Poster and Trailer Debut: 12 Years a Slave

The poster and trailer for Steve McQueen’s inevitable Oscar contender 12 Years a Slave have arrived online.

The picture tells the true, tragic tale of Solomon Northup, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery for, well, 12 years.

Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Northup, while Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Alfre Woodard, Sarah Paulson, Michael K. Williams, and Garret Dillahunt play the various people he encounters over this period.

McQueen is following-up his Cannes Camera d’Or winning Hunger and sex-addiction drama Shame. Both flicks were highly acclaimed, though their arthouse aesthetic – and troubling subject matter – ultimately saw them snubbed at the Academy Awards.

It seems unlikely the same fate will befall 12 Years a Slave.

With an all-star cast, what seems to be a bold performance from Ejiofor, and a perfectly timed October release in the United States, 12 Years A Slave could be a big player in the 2014 awards race.

It will arrive in local cinemas soon after the US release.