Fox Searchlight is to boost the number of US screens showing 12 Years A Slave in January.

Steve McQueen’s white-hot awards contender and festival favourite will get a re-release on January 17 in the height of awards season.

According to Fox, screen count will be determined ‘around Monday 13’. It will be playing in 308 theatres this week.

The film opened domestically on October 18 and has grossed more than $35 million. It has already been nominated for and won a slew of awards, with seven Golden Globe nominations and four Screen Actors Guild nominations among the haul.

Searchlight pursued a similar strategy last year with Beasts of the Southern Wild and in previous years with awards contenders 127 Hours and Last King of Scotland.

Sony’s Captain Phillips is among the other awards contenders to get a re-release this awards season, re-upping on January 15.

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