Congrats to Twelve Years a Slave for stealing the show at the 2014 Oscars!
This classic won the following awards:
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actress (where Lupidta Nyong'o gives one of the most inspirational speeches of the evening)
Best Adapted Screenplay (screenplay by John Ridley)
If you haven't already read the book (or seen the trailer), Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man living in the north with his family, is sold into slavery after being tricked into a (fake) job and kidnapped. He is taken away from his family and his home in New York where he has to endure a life (or lack thereof) of living on a cotton plantation while being harassed and abused.
Twelve Years is also the winner of the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama as well as the Best Film award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
The film's director, Steve McQueen, had this to say during his acceptance speech: “Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live. This is the most important legacy from Solomon Northup. I dedicate this award to all people who have endured slavery. And the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.”
Clayton Adams, the great-great-great-grandson of Solomon Northup, had this to say about the film: "I read the book twice. But the second time, I was really understanding that this was a part of my blood, and with that in mind, it truly brought me to tears at the end of the book."
Twelve Years was not the only book to movie adaptation recognized at this year's awards ceremony:
Philomena (Philomena: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search By Martin Sixsmith), Captain Phillips (A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea By Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty), The Invisible Woman (The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien), The Book Thief (The Book Thief by Markus Frank Zusak), Frozen (The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen), The Wolf of Wall Street (The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort) American Hustle (The Sting Man: Inside Abscam by Robert W. Greene), and of course, The Great Gatsby (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald) were all nominated.
Congrats to all of those who worked hard to bring Twelve Years a Slave to life on the big screen!
Cosimo is proud to have released both an affordable paperback and beautiful hardcover edition of Twelve Years a Slave at Barnes & Noble, as well as on Amazon (paperback and hardcover). For more information about the author and the book, please see our press release.
