Hidden Figures (2016)

Based on a true story, Hidden Figures focuses on three female mathematicians who worked for NASA during the Space Race. Despite their brilliance as individuals, their careers were stifled as a result of racial prejudice and segregation.

Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe star alongside Kevin Costner, who portrays the director of the Space Task Group. Meanwhile, Kirsten Dunst is oddly cast as an unsympathetic supervisor.

The film combines their stories with that of the space race itself, bringing to life the nail-biting events of John Glenn’s first American orbital spaceflight. 

There's no getting away from the seriousness of the subject matter, but there are funny and tender moments too.