Grand Jury Prize Winner: 2012 Sundance Film Festival
Camera d’Or: 2012 Cannes International Film Festival

Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father Wink in “The Bathtub,” a Southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink’s tough love prepares his daughter for the unraveling of the universe and a time when he’s no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack—temperatures rise and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink’s health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD exists entirely in its own universe: mythological, anthropological, folkloric and apocalyptic. Benh Zeitlin’s first feature (a Sundance Institute Feature Film Program project) employs a cast of non-actors—reflecting its grassroots production—to fiercely portray the bond between father and daughter in a world where only the strong survive. Standing defiantly at the end of the world, Hushpuppy affirms the dignity of telling their story: that they were once there…. (Sundance Film Festival Program Guide)

“The standout of this year’s Sundance and among the best films to play at the festival in two decades.” —Manohla Dargis, New York Times