Advice To Beasts Of The Southern Wild Director Benh Zeitlin

Benh Zeitlin's devestatingly accomplished, charming, beautiful and insightful feature debut took first Sundance and then Cannes by storm when it showed to festival crowds earlier this year. Based in a New Orleans-esque flood-plain, it follows the lives of a community of people living on the wrong side of the levee wall, in particular Hushpuppy, a five year old girl who feels the whole weight of the world on her shoulders. The film is being greeted in the UK with rave reviews after a critical debate met its Stateside release this summer and we're already looking forward to seeing what Zeitlin does next.

To help him along on his way we've garnered some advice from the careers of some of Hollywood's finest who also made career defining first movies...