In a forgotten yet defiant bayou community called the Bathtub, cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, six-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) exists on the brink of orphanhood. Her mother is long gone and her beloved father, Wink (Dwight Henry), is a wild man on a perpetual spree. When Wink is home, he lives under a different roof: Wink in a rusted-out shack, Hushpuppy in a trailer propped on two oil drums. More often than not, Hushpuppy is left to her own devices on their isolated compound filled with feral wildlife, where she perceives the natural world to be a fragile web of living, breathing, squirting things, wherein the entire universe depends on everything fitting together just right. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actress. At age 9, Quvenzhané Wallis became the youngest Best Actress nominee in history.