Actors Guild blocks big Beasts

Accept our apologies for already filling these pages with awards season news, but a controversy has bubbled up in relation to Benh Zeitlin’s highly acclaimed Beasts of the Southern Wild. Awards punters already have the agreeably weird picture – a near-mythical drama set in the American south – pencilled in for a whole host of Oscar nominations. But it looks as if the film will not figure at the Screen Actors Guild bash. It seems as if Zeitlin failed to pay his non-pro cast the rates outlined in Sag’s low-budget feature agreement. No member of the cast is now eligible for Sag nominations.

This is sad news for eight- year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, who, despite the setback, still seems likely to become the youngest person ever to secure a best actress nomination at the Oscars.

Read more at irishtimes.com/blogs/screenwriter