The first of this winter season’s line-up of feature films in the GPLT Movie Series is Beasts of the Southern Wild which won 4 awards at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, 2 awards at Sundance including the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) and the Cinematography Award, and a long list of awards at other festivals including the Golden Puffin Award at the 2011 Reykjavik International Film Festival in Iceland for the film’s “spirit of storytelling, visual inventiveness and creative audacity, which marks [Director] Benh Zeitlin as a leading figure for the next generation of independent film artists.”
This hard-to-categorize drama stars Quvenzhané Wallis who was 5 when she auditioned for the role of Hushpuppy, but this isn’t a film for young children since it has a PG rating with advisories of Mature Subject Matter and Disturbing Content. She’ll be 9 in January when the Academy Award nominations are announced and there’s widespread speculation that she could become the youngest ever nominee for a Best Actress Oscar.
The part of Wink, Hushpuppy’s Daddy, is played by Dwight Henry, a baker who Zeitlin felt was perfect for the role. Casting two untrained actors in the lead roles of his first feature was a risk that has paid off for Zeitlin.
To hear Zeitlin talk about how he cast and worked with his two lead actors, check out the following interview:
Underlying these powerful performances is a stunning music score.
To learn more about the filmmaking team and how the film was made, check out the “Making Of” video below.
Tickets are $10 ($5 for students) and are available at the door or in advance at the GPLT Box Office.
