8 Great Films Made On A Shoestring Budget

Sean Baker's comedy-drama Tangerine (2015) came out to rave reviews, and for good reason. Despite its small budget of $100,000, the film created a vivid and enchanting world, in which transgender sex worker Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) learns her boyfriend (James Ransone) has been cheating on her.

Rather impressively, the film was shot on an iPhone 5S, and the money they managed to save on expensive filming equipment went to the extras. Using a collection of filmmaking apps on the phone, Baker and cinematographer Radium Cheung even went through post-production on the device, and in the process created a genuinely heartfelt, powerful drama grounded in reality.

With its breezy humour and progressive portrayal of both the transgender community and sex workers, Tangerine's use of simple set pieces and its excellent acting made it one of the best indie flicks of 2015, and the kind of film that perfectly shows off just how good cinema can be without a gargantuan budget.