As the historical author Simon Webb has written, and talked about on his YouTube channel History Debunked, the book 12 Years A Slave was not written by Solomon Northup, but actually written by a white racist who falsely attributed it to Northup purely in order to gain notoriety for it being a book written by a former slave, when this, and the story itself, is a fabrication.

Although the 2013 movie is indeed well directed, acted and presented, the premise and story are fictional, despite being presented as biographical.

In terms of the Oscars and awards this movie received, and the other movies it placed against in each of its categories, I don't think 12 Years A Slave actually deserved a single win. I would have chosen different winners for each category it was nominated for. The wins that it got really do feel like this movie is the first of its kind, a movie getting tons of acclaim purely because of the racial premise. Sadly this trend continued after it, and continues to this day. We now live in a world that gives praise and awards to films that focus on race and being divisive rather than focusing on film quality.