Watch The First Trailer For Oscar Contender ‘Loving’

This year's first major Oscar contender finally has a trailer. Loving is a deeply moving and socially charged film from the visionary mind of Jeff Nichols, who already scored a hit earlier this year with the rollicking genre mash-up Midnight Special. But, while that film dealt with visions of a future utopia, Loving is rooted in our country's troubled past, as it tells the real-life story of an interracial couple who must fight for their right to be together against the state of Virginia. 

Joel Edgerton plays Richard Loving, a mild-mannered construction worker who falls in love with Mildred, an African-American woman played by star-in-the-making, Preacher’s Ruth Negga. Shortly after getting married, the couple is arrested by local police who’ve taken issue with their interracial marriage, setting into motion one of the most important trials in U.S. history.

Frequent Nichols muse Michael Shannon stars as a Life magazine photographer who documents the star-crossed lovers as they fight on, while sketch comedy oddball Nick Kroll appears as the couple's lawyer. 

The film was a sensation when it premiered at Cannes earlier this year, with both Edgerton and Negga considered virtual locks for Oscar nominations. The film meanwhile comes at a time when the country feels more racially divided than it has in quite some time, and you know what they say: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. This one is required viewing when it opens on November 4.

Watch the trailer above.