USA / 2012 / 93mins / Drama, Fantasy / English

In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl, Hushpuppy, exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural order is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

Benh Zeitlin

Ben Zeitlin, filmmaker, composer, and animator, was born in Manhattan and raised in Sunnyside, Queens, and in suburban Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. He is a graduate of Hastings High School and Wesleyan University. He was born to writers and folklorists Mary Amanda Dargan and Steven Joel Zeitlin, who founded the NYC non-profit cultural organization City Lore. In 2004, Zeitlin co-founded the Court 13 independent collection of filmmakers. Zeitlin and his younger sister Eliza moved to New Orleans while he was making his first short film, Glory at Sea, in 2008. In 2012, Zeitlin's first feature, Beasts of the Southern Wild, adapted from a play entitled Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar, won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Deauville American Film Festival. Zeitlin both directed Beasts of the Southern Wild and co-composed the score. He has also received nominations for two Academy Awards at the 85th Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay and the film itself was nominated for Best Picture. Learn More