The Oscars Shed a Light on Sundance Darling

Every year at this time, film enthusiasts from around the globe begin making predictions, planning viewing parties and criticizing Academy members for overlooking their personal favorite as the Oscar nominations are announced. While most of the nominees come as no surprise, there are always a few shockers that are thrown into the mix. Many times, films and actors are nominated that have received very little publicity and recognition or had scarce viewing opportunities due to limited distribution. This year, the imaginative and powerful independent film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, made its way into the hearts of the Academy while remaining relatively unnoticed by the rest of the world. The LA Times reports on the struggles the film encountered with unknown and inexperienced actors relaying the vision of relative newcomer, Behn Zeitlin. Beasts was made on a $1.5 million budget and struggled to find appropriate crew and equipment. Worldwide distribution was not considered to be a reality by the director and producers when they entered the 2012 Sundance Film Festival until the film and its breakout star, 8-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, captured the hearts of the jurors, the audience and coincidentally, Fox Searchlight Studios.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125435/

Katey Rich of Cinemablend.com describes the magic Beasts of the Southern Wild created that led to a 6 minute standing ovation, the Grand Jury Prize and executives from Fox Searchlight to offer a distribution deal before the festival even ended. Fox Searchlight has a reputation for bringing darling independent films such as Little Miss Sunshine, which would ordinarily go unnoticed, into the lives of the public. Beasts was released June 29, 2012 in limited markets to fair reviews and is still an unknown to mass audiences.

While everyone loves an underdog, many times those stories cannot be made or viewed by the masses due to the difficulty in obtaining a distribution deal. IMDb revealed a total of 110 feature length films were entered into Sundance in 2012 with only 30 securing deals with studios for distribution, many only limited releases. Stories such as Beasts of the Southern Wild showcase how important it is to have a studio sign on to distribute but simultaneously demonstrates how easily they can still slip under the radar of the general public. In a statement I very rarely admit and will certainly deny in the future, the members of the Academy shed a beacon of light on this beautiful film. Where it would otherwise have gone unnoticed, the usually elitist group will allow this small and scarcely distributed film to enter the lives of audiences around the world.