15 Best Hidden Gem Movies Of 2017

A movie up for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards might not seem to fit the criteria of a ‘hidden gem’ but let’s be honest: the Best Foreign Film winner isn’t exactly the movie most people are talking about around the water cooler the next day.

Besides, even in a pretty big year for LGBT cinema with films like fellow hidden gem Beach Rats and fellow Oscar nominee Call Me by Your Name it’s always good to shine a bit more light on such an oft-neglected genre and in particular a film with a transgender protagonist played by an actual transgender actress.

That actress is Daniela Vega, Chile’s first openly transgender actress, and she plays Maria – a transgender woman who after the death of her partner Orlando comes up against mistreatment from both his family and wider society as she fights for her right to mourn her significant other.

A powerful portrait of grief and alienation bolstered by Vega’s nuanced and captivating performance in a world she clearly knows very well, A Fantastic Woman – as a film about a person cinema so rarely cares to portray – is more than worthy of our attention.