12 Years a Slave (film)

12 Years a Slave
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySteve McQueen
Screenplay byJohn Ridley
Based onTwelve Years a Slave
by Solomon Northup
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySean Bobbitt
Edited byJoe Walker
Music byHans Zimmer
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • August 30, 2013 (2013-08-30) (Telluride Film Festival)
  • November 8, 2013 (2013-11-08) (United States)
  • January 10, 2014 (2014-01-10) (United Kingdom)
Running time
134 minutes[4]
CountriesUnited Kingdom[3]
United States[1]
Luxembourg[3]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20–22 million[5][6]
Box office$187.7 million[5]

12 Years a Slave is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by Steve McQueen from a screenplay by John Ridley, based on the 1853 slave memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, an African American man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. by two conmen in 1841 and sold into slavery. He was put to work on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before being released. The first scholarly edition of David Wilson's version of Northup's story was co-edited in 1968 by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon.[7]

Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup. Supporting roles are portrayed by Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong'o, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Alfre Woodard. Principal photography took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, from June 27 to August 13, 2012. The locations used were four historic antebellum plantations: Felicity, Bocage, Destrehan, and Magnolia. Of the four, Magnolia is nearest to the actual plantation where Northup was held.

12 Years a Slave received widespread critical acclaim and was named the best film of the year 2013 by several media outlets and critics, and it earned over $187 million on a production budget of $22 million. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Ridley, and Best Supporting Actress for Nyong'o. The Best Picture win made McQueen the first black British producer to ever receive the award and the first black British director of a Best Picture winner.[8][9] The film was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts recognized it with the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Best Actor for Ejiofor.[10] Since its release, the film has been cited as among the best of the 2010s and of all time, with it being named the 44th greatest film since 2000 in a BBC poll of 177 critics in 2016.[11][12]

In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant," making it the ninth film designated in its first year of eligibility, the 49th Best Picture Academy Award winner and the most recently released film to be selected.[13]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "12 Years a Slave (2013)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference var was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c "12 Years a Slave (2013)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on October 12, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  4. ^ "12 Years a Slave (15)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  5. ^ a b "12 Years a Slave (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  6. ^ "2013 Feature Film Production Report" (PDF). The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 21, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  7. ^ Toplin, Robert Brent (1969). "Twelve Years a Slave (review)". Civil War History. 15 (1): 66. doi:10.1353/cwh.1969.0065. S2CID 144769266.
  8. ^ "Sign of the times". The Hindu. March 4, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  9. ^ Lacob, Jace (March 2, 2014). "'12 Years A Slave' Wins Best Picture Oscar At 86th Annual Academy Awards". BuzzFeed. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Glory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "The 21st Century's 100 greatest films". BBC. August 23, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  12. ^ Debruge, Peter; Gleiberman, Owen; Kennedy, Lisa; Kiang, Jessica; Laffly, Tomris; Lodge, Guy; Nicholson, Amy (December 21, 2022). "The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time".
  13. ^ Bahr, Sarah (December 13, 2023). "'Apollo 13' and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' Join National Film Registry". The New York Times.