First Trailer for Steve McQueen's '12 Years A Slave'

While most of the attention is focused on Comic-Con and all of the latest blockbusters that will be hogging up multiplexes for the next few years, the fall season is right around the corner and that means the most obvious Oscar contenders are starting to emerge. Without a doubt, one of those that has been on the must-see list for cinephiles since it was first announced was 12 Years A Slave, the third film acclaimed Hunger and Shame director, Steve McQueen. But unlike those films, his latest features a huge celebrity ensemble for a story that couldn't be more timely given the state of race relations in this country.

After dropping the first images just days ago, the trailer has arrived and it definitely comes packaged and ready for the awards season. Based on the autobiography of Solomon Northrup, the film stars the great Chiwetel Ejiofor as a free black man in 1853 New York, who is tricked by a phony job offer, kidnapped, and forced into slavery for the titular twelve years. Along the way he runs into a number of people who both hinder and help him, with Michael Fassbender as sadistic plantation owner Edwin Epps, who uses the Bible to justify his cruelty. Brad Pitt, who also serves as a producer, plays Bass, a man who shows Solomon that there are still good people in the world. The rest of the cast is simply amazing, with Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Alfre Woodard, Dwight Henry, Quvenzhane Wallis, Lupita Nyongo, Scoot McNairy, Michael K. Williams and Garret Dillahunt co-starring.

The strength of the book isn't in the incredible amount of suffering Solomon unjustly endures, but the hopefulness he maintains throughout, even when at his lowest ebb. That appears to have been captured beautifully in the film, but we'll find out for sure when 12 Years A Slave opens on October 18th. 

12 Years A Slave by Teaser-Trailer.com