Which 2012 independent film features a young girl named Hushpuppy in a post-apocalyptic bayou?

The 2012 independent film featuring a young girl named Hushpuppy in a post-apocalyptic bayou is Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Directed and co-written by Benh Zeitlin, the film follows six-year-old Hushpuppy, played by Quvenzhané Wallis, who lives with her father, Wink, in the isolated Louisiana community known as the Bathtub. The setting is fictional, but it draws on real coastal communities threatened by hurricanes, erosion, flooding, and rising seas.

The film blends social realism with magical realism. Hushpuppy's world includes enormous prehistoric aurochs, although the creatures shown are stylized versions of the real aurochs, which were wild cattle rather than boar-like beasts. The movie was adapted from Lucy Alibar's one-act play Juicy and Delicious.

A common mix-up is assuming the film won an Oscar. It received four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Wallis, who became the youngest Best Actress nominee at age nine. It won major festival honors, including the Caméra d'Or at Cannes.