AFI Fest: ‘Selma’ footage to be unveiled at event with Oprah Winfrey

One of the more intriguing entrants to the holiday/late award-season calendar is “Selma,� indie filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s take on Martin Luther King Jr. and three critical months in the civil rights movement circa 1965.

The film, which stars David Oyelowo as King and counts Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt among its producers, doesn’t hit theaters until Dec. 25, when it opens in limited release ahead of a widening in January. But a peek at the movie will now happen at AFI Fest, which will screen 30 minutes of the film on Nov 11, organizers announced Friday.

The event, to be held at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre, will bring the star power too: a post-screening panel will feature DuVernay, Winfrey, Oyelowo and the Pitt producing partners Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner.

“Selma� comes on the heels of the best picture win for “12 Years A Slave,� also produced by Pitt, Gardner and Kleiner. And it follows more immediately the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., in recent months, images of which are hauntingly echoed in early footage of the film.

“Selma� is the first movie to feature King as a lead character. DuVernay, known for gritty pics like Sundance darling “Middle of Nowhere,� said she approached the work with an eye toward the moments that King helped shape, and the challenges he faced while living them.

“I didn’t want to approach Dr. King as a cradle-to-grave story; that’s a big life. My guide was the truth and facts of what happened each day and how each great, difficult choice led to the next great, difficult choice,� she said in an interview that runs in Sunday’s Times.

“I didn’t want a sugarcoated story that made him a saint, and at the same time, I also didn’t want to front-load it with antihero overcorrection,� she added. “You see movies that do that, that go for this flaw or that flaw, and it’s really the low-hanging fruit.�

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