Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
The 2012 Grand Jury Prize winner was made with a shoestring budget and a flood of passion from its novice director. Lisa Schwarzbaum said of Beasts, ''The wonder is, the whole movie resists categorization. A feat of homemade, collaborative filmmaking, it was directed by the (29-year-old) Wesleyan-educated first-timer Benh Zeitlin from a script he co-wrote with Lucy Alibar based on her own play.... The movie is small, local, and idiosyncratic.'' Though the Bathtub-set indie got into some hot water with the unions for its casting policies, and its enigmatic concept seemed like box office poison, Beasts did steady business throughout the latter half of 2012. The film ultimately scored four Oscar nods — including a historic one for 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, who was just 6 during filming. It seems summer moviegoers found a new kind of superhero in Beasts' heroine Hushpuppy. —Lanford Beard
Image Credit: Jess Pinkham
14 Influential Sundance Movies
Look back at some of the films that got a boost in Park City, then shook up audiences and the industry, from ''Stranger Than Paradise'' to ''Precious'' and ''Beasts of the Southern Wild''
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