Video rental service and Gift Shop merchant Netflix announced a deal this week that will bring more than 300 independent movies to its Instant Watch streaming video service. The movies will be coming from distributors The Criterion Collection, Gravitas Ventures, Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, Oscilloscope Laboratories, and Regent Releasing. 

A sampling of the new movies as mentioned the press release include:

• Departures - Yojiro Takita's 2009 Academy Award® winner for best foreign language film
• Wendy and Lucy - the poignant 2008 tale of a woman and her dog on the edge starring Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams
• A Nos Amours and Au Revoir Les Enfants - two classics of French independent cinema
• Good Dick - a modern fairy tale from 2008 written by, directed and starring Scottish-born Marianna Palka
• As It Is in Heaven - the 2004 Swedish hit and foreign language Oscar nominee about a famous conductor and the church choir he inspires
• Seraphine - the 2009 biopic about the brilliant, self-taught French painter Seraphine Louis

Some are available now, and others will be available later this year.

Instant Watch has become a very popular aspect of the Netflix service. It was introduced in January 2008, and now has a large selection of movies and TV shows that can be watched on your computer as well as various Netflix-enabled devices, including several Blu-ray players (like the LG BD 370), TVs, the Xbox 360 and PS3 game consoles (Nintendo Wii coming this Spring), and set-top boxes like the Roku HD Player.

Any Netflix membership of $8.99 or higher includes the Instant Watch feature at no additional charge, which makes it a nice value-added option for Netflix members.

If you already have a membership, you can try it out now!

If you haven't yet tried Netflix, click here to get a free trial of the service, which includes access to the Instant Watch feature!

Source: Netflix Press Release