Benh Zeitlin
Zeitlin at the Deauville American Film Festival, September 2012
Born
Benjamin Harold Zeitlin[1]

(1982-10-14) October 14, 1982
New York City, New York, U.S.
OccupationFilmmaker
Notable workBeasts of the Southern Wild
RelativesEliza Zeitlin (sister)[2]

Benjamin Harold Zeitlin (/ˈbɛn ˈzaɪtlɪn/;[3] born October 14, 1982)[4] is an American filmmaker, best known for writing and directing the 2012 film Beasts of the Southern Wild, for which he received two Academy Award nominations.

Early life

Zeitlin was born in Manhattan and raised in Sunnyside, Queens, New York, and in suburban Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.[5] He is a graduate of Hastings High School[6] and Wesleyan University.[7] He was born to writers and folklorists Mary Amanda Dargan and Steven Joel Zeitlin, who founded the NYC non-profit cultural organization City Lore.[1][8][9] His father, who is Jewish, spent most of his childhood in Brazil; whereas his mother comes from a rural, Protestant background in Darlington, South Carolina.[10][11][12] His younger sister is screenwriter and artist Eliza Zeitlin.[2]

Career

In 2004, Zeitlin co-founded the Court 13 independent collection of filmmakers, named after a neglected Wesleyan University squash court that he and his friends had once commandeered as a filming location.[13] His younger sister Eliza Zeitlin and he moved to New Orleans while he was making his first short film, Glory at Sea, in 2008.[2]

In 2012, Zeitlin's first feature, Beasts of the Southern Wild, adapted from a play entitled Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar, won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival,[14] and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Deauville American Film Festival. The film went on to earn the Los Angeles Film Festival's Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and the Seattle International Film Festival's Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director.[15] Zeitlin was also given a Humanitarian Award for his work on the film at the Satellite Awards 2012.[16] Notably, Zeitlin both directed Beasts of the Southern Wild and co-composed the score.[17]

Zeitlin at the Fantasy Film Festival in Berlin, August 26, 2012.

For his directorial work and screenplay in Beasts of the Southern Wild, Zeitlin collected several additional awards and nominations.[18][19][20] At the Gotham Independent Film Awards in 2012, he won the Breakthrough Director Award. At the same awards ceremony, Zeitlin received the inaugural Bingham Ray Award, which honors the independent filmmaker who died in 2012.[21] Zeitlin also won a Humanitas Prize (as co-writer/director; shared with Alibar as co-writer), amongst other awards.[22][23] He has also received two nominations at the 85th Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Lucy Alibar), and the film itself was nominated for Best Picture.

In 2019, it was revealed that Zeitlin was directing his next feature Wendy in Montserrat, an island south of Antigua. Inspired by Peter Pan, Zeitlin described the film as 'a friendship-love story-adventure of her and a joyous, reckless, pleasure-mongering young boy as they swirl in and out of youth and as the ecosystem around them spirals toward destruction.'.[24]

Filmography

Short film

  • Egg (2005)
  • Origins of Electricity (2006)
  • Glory at Sea (2008)

Feature film

Awards

Zeitlin was the 2012 recipient of Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Visual Arts category.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Derbes, Marie McCullough (July 25, 1994). "David Shields McCullough and Anna Jane Smith: Their Ancestors and Descendants". M.M. Derbes – via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 3 "Jews in the News: Benh Zeitlin, Winona Ryder and David Burd | Tampa JCCS and Federation".
  3. ↑ "BEASTS OF SOUTHERN WILD - Official Trailer - Introduced By Benh Zeitlin". StudioCanal UK. July 10, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  4. ↑ official catalogue of the Festival de Cannes 2012, p.73
  5. ↑ Denby, David (29 June 2012). "Beasts of the Southern Wild". The New Yorker.
  6. ↑ Arno, Iris Hiskey (March 2, 2008). "Getting the Whole Picture, in and Out of Class". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ Beasts of the Southern Wild | 2012 Seattle International Film Festival | Benh Zeitlin | USA < Films Archived May 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Siff.net. Retrieved on 2012-07-14.
  8. ↑ Family reunions offer connection in world of high mobility, isolation. Bangor Daily News (1991-08-30).
  9. ↑ Department of Folklore | Completed MA Theses Archived January 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Mun.ca (2012-03-05). Retrieved on 2012-07-14.
  10. ↑ Mann, Iris. (2012-06-13) Ravages, rape, Rodriguez and real estate | Summer Sneaks Archived 2012-08-18 at the Wayback Machine. Jewish Journal. Retrieved on 2012-07-14.
  11. ↑ "Benh Zeitlin: Conquering his 'Beasts'". Jewish Journal. January 2, 2013.
  12. ↑ COLUMN: Fantastic filmmaker has some Pee Dee ties. SCNOW.com (2012-03-18). Retrieved on 2012-07-14
  13. ↑ Kenneth Rainin Foundation » BENH ZEITLIN Archived August 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Krfoundation.org. Retrieved on 2012-07-14.
  14. ↑ 2012 Sundance Film Festival Announces Awards | Sundance Institute Archived 2012-01-29 at the Wayback Machine. Sundance.org (2012-01-28). Retrieved on 2012-07-14.
  15. ↑ "Awards for Beasts of the Southern Wild". IMDb. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
  16. ↑ 'Silver Linings Playbook' Wins Five Satellite Awards, Including Best Picture, Kilday, Gregg The Hollywood Reporter December 16, 2012.
  17. ↑ Buchanan, Kyle (July 5, 2012). "Inside the Beasts of the Southern Wild Score". Vulture. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  18. ↑ Benh Zeitlin Awards and Nominations, Internet Movie Database. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  19. ↑ Best Director Archived 2013-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, Spirit Awards. By staff. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  20. ↑ Best Feature, Spirit Awards. By staff. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  21. ↑ Gotham Awards Winners, The Hollywood Reporter. Pages 1 &2. By staff. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  22. ↑ Feature Film Beasts Archived January 7, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Sundance Institute. Feature Film Program. By staff. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  23. ↑ Benh Zeitlin awards, Internet Movie Database. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
  24. ↑ Sharf, Zack (March 2, 2017). "Benh Zeitlin May Finally Be Shooting His Follow-Up to 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' in the Caribbean".
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