1. 12 Years A Slave
After the extraordinary Hunger and masterful Shame, pressure is on Steve McQueen to deliver again, and this time he has a reasonable budget and a much more A-list cast to work with. Collaborating with Michael Fassbender once again, McQueen has also enlisted the talents of Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Paul Giamatti and Benedict Cumberbatch for his true story slavery film. The first trailer was released a few weeks ago and early signs point to McQueen continuing his extraordinary run of masterpieces. No stranger to controversial material, McQueen will portray slavery as the brutal holocaust it really was with a black man in the lead unlike the two 'slavery' films of last year. 2013 has been significantly short of quality emotive drama but 12 Years A Slave should change that and it could be an awards contender if voters can stomach it.