For its 'Eye on the Oscars 2013: Best Picture' series, Variety gathered some of the film reviews that have been written since the release of Beasts of the Southern Wild. Read them here and let us know if you agree or disagree!
Benh Zeitlin on The Colbert Report!
"My guest tonight is a director, who at the age of 26 directed his first feature film which has now been nominated for four Oscars. I will pretend that I'm happy for him." - Stephen Colbert
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Last night, director Benh Zeitlin was a guest on Beasts HQ favorite, The Colbert Report. The interview was as funny and insightful as we hoped it would be.
In the clip above, Benh and Stephen discuss the BP oil spill that occurred the first day of shooting, using animal crackers on set as currency and what Oscar category Benh hopes we'll win.
Quvenzhané Wallis graces the cover of Entertainment Weekly
Quvenzhané-Entertainment-Weekly
E Weekly inside page 1
Our girl Quvenzhané Wallis graces the cover of this year's Entertainment Weekly Special Oscar Guide 2013 issue and we just had to share the spread! Benh Zeitlin says of his star:
She's an incredibly wise and strong human being...When we're on set, I can talk to her like an adult and she'll talk to me like an adult. It's strange - she can sort of swap being a little kid and being the most sophisticated person you can imagine.
E Weekly inside page 2 - best director
Benh was also featured in the same issue where he explains, "The movie is about survival and the power of this little girl".
From Baker to Beasts and Back
The New York Times recently sent journalist Melena Ryzik to visit Dwight Henry at his now famous bakery, The Buttermilk Drop, down in New Orleans. Mr. Henry reveals that while he was hesitant to take the role (in fact, he turned it down twice), it was the Beast team's adamant belief in his talent that convinced him to take the part.
"They felt I was the perfect person for this part. But I could not take it, as much as I wanted to, as much as I wanted to take the part, to move for two and a half months like they needed me to do, to sacrifice a business I was working so hard to pass on to my kids for a possible movie career that..I don't know where it's gonna take me. But I know where my bakery's gonna take me. After turning them down twice, they had me believing I was the only person in the world that could play this part, and I thought back to the time when I was first trying to open up my business, when nobody believed in me. I got turned down by every finance company, every bank, every friend, every family member and for these guys to come from New York, don't know nothing about me, to put their whole budget, their whole film into me and a young six year old girl's hands that had never acted. That meant a lot to me."
Though the film's success has opened plenty of Hollywood doors, Mr. Henry's first and last love is still his bakery. He tells Ryzik that even when in Los Angeles to receive an award or make a publicity appearance, he feels the Buttermilk Drop calling and makes it his first stop off the plane. He says, "This place..I worked hard for it. I'm magnetized to it."
Lucky for us, Mr. Henry will soon get to call New York his second home when his famous buttermilk drops debut in Harlem in Spring 2013.
Check out the full interview here.
The Nonprofit Behind Beasts
The making of Beasts of the Southern Wild has become a bit of an industry fairytale on its own. Conceived by two childhood friends, created by a group of artists, filmmakers and friends, shot on the fringe of the world with a cast of first time actors including a baker and a six year old child, Beasts was a up hill journey that took almost half a decade to make. Part of the fable also includes a nonprofit organization and film production company, Cinereach, who financed the bulk of the Beasts budget.
Nonprofit Quarterly takes a closer look at the organization that helped bring Beasts to the big screen:
Few in Hollywood have paid much attention to these nonprofit film companies, which are Davids among the Goliaths of the major studios. But, particularly with the attention to Beasts of the Southern Wild, perhaps we’re witnessing a change. Perhaps these smaller nonprofits—willing to take risks that the Hollywood market system might never green light, such as a film without professional actors—will begin to attract more attention for their ability to serve as bastions of true art in film.
Read the full article here.