And the Nominees are...

It's a happy day for the Court 13 and Cinereach team, here at Beasts HQ.

This morning, the nominees for the 85th Annual Academy Awards were announced and we are thrilled and honored to have been included amongst a field of such amazing films and filmmakers.

Beasts of the Southern Wild has been nominated for:

Best Picture

Best Director, Behn Zeitlin

Best Actress, Quvenzhané Wallis

Best Adapted Screenplay, Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin

This recognition would truly not have been possible withoutthe incredible support of our Beasts family. You heeded our call, you told your friends and family about the film; you watched it in cinemas again and again; you facebooked, tweeted, tumbled and shouted about it to anyone who would listen. You showed the world how to Beast it and we can't thank you enough for that.  Congratulations to you and to all the nominees.

The awards show will be broadcast live on Sunday, Feb 24th on ABC.

The 2013 Oscar nominees are:

Best Picture "Argo" "Django Unchained" "Les Miserables" "Life of Pi" "Amour" "Lincoln" "Silver Linings Playbook" "Zero Dark Thirty" "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Actor in a Leading Role Bradley Cooper - "Silver Linings Playbook" Daniel Day-Lewis - "Lincoln" Hugh Jackman - "Les Miserables" Joaquin Phoenix - "The Master" Denzel Washington - "Flight"

Actress in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain - "Zero Dark Thirty" Jennifer Lawrence - "Silver Linings Playbook" Emmanuelle Riva - "Amour" Quvenzhané Wallis - "Beasts of Southern Wild" Naomi Watts - "The Impossible"

Actor in a Supporting Role Alan Arkin - "Argo" Robert De Niro - "Silver Linings Playbook" Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Master" Tommy Lee Jones - "Lincoln" Christoph Waltz - "Django Unchained"

Actress in a Supporting Role Amy Adams - "The Master" Sally Field - "Lincoln" Anne Hathaway - "Les Miserables" Helen Hunt - "The Sessions" Jackie Weaver - "Silver Linings Playbook"

Animated Feature Film "Brave" "Frankenweenie" "ParaNorman" "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" "Wreck-It Ralph"

Directing "Amour" - Michael Haneke "Beasts of the Southern Wild" - Benh Zeitlin "Life of Pi" - Ang Lee "Lincoln" - Steven Spielberg "Silver Linings Playbook" - David O. Russell

Writing - Original Screenplay "Amour" - Michael Haneke "Django Unchained" - Quentin Tarantino "Flight" - John Gatins "Moonrise Kingdom" - Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola "Zero Dark Thirty" - Mark Boal

Writing - Adapted Screenplay "Argo" - Chris Terrio "Beasts of the Southern Wild" - Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin "Life of Pi" - David Magee "Lincoln" - Tony Kushner "Silver Linings Playbook" - David O. Russell

Music - Original Song "Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice," music and lyrics by J. Ralph "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" from "Ted," music by Walter Murphy, lyrics by Seth MacFarlane "Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi," music by Mychael Danna, lyrics by Bombay Jayashri "Skyfall" from "Skyfall," music and lyrics by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth "Suddenly" from "Les Miserables," music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Foreign Language Film "Amour" (Austria) "Kon-Tiki" (Norway) "No" (Chile) "A Royal Affair" (Denmark) "War Witch" (Canada)

Cinematography "Anna Karenina" "Django Unchained" "Life of Pi" "Lincoln" "Skyfall"

Costume Design "Anna Karenina" "Les Miserables" "Lincoln" "Mirror Mirror" "Snow White and the Huntsman"

Documentary - Feature "5 Broken Cameras" "The Gatekeepers" "How to Survive a Plague" "The Invisible War" "Searching for Sugar Man"

Documentary - Short "Inocente" "Kings Point" "Mondays at Racine" "Open Heart" "Redemption"

Film Editing "Argo" "Life of Pi" "Lincoln" "Silver Linings Playbook" "Zero Dark Thirty"

Makeup And Hairstyling "Hitchcock" "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" "Les Miserables"

Music - Original Score "Anna Karenina" "Argo" "Life of Pi" "Lincoln" "Skyfall"

Production Design "Anna Karenina" "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" "Les Miserables" "Life of Pi" "Lincoln"

Short Film - Animated "Adam and Dog" "Fresh Guacamole" "Head over Heels" "Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare'" "Paperman"

Short Film - Live Action "Asad" "Buzkashi Boys" "Curfew" "Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)" "Henry"

Sound Editing "Argo" "Django Unchained" "Life of Pi" "Skyfall" "Zero Dark Thirty"

Sound Mixing "Argo" "Les Miserables" "Life of Pi" "Lincoln" "Skyfall"

Visual Effects "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" "Life of Pi" "Marvel's The Avengers" "Prometheus" "Snow White and the Huntsman"

Below the Line: The Beasts

The New York Times takes a closer look at the 'Beasts' of Beasts of the Southern Wild in this Awards Season Carpetbagger feature:

“The big challenge was always to not make it look like a pig, but to show as much of the actual animal as possible,” Mr. Tintori said. “In some of the earliest versions of the costume, there was too much fabric on top of the animal. But what reads best on film is seeing the light hit the skin and hair and see all the muscles moving. That was something, with our budget, we couldn’t replicate in CG.”

Via New York Times

Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Visual Arts

Benh Zeitlin receives the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Visual Arts tonight at a special ceremony in Washington, DC.  The awards recognize and honor individuals who have exemplified innovation in a range of fields including social progress, natural and physical sciences, education, technology and youth achievement. Among the honorees are: Jack Andraka, a high school senior who has invented a way to detect a lethal type of cancer; Anne Kelly Knowles, a history enthusiast who challenges the way we look at geography and its historical influence; and Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who has dedicated his life to giving a voice to youth behind bars.  The full list of honorees can be found here.

Benh was profiled by Smithonsian.com to discuss how his unconventional approach to filmmaking.

"Beasts is Zeitlin’s feature film debut, a small miracle of deliberate outsider art that entranced and exhilarated audiences during its limited theatrical run this past summer. Unruly, unbound by studios or the usual Hollywood conventions, this paean to childhood perception and human resilience exists in its own hermetically sealed world, physically and metaphorically. Zeitlin made the movie on a $1.8 million shoestring in southern Louisiana with hand-held 16-millimeter cameras, jury-rigged sets, untrained actors and a grass-roots collective of artists from around the country. By ignoring received wisdom and gambling on his own powers of invention, he offered further proof that innovation is about breaking rules."

Congratulations to all the honorees.  It is truly an honor to be recognized amongst so many amazing people who are changing the world for the better.

You can read the full article here.

Beasts on Award Season

Tonight marks the official start of what the film industry calls awards season, beginning with the New York based fete, the IFP Gotham Film Awards.  Beasts is nominated for 3 awards including the Gotham Audience Award, which is the most important one for us considering your contribution to our nomination!

We are humbled to be part of the awards conversation and so excited for the actors and crew who are being recognized for their work on Beasts. Beyond the accolades, awards season buzz allows us to get more coverage about the movie and ultimately share it with a larger audience.

Quvenzhané Wallis and Benh Zeitlin were recently interviewed about awards season for the November issue of The Wrap where Benh had this to say about his star:

"You know she takes it in stride...She doesn't have this ultimate goal in life to win this and that if it doesn't happen it's a disaster.  And her parents keep her grounded.  She's not doing campaigning during the week.  She's staying in school and not letting it take over her life.  I think she's starting to sense what it means, but not in a way that it feels like she has to stop being herself or stop living the life that she already has."

Read the full article here.

Quvenzhané Wallis receives Key to the City!

In a ceremony last night, Quvenzhané Wallis was acknowledged and honored with the key to her hometown, Houma in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, for her work in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

It's a proud moment for everyone at Beasts HQ!

Photo via Fox Searchlight