A golden age for independent film? As Hollywood turns off the blockbuster tap, small movies are flooding our screens

Indie film fans have never had so much to watch as during this pandemic, writes Geoffrey Macnab. This weekend alone gives cinemagoers 20 titles to choose from

Michael Stuhlbarg and Elisabeth Moss in psychological drama ‘Shirley’ (Curzon)

We have all heard the squeals from the UK’s beleaguered film exhibitors. Cinema owners have complained long and hard in recent weeks that there is nothing for them to show. Thanks to Covid, almost every big Hollywood title – from new Bond movie No Time To Die to Marvel’s Black Widow – is postponed until 2021. Cineworld, staggering under a mountain of debt, has closed its doors for the time being, as has Picturehouse, the art house chain that it owns. Many Odeon sites are opening only at weekends. And a quarter of Vue’s cinemas are now shut three days a week.

Weighty opinion pieces have pondered the parlous situation in which British cinemas now find themselves. Industry insiders have called for radical reform. No longer, they argue, can the business be so dependent on a handful of big US studio movies. When that tap is turned off, calamity follows.

However, this is only part of the picture. “Crisis, what crisis?” is the question many will ask when they see the avalanche of new movies being released this week. At a time when the sector is supposedly in its death throes, the UK’s cinemagoers have 20 new titles to choose from this weekend alone. There are documentaries, music movies, horror pictures and animation on offer. You'd have thought distributors would have communicated with each other and staggered their biggest releases – but the fact that it’s both Halloween and half-term has prompted the sudden rush.