters-inspired odyssey about a sex worker; John Early's directorial debut 'Maddie's Secret' (June 19), a comedy about a food influencer; Adrian Chiarella's 'Leviticus' (June 19), a conversion therapy thriller that premiered at Sundance; Olivia Wilde's 'The Invite' (June 19), an adult sex comedy acquired by A24 after a Sundance bidding war; Lucio Castro's 'Drunken Noodles' (June 26), a queer magical realist film set in Brooklyn; Karim Aïnouz's 'Rosebush Pruning' (July 24), a tragicomedy about an American family in Catalonia starring Elle Fanning and Jamie Bell; Gregg Araki's 'I Want Your Sex' (July 31), a return to form for the New Queer Cinema legend; and Kent Jones' 'Late Fame' (August 7), starring Willem Dafoe as a forgotten literary figure. The list also notes smaller releases like 'Fucktoys' and 'Drunken Noodles' that lack major distribution.