Podcasts Culture Front Row: Archive 2014 Costa Book Awards; 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen; Mexico's cultural leaders

Costa Book Awards; 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen; Mexico's cultural leaders

Published: Jan. 6, 2014, 8:02 p.m.

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With Mark Lawson

Front Row announces the category winners for this year's Costa Book Awards. The director of the Costa Book Awards, Bud McLintock, announces the winners of the novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children's book categories and literary critic Sam Leith discusses the judges' choices.

Steve McQueen discusses 12 Years A Slave, a film which tells the true story of Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film has already seen McQueen named Director of the Year at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and is hotly tipped for Oscar success. With previous films including Hunger and Shame, McQueen explains what attracts him to projects, and why the subject of slavery needed to be tackled.

As part of Radio 4's MINT season, Front Row begins a short series of discussions and interviews looking at the cultural life of the MINT countries. Today the focus is on Mexico: film critic Fernanda Sol\\xf3rzano tells Mark about the current state of Mexican cinema.

Mark hears from some of Front Row's People of the Year 2013 about their plans for 2014, and their upcoming projects in the next year. Film director Clio Barnard discusses working with a writer for the first time to adapt a novel for the screen, and actress Olivia Colman talks about learning to salsa with Nick Frost for her next film.

Producer Claire Bartleet.

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