Former Spooks star David Oyelowo was scandalously bypassed for a Best Actor Oscar nod judging by his powerhouse performance as Dr Martin Luther King Jr in Selma.

While compatriots Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne are up for the gong, Oyelowo surely should have made it a hattrick of Brits slugging it out.

Selma, though, was deservedly nominated in the Best Picture category.

It tells the story of the historic 1965 voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, which played a crucial role in a bitter, long-awaited victory for King in his ongoing fight for equality. 

The film focuses on a three-month period when King was lobbying to enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The legislation gave black Americans the right to vote - but was not taken seriously.

In Selma, where over half the citizens were black, only one per cent were registered to vote. In one of the film's opening scenes Oprah Winfrey’s Annie Lee Cooper is turned away after she is told she must name Alabama County’s 67 judges to secure access to the ballot box.

King's attempts to persuade President Lyndon Johnson (an ever reliable Tom Wilkinson) to act repeatedly fall on deaf ears, while Alabama Governor George Wallace (a sarcastic and bullheaded Tim Roth) meets the situation with unwavering resistance. 

As a result, plans for King and a close-knit group of civil rights activists to lead a peaceful march 54 miles from Selma to state capital Montgomery take shape. This is met with deadly force by local law enforcement, putting racial tensions across America on a knife edge.

Oyelowo is majestic in the lead role, providing the gravitas required to play such an icon. He delivers rousing speeches at the lectern but, more strikingly, reveals a gentleness - a humanity - in the film's quieter moments, often humbled by his wife, Coretta Scott King (another rousing performance by another British actor, Carmen Ejogo). 

Elsewhere the film's excellent ensemble cast includes Cuba Gooding Jr. as civil rights attorney Fred Gray, Martin Sheen as federal judge Frank Minis Johnson and Giovanni Ribisi as Lyndon Johnson's trusted advisor Lee White.

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Helmer Ava DuVernay offers smart and assured direction, her understated approach allowing the performances to shine through (there was much talk of her being the first black woman ever to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar before she, like Oyelowo, was snubbed).

Her impressive work shows particularly in the march scenes, the camera tracking behind the characters as they walk, and gliding slowly towards them as they approach.

DuVernay's timing also couldn’t be more relevant. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Selma marches while recent events in Ferguson, Missouri since Michael Brown’s shooting, as well as the death of Eric Garner in New York, mean this piece is as pertinent today as it was back then.

While it seems unbelievable that a King biopic has never found its way onto the big screen before - perhaps the enormity of his life seemed too much for one movie to convey - now we have one, it lives up to the weighty expectations. Ignore Selma's lack of awards recognition, this one is not to be missed.

RATING: FOUR OUT OF FIVE STARS

Selma (12A) is out Friday (February 6)