Focus Features has released the first trailer for Jeff Nichols’ Loving, which stars Irish actress Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton. The film drew much acclaim for Negga’s performance when it debuted at Cannes earlier this year, thrusting the Limerick-raised actress into awards contention.
The film is based on the landmark civil rights case Loving v. Virginia, which was brought by Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other. Their marriage violated the state’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as “white” and people classified as “colored”. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision held this prohibition was unconstitutional and ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.
In addition to Negga and Edgerton, the film features Nichols’ regular Michael Shannon, Nick Kroll (The League), Marton Csokas (The Equaliser), Jon Bass (Big Time in Hollywood, FL) and Bill Camp (Black Mass).
Loving is due for release in the US on November 4th, a prime spot in the awards season calendar. It will be released in Ireland and the UK on February 3rd, 2017.