Even in France and China it gets a massive box office despite the language barrier. Last year Furious 7, and the Avengers and Jurassic World sequels were in the top six in both countries. And lo and behold, Stars Wars: the Force Awakens, Minions and Spectre were alongside them in the top six in France and the francophone countries.

So how do you pitch a festival of American independent cinema to the sceptical punter who doesn't think they need to see more American movies? Or who doesn't hold Hollywood in high regard?

A mention of relatively recent indie greats such as Lost in Translation, Memento, Donnie Darko, Reservoir Dogs (the film that announced Quentin Tarantino), or Waking Life won't go astray. The best indies are often as adventurous in form as they are in content.

Established mainstream actors return to the indie sector and sometimes accomplish some of their best work there. Richard Gere, whose career has at times been indifferent, makes an appearance as a homeless man in the film Time Out of Mind. Set in a New York captured naturalistically in deep focus and described by the trade magazine Variety as a "haunting piece of urban poetry", it is due to open a new festival of American independent film at Palace cinema during May.

Time Out of Mind directed by Oren Moverman is the first film off the block at the inaugural festival of American indie cinema, Essential Independents: American Cinema, Now, opening this month.

A couple of indie westerns on the program also disclose a star presence or two. Sam Worthington took time off from Avatar for The Keeping Room and Natalie Portman appears alongside her Star Wars co-star Ewan McGregor in Jane Got a Gun.

Despite these actors opting for a low profile here, the indie is of course not about stars of high concepts or expensive special effects and the commercial bottom line. It's about message, sensibility and the adventurousness in form and content that is to be seen in films such as The Fits, Machine Gun, or Typewriter and Sixty Six, a labour of love that took 13 years to make.

Richard Sowada, artistic director of the Essential Independents festival, has curated a fine combination of American indies both current and classic, fiction feature and documentary, that should go some distance towards establishing a point of difference between Hollywood and the independent tradition. His program also includes documentaries such as the last film made by the great American documentarian Albert Maysles and a doco revisiting country music icon Johnny Cash.

So what is distinctive about the American indie film? It is vibrant, urgent and honest, says Sowada, and has a unique level of awareness of the creative tradition in which it is embedded. A respect for films that have gone before, is what he really likes about American independent cinema. "It's what's so good about films from a strong filmic culture. They do look back, and they do take the lessons from the masters and incorporate them into their works."

Economy is another trait. In terms of running time, American indies are usually "brief and to the point", he observes. "Even the longest in the program is only two hours long. Everything else, even including from the 1970s and '60s, clocks in at 90 minutes or less. And that comes from the commercial tradition... You just hit the audience with everything you've got, there's half a dozen knock-out blows in there... And then you say goodbye."

Like the short film, the indie can often be the brave and ambitious calling card for the aspiring creative.

It can kick-start acting careers. Since appearing in Donnie Darko in 2001, actor Jake Gyllenhaal can take his pick of roles. It was a film from the indie sector that also launched the careers of Scarlett Johansson and Kirsten Dunst. They had both been around a while before they became big names, thanks to the impact of Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides, respectively. Both, as it happens, directed by Sofia Coppola. The Virgin Suicides screens in the "essential originals" section of the festival.

Other curated definitive indies represent a defining career moment from some of today's top filmmakers. The Coen brothers' neo-noir Blood Simple was their first ever film, a first-time filmmaker statement if ever there was one. Stranger Than Paradise, also released in 1984, that was a huge boost to the reputation of Jim Jarmusch (Ghost Dog) and vampire horror Near Dark, the first solo feature from Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker). Slacker, an early feature from Austin-based filmmaker Richard Linklater also appears. Linklater brought us the recent coming of age Boyhood and sublime relationship Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight trilogy.

Sowada groups the American indie sector into three strands: films of New York, Austin (Texas) and San Francisco. Films from New York feature on this occasion, under the rubric "Essential New York". Cruising is a harshly realistic thriller with Al Pacino as an officer of the NYPD on the trail of a serial killer. I recall this William Friedkin piece being confronting in its authenticity. A different kind of grittiness characterises The French Connection with Gene Hackman, also by Friedkin. Its chase sequence remains one of the best of all time.

An indispensable classic of the great American independent tradition, Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger) will also screen. A small-time hustler (Dustin Hoffman) and a male prostitute (Jon Voight) drift together and become friends who look after each other on the mean streets of New York. It is immensely moving, unforgettable really. It won the Oscar for best film in 1969 and, despite this mainstream endorsement, is still one of the most iconic indies ever.

Essential Independents: American Cinema, Now screens between May 19 and June 1 at Palace Electric, New Acton.