New Trailer for Oscar Contender The Birth of a Nation

Fox Searchlight has released a new trailer for this year's Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winner The Birth of a Nation. Writer/director and star Nate Parker's 7-year labor of love left this year's Sundance with the two top prizes, a record-setting deal with Fox Searchlight, and a ton of momentum carrying it towards a potential big haul come awards season. Parker's passionate epic about Nat Turner's slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831 required the star himself to take two years off his own acting schedule and plunge $100,000 of his own money to get the film into production. The result has been one of this year's most highly anticipated films, and a Sundance darling that left audiences stunned.

Here's the synopsis: Parker plays Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities – against himself and his fellow slaves – Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.

Check out the riveting new trailer here. The Birth of a Nation hits theaters on October 7.