10 Recent Movies Nobody Saw Coming

When low-budget alcoholism drama To Leslie premiered at the SXSW festival in March 2022, nobody could've anticipated it would end up at the Academy Awards less than a year later.

Though the film was enthusiastically reviewed by press at the festival, with particular acclaim for Andrea Riseborough's lead performance, it was impossible to fathom such a small film about such a bleak subject maintaining fanfare and momentum for an entire year.

And in fairness, To Leslie was more-or-less forgotten until early 2023, when the film's director, Michael Morris, launched an unorthodox awards campaign for Riseborough, in light of distributor Momentum Pictures lacking the funds to mount a conventional one.

Morris relied upon celebrity friends such as Kate Winslet and Edward Norton to help promote the film to Oscar voters, and against considerable odds, Riseborough indeed received a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

The nomination certainly wasn't without controversy - due to both Riseborough's unconventional, ambush-style campaign and the fact that several expected nominees-of-colour were "snubbed" - yet many also celebrated its boldness in bucking the traditional, expensive system of awards campaigning.

What an outcome for a film that grossed a whopping $31,543 theatrically.