With the announcement of the 2012 Academy Award (Oscar) nominations on January 10, 2013,
Quvenzhané Wallis became the youngest person ever nominated for a Best Actress Oscar (at age 9).
She broke the record of the previous youngest-ever Best Actress nominee, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was nominated for Whale Rider at age 13.

Benh Zeitlin gives considerable credit to Qulyndreia Wallis, mother of the movie's six-year-old star Quvenzhané Wallis
who was always on the set and helped Zeitlin explain concepts and draw emotions from her daughter to maximize the quality of her Oscar-nominated performance.

Director Benh Zeitlin revealed in a June 22, 2012, interview with HitFix that he never looked at dailies until after the shoot was finished.