Hidden Gems 2025 (Clockwise from top left): 'Lesbian Space Princess,' 'The Last Viking,' 'The Ballad of Wallis Island,' 'The Botanist' (C) We Made A Thing Studios/TrustNordisk/Alistair Heap/Arsin Meiyu/Monologue Films Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on Reddit Post a Comment Share on Whats App Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Print the Article Share on Tumblr With the race for the Oscars starting to narrow, and a small cadre of frontrunners monopolizing all the hot takes and column inches, The Hollywood Reporter wants to spare some time for those films that got overlooked this year. The hidden gems that we loved but, for whatever reason, failed to light up awards season or catch fire at the box office. We've polled our critics, reporters, and trusted tastemakers to come up with an oddball collection of cinema delights - from European art house to Asian animation to low-budget U.S. horror - that got lost in the shuffle but deserve another look. Afternoons of Solitude Image Credit: Courtesy of Films Boutique In this immersive documentary, Catalan director Albert Serra uses the same stripped-down slow-cinema techniques he perfected in his 2022 drama breakout Pacifiction - the long takes, the contemplative silences, the quasi-dream mood - to craft a beguiling portrait of Andrés Roca Rey, a 27-year-old Peruvian bullfighter who has become a star in the scene. While never downplaying the brutality of a blood sport performed as high art, Serra gives a masterclass in tone and texture that transforms a controversial tradition into a hypnotic study of ego and mortality. Dragonfly Image Credit: Courtesy of EIFF Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn dazzle in this bleak and shocking slice of British kitchen-sink drama that takes a surprising twist. Paul Andrew Williams' movie follows Elisie, and elderly woman living in a drab housing complex (Blethyn) who gets help from her next door neighbor Colleen (Riseborough), arousing feelings of jealousy and resentment from Elsie's son John (Jason Watkins). What feels like a Ken Loach social drama makes bold and surprising tonal shift into the horror genre in the final reel. Riseborough and Blethyn are at the top of their game (they got a joint best acting award at Tribeca) and the film's final jolt lingers in the memory. Drowning Dry Image Credit: Courtesy of Locarno Film Festival Lithuanian director Laurynas Bareiša follows up his Venice winner Pilgrims (2021) with an even more haunting sophomore feature that cements his status as a major new voice in Baltic cinema. Using a fragmented, non-linear structure that jumps around like a misremembered dream, Bareiša tracks two sisters and their families during a fateful lakeside retreat where macho posturing and petty domestic tensions give way to a sudden, devastating tragedy. Drowning Dry won best director and best performance honors for its cast at Locarno last year. While its pacing and elliptical structure might not be for everyone, this is a masterful study of how trauma ripples through time, and rewards a patient re-watch. Ghost Trail Image Credit: Music Box Films/Courtesy Everett Collection In this, his debut feature, director Jonathan Millet eschews the high-octane tropes of the espionage genre for a restrained, slow-burning thriller that trades in psychological complexity. Adam Bessa delivers a standout, internalized performance as Hamid, a former Syrian professor turned member of a secret cell of exiles tracking war criminals living in Europe. When he believes he has located his former torturer (Tawfeek Barhom) in Strasbourg, the film shifts into a tense game of cat-and-mouse that relies on Hamid's ability to identify his monster using only his sensory memories - the sound of the man's voice, his smell - rather than gadgets or gunfire. It's a sophisticated exploration of survivor's guilt and the grueling moral cost of seeking justice in the shadows. Holy Cow In her spirited, and César-nominated debut, writer-director Louise Courvoisier delivers a scrapy and rowdy coming-of-age story set in the high-stakes world of artisanal cheesemaking. The film follows Totone (Clément Faveau), an 18-year-old forced into sudden adulthood and the care of his younger sister after their father's death. Driven by the need for money to keep their farm, Totone and his friends attempt to produce a prize-winning Comté cheese for a local competition. Featuring a cast of non-professional actors, the film captures the sun-drenched, rustic charm of France's Jura region with a story that manages to be both crudely funny and sweetly touching. It Ends Image Credit: Jazleana Jones/Courtesy of Snoot Entertainment A road trip among childhood friends turns into a long drive through hell - and a powerful metaphor for the existential dread of a generation that fears it has no future. More conceptual horror than gory nail-biter, It Ends follows friends on a late-night food run w