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By purchasing billboards and Super Bowl advertisements, promoting movie stars on talk shows, and holding glamorous red carpet premieres to introduce the newest films to the public, the film industry typically succeeds in creating a good deal of buzz for its products. Although smaller films typically have a harder time making an impression under normal circumstances, 2020 wasn’t like previous years for reasons you’re probably sick of reading about. Basically, anything that wasn’t spelled T-E-N-E-T forward and backward didn’t make much of an impression on the public’s mind.

For this reason, the Variety crew collaborated to determine which 2020 films might have slipped your mind. From Netflix comfort food (“The Half of It”) to a documentary that challenges you to spend less time in front of your devices (“Screened Out”), the list’s suggestions are diverse. The majority of these films went directly to streaming due to the distribution situation this year, and they are all currently available there. Look no farther than these hidden gems if you’re looking for something a little more unique than the typical “best of the year” lists.

The Ascent
Lifelong friends The feature debut of Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin seems like the kind of film that, if it had been released in a typical year, would have caused a little sensation. “The Climb” follows two men whose relationship is put to the strain when one of them chooses to marry and the other approaches his fiancée. This portrayal of two friends in need of a split, which is told in a sequence of single-shot vignettes, is frequently humorous, uncomfortable, and never reductive. —

Goodbye, Love
A sophisticated and enlightening portrayal of an African family is presented in Ekwa Msangi’s directorial debut. Msangi’s tale of an Angolan immigrant family reunited in New York is a rich illustration of the kind of stories that are rarely recounted; it combines pain with even more spirit. One of the year’s best-kept secrets that deserves greater attention is the IFC Films film, which is supported by three outstanding performances from Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah, and rookie Jayme Lawson. Clayton Davis

The Version from Forty Years Ago
Radha Blank’s Charmer, which was shot in black and white and on film, was influenced by movies that depicted her own New York. In addition to its hip-hop beat, the film’s unique viewpoint—focusing on the city’s black and brown residents—reminds viewers that it’s never too late to pursue your goals as long as you have faith in your own abilities.

Just Half of It
Although it was worth the wait, it took Alice Wu fifteen years to follow up on her first movie, “Saving Face.” Hopefully, this exceptional artist won’t take so long to release her next film. Leah Lewis portrays a shy Asian adolescent who discovers her sexuality when she is asked to court her infatuation (Alexis Lemire) for the school jock (Daniel Diemer) in this queer twist on the “Cyrano” tale. Each character in this Netflix gem in the rough defies simple expectations. J

I am your woman.
Writer-director Julia Hart divided critics by reorienting the attention of her exquisitely burnished period drama from the crime scene to characters on the outside of the action. While I was intrigued and rewarded by its counterintuitive dramatic choices, its remixing of genre gender politics, and Rachel Brosnahan’s steely, unexpected performance in the lead, others thought this character study of an ignorant gangster’s wife who was forced out of her home due to her husband’s mistakes was too low-key for its own good.

The lapse
Noah Hutton’s narrative debut tapped into the misery of contemporary employment in this absurdist sci-fi fable, as contract workers struggle to make ends meet and 5G conspiracy theories go viral in the real world. Despite the fact that grateful audiences would ultimately discover it, “Lapsis” undoubtedly would have benefited greatly from its SXSW premiere had the festival not been abruptly canceled. Consider it “Office Space” for the generation of the gig economy.

The French language
One of the two Filipina immigration stories published this year is that of Isabel Sandoval (see also “Yellow Rose,” below). Here, Sandoval highlights the intricate problem of sexual identification by juggling his roles as writer, director, producer, and star: She portrays Olivia, a transgender person who wants to obtain her green card through love but faces deportation if discovered because ICE is omnipresent. This grim tale, which is currently available on Netflix, is told by Sandoval in collaboration with DP Isaac Banks. — Tangcay Jazz

Although Miss Juneteenth, the feature directorial debut of writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples, is titled after the holiday known as “Black Independence Day” or “Freedom Day,” it is ultimately about independence rather than history. The drama, which made its Sundance debut, centers on Turquoise Jones (played by Nicole Beharie in a stunning but subtle performance), a former Miss Juneteenth pageant queen who finds her own sense of independence after her aspirations to leave her Texas hometown were postponed after she became a single mother.

Retaliation
Orlando Bloom, a former matinee idol, made a big impression this summer in Rod Lurie’s amazing, true-life war film “The Outpost,” but his portrayal of Malky in this small Irish indie film, which takes a heartbreaking psychological approach to the Catholic Church’s reckoning, is the performance that will truly blow you away. Playwright Geoff Thompson exposes the scar tissue caused by abuse beneath modern notions of masculinity by preaching forgiveness as being more potent than retaliation. That is intimidating in and of itself, but it takes an actor with Bloom’s level of dedication to pull it off.

Manage Your Hulu TV Show
Co-writer Sev Ohanian and writer-director Aneesh Chaganty’s tightly packed thriller is just as nerve-racking as the critically acclaimed movie “Searching.” Kiera Allen, who actually uses a wheelchair, is one of the year’s biggest discoveries in “Run,” which stars Sarah Paulson as a mother who may be abusing her daughter to keep her reliant on her. —

Removed from the Screen
The terrible combination of technology and social-political isolation was the subject of a particularly compelling set of documentaries this year. Although “The Social Dilemma” received the most attention, Jon Hyatt’s insightful examination of screen addiction in the era of mobile technology is the one you just must see. Because cellphones were made to rewire our brains, they become actual extensions of our physical selves, making us Pavlovian test subjects addicted to the next rush of pleasure. According to former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, “Screened Out” is the most incisive examination to date of how that itching/scratch cycle “is ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.” — G

Straightforward
James Sweeney, the writer and director, created a comedy that is antically emancipated, but strangely, it is all about repression, just like its time. Sweeney portrays a gay software coder named Todd, whose ideas flow out of him like a confessional word salad. His entire personality is a type of obsessive-compulsive condition, which is the crudely serious humor in the movie. As a result, the film becomes a high-wire romance that skewers the comedy of 21st-century orthodoxy when Todd, who dislikes sex because he finds it too dirty, assumes he must be straight and starts dating Rory (Katie Findlay). With a style that would make Ben Hecht smile, Sweeney brings the screwball attitude up to date for the digital millennials of today, who think more quickly than they can comprehend. —