Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a 2012 American fantasy-drama film directed, co-written, and co-scored by Benh Zeitlin. It was adapted by Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar from Alibar's one-act play Juicy and Delicious. The film stars Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry. After playing at film festivals, its limited theatrical release began in New York and Los Angeles on June 27, 2012, before expanding to additional markets. Beasts of the Southern Wild was met with commercial success and acclaim from critics, with praise going to the cinematography and Wallis's performance. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2013: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actress (Wallis). At age 9, Wallis became the youngest Best Actress nominee in history. Plot Six-year-old Hushpuppy and her ailing, hot-tempered father Wink live in a small community on an island in the Louisiana bayou called the "Bathtub". Although it lies beyond the levee system that helps protect the land to the north from rising sea levels, Wink thinks it is the most beautiful place in the world and looks down on the way people live on the other side of the levee. In a rustic community schoolhouse, Miss Bathsheba teaches the children of the Bathtub about prehistoric creatures called aurochs that terrorized cavemen and ate their children. She says the cavemen did not bemoan their fate, however, and the students should remember this lesson and learn how to survive, since the fabric of the universe will soon come "unraveled", causing the ice caps to melt and the Bathtub to end up underwater.