This month we will celebrate the best Hollywood had to offer in 2014 with the Oscars at the end of February. Before we do that, we will look back at one of the early works from the director of last year's Best Picture,
12 Years A Slave's
Steve McQueen. In 2008, artist and filmmaker McQueen made the jump from galleries and small film festivals to the big screen and beyond with his period piece,
Hunger. The film, set in the 1981 Irish hunger strike that affected political prisoners and IRA members in protest against the British government's rule of Northern Ireland. The film, which stars
Michael Fassbender in his breakout role as prisoner Bobby Sands, drastically dramatizes the events that took place leading up to the hunger strike and ultimately Sands' death.
Hunger showcases Fassbender's dramatic and unreal performance as he losses an unhealthy and often times frightening amount of weight portraying Sands. By the end of the filming, it was reported that the actor had only consumed 600 calories per day. It was the first time major worldwide audiences were introduced to the director and actor who now have a successful partnership and the duo displayed that they will take whatever graphic risks necessary in order to complete and achieve their artistic goals. Before this year's awards are handed out, watch this film that started the current generation of award contenders.
