being if it hadn't been for the young American Morris Engel, who showed us the way to independent production with [this] fine movie." Modern critics have also praised the film. Dennis Schwartz called it "A remarkable indy classic, made on a shoestring budget by a group of still photographers. It's an affecting lyrical comedy-drama that fully captures the flavor of urban childhood innocence of the 1950s. [...] The dialogue was sparse, the story was unambitious, the film lacked drama, the children were very ordinary and their problem was only a minor one, nevertheless this beautifully realized film caught the world through the innocent eyes of a curious and scared child and left an impression that was hard to shake. It was uplifting to watch because the effort was so genuine." When the film was screened in New York after Engel's death in 2005, film critic Joshua Land wrote: "Little Fugitive shines as a beautifully shot document of a bygone Brooklyn—any drama here resides in the grainy black-and-white cinematography, with its careful attention to the changes in light brought on by the inexorably advancing sun [...] Filled with 'Aw, fellas!' period ambience and the mythic imagery of cowboys and horses, comics and baseball, it's a key proto-vérité slice of urban America." On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 45 reviews, with an average score of 8.4/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "A simple story well told, The Little Fugitive presents a kid's-eye view of the city that feels refreshingly authentic." Accolades Wins Venice Film Festival: Silver Lion (Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin) Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Silver Ribbon, Best Foreign Film (Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin) Nominations Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion (Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin) Writers Guild of America Awards: Best Written American Drama (Ray Ashley) Academy Awards: Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin) Other honors added to the National Film Registry in 1997 Remake Joanna Lipper completed a remake of the film in 2005, which had its world premiere at the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival as part of the New American Cinema Competition. References External linksLittle Fugitive'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, Bloomsbury Academic, 2010 , pages 477-478 1953 films 1953 drama films