BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD wins at Cannes!

May 29, 2012

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Wins at Cannes!
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MFF Selections THE SOURCE, UNDER AFRICAN SKIES, TCHOUPITOULAS, DETROPIA to play at Silverdocs!

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BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Wins FIPRESCI Prize, Caméra d'Or, and Ecumenical Jury Mention at Cannes!

2012 Cannes International Film Festival

MFF alum Behn Zeitlin's BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD won the FIPRESCI prize and Caméra d'Or at the 2012 International Cannes Film Festival. The film also received a special mention from the Cannes Ecumenical Jury.

FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique, or International Federation of Film Critics) is one of the three juries at Cannes (the other two being the official jury and the Ecumenical jury). It was founded in 1930 and awards prizes to exceptional films at several festivals including Cannes, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Venice International Film Festival, and the Warsaw International Film Festival.

The Caméra d'Or ("Golden Camera") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections. This year's prize was awarded to Behn Zeitlin for BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD also received a special mention from the Cannes Ecumenical Jury, which has bestowed an independent film award to feature films at Cannes since 1974. The purpose of the award is to "honor works of artistic quality which witnesses to the power of film to reveal the mysterious depths of human beings through what concerns them, their hurts and failings as well as their hopes."

Quvenzhané Wallis in MFF Alum Benh Zeitlin's new film, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

The Maryland Film Festival and WYPR's Maryland Morning will be hosting a sneak preview of BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD with special guest screenwriter Lucy Alibar on Tuesday, June 5th at the MICA Brown Center. Tom Hall of WYPR's Maryland Morning will interview Lucy Alibar immediately following the screening. The interview will air on July 13th, when BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD opens at the Charles Theater.

Film Synopsis:
Benh Zeitlin's BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD whisks you to a surreal realm, where little girls and mythical animals coexist in a bayou called The Bathtub, all intertwined in the cosmic mesh of the universe. Hushpuppy (stunning newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis) relentlessly explores her world for answers, to satisfy her curiosity, and to make her budding mark on a world she's only beginning to comprehend.

Sneak Preview Information:
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD with special guest Lucy Alibar
Tuesday, June 5th
7:00pm
MICA Brown Center

Seating is limited; Friends of the Festival will be given priority. We have a limited amount of FREE PASSES for current Friends of the Festival. Friends of the Festival: reply to this email with your name in message body for a chance to win free passes.

Not a Friend of the Festival? Click here to join! Friends of the Festival get access to FREE movies all year long, including special access to our 2013 Festival!

Praise for BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD:

"One of the most striking films ever to debut at the Sundance film festival"
- Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

"Among the best films to play at Sundance in two decades...Hauntingly beautiful both visually and in the tenderness it shows towards the characters."
-Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

"A startlingly beautiful and daringly creative film that runs free of Hollywood formula."
- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

2012 MFF Selections THE SOURCE, UNDER AFRICAN SKIES, TCHOUPITOULAS, DETROPIA to play at Silverdocs!

If you missed this year's 2012 Maryland Film Festival, you will have a chance to catch some of the incredible documentary features and shorts we screened at the upcoming Silverdocs documentary festival in Washington D.C. The festival, which will be held June 18-24, will be showing four feature documentaries and two shorts that premiered at this year's Maryland Film Festival: THE SOURCE, TCHOUPITOULAS, DETROPIA, UNDER AFRICAN SKIES, FAMILY NIGHTMARE, and MEANING OF ROBOTS.

THE SOURCE, directed by Jodi Wille and Maria Demopoulos, chronicles the Source family, led by Father Yod who founded the Source restaurant, a pioneering vegetarian restaurant and gathering place for hippies and cultural outsiders.

TCHOUPITOULAS, directed by Bill Ross and Turner Ross, brings the city of New Orleans to vivid life like never before. The film follows three brothers as they set out across the Mississippi River to explore the heart of their city that had previously been off limits to them.

DETROPIA, directed by MFF alums Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, details the deterioration of modern day Detroit using powerful images from all over the city. Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady show how Detroit is shrinking because of creative destruction. This film demonstrates to its viewers that "great cities are evolving organisms that require imagination, clear thinking, and care."

UNDER AFRICAN SKIES director Joe Berlinger documents Paul Simon's musical collaboration with South African artists in 1984-1986 to create his Grammy winning album, Graceland. At the time this was very controversial due to many countries around the world placing a cultural boycott on South Africa because of the presence of Apartheid. This film combines archival footage with modern footage from Simon's return to South Africa for the 25th anniversary celebration of Graceland to depict both the political controversy and the artistic achievement of the album.

FAMILY NIGHTMARE, a short documentary directed by Dustin Guy Defa, illustrates family dysfunction by combining home videos with his own narrative.

MEANING OF ROBOTS director Matt Lenski portrays the work of Mike Sullivan, who for the last fifteen years has been creating a stop-motion robot sex film.

Click here for the 2012 Silverdocs Program.

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