The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Film Comment Magazine announced today that they will host the U.S. premiere of Steve McQueen's new film, 12 Years A Slave, on Tuesday, October 8that the New York Film Festival. McQueen will be on hand to present the film along with cast members, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Adepero Oduye, Paul Dano and Alfre Woodard. Tickets will be available starting Sunday, September 8th, when tickets go on sale to the general public for the festival.
Gavin Smith, New York Film Festival Selection Committee member and Editor-in-Chief of Film Comment Magazine said, "Film Comment is delighted to be able to champion 12 Years A Slave at the New York Film Festival. This is a powerful work about a subject that remains vital and I have no doubt that it's one of the year's most important films."
"I am honored that 12 Years a Slave will be presented at the New York Film Festival in association with Film Comment" said director, Steve McQueen. "For me, this feels like a true home-coming for Solomon as he was from New York and I'm delighted that his story can be celebrated here."
Steve McQueen's courageous new film takes an unflinching close-up look at a subject that has rarely, if ever, been confronted with such unvarnished directness in American cinema. The film is based on the memoir of freeman Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who was abducted in Washington, D.C. in 1841 and delivered to slave trader James Burch (Paul Giamatti), bought by gentleman farmer William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) and finally sold to cruel and mentally unbalanced cotton grower Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), a figure of both horror and pathos who comes to embody the true savagery-and insanity-of slavery. Screenwriter John Ridley, McQueen's regular cameraman Sean Bobbitt and producer Brad Pitt (who plays Canadian carpenter Samuel Bass in the film's final section) each make vital contributions to this difficult and troubling film, sure to reignite a dialogue on the most painful chapter in America's still young life as a nation.
Fox Searchlight Pictures will release 12 Years A Slave on October 18.
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