Cinema seems to have found its spark again in 2026, and this time, the resurgence feels harder to ignore. The feeling had been quietly building in the years after COVID-19, but never quite this strongly. Plenty of filmmakers and actors have sensed the shift, including The Heart of the Beast actor Brad Pitt, who says today’s independent cinema is “as strong as in the ’90s.”

With 39 years of professional acting behind him, Brad Pitt is practically handing today’s cinema a badge of honor.

Independent cinema appears to have remembered where it left the good stuff, and Brad Pitt has noticed. At the San Sebastián International Film Festival, The Heart of the Beast star explained why the present moment feels unusually welcoming to smaller projects. More eyes, Pitt suggested, are finally wandering toward films outside Hollywood’s usual parade.

“I think the current setup has actually been really conducive to independent cinema in a really cool way, because more eyes are getting on these projects,” he said. To that, he added, “it feels even as strong as in the ’90s.”

Pitt’s ’90s comparison (via Variety) is less nostalgic than it first sounds, because the basic attraction remains remarkably familiar. The 1990s had festivals, video stores, word-of-mouth, and discoveries such as Clerks and Pulp Fiction breaking through to wider audiences. Now, streaming platforms and creator-led online promotion have multiplied those routes, giving independent films even more ways to find their people.

The conversation also let The Heart of the Beast director David Ayer add another piece to Pitt’s puzzle. Ayer pointed to YouTube and the wider internet as new discovery pipelines, places Hollywood once kept rather politely at arm’s length. Now those spaces are producing filmmakers of their own, making Pitt’s observation about more eyes on independent cinema rather difficult to ignore.

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As Brad Pitt prepares to have audiences reaching for tissues with a man-and-dog tearjerker, the actor has another independent film waiting in the wings.

Brad Pitt is not merely talking up independent cinema; he has another indie project of his own waiting in the wings. The actor has signed on to lead The Riders, an adaptation of Tim Winton’s novel that is being fully financed and distributed by A24. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Edward Berger, known for All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave, is directing.

The Riders is scheduled to begin production in early 2026 across multiple European locations, giving Brad Pitt another chance to step into the kind of filmmaker-driven project he has been championing. With A24 backing the film and Edward Berger behind the camera, the adaptation brings together some serious independent-film credentials. Perhaps Pitt’s ’90s comparison is not nostalgia after all.

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Do you think today's indie films are as strong as they were in the '90s? Let us know in the comments!