AceShowbiz -

The cast members of "Selma", a historical movie about Martin Luther King's effort to fight for civil rights in the 1960s, gathered in New York City on Sunday, December 14 for the premiere of the flick. Oprah Winfrey, who is also a producer in the movie, showed up at the Ziegfeld Theater alongside other cast members including David Oyelowo who plays King, Tim Roth, Tom Wilkinson and Cuba Gooding Jr.

The media mogul, who also appeared in "Lee Daniels' The Butler", opted for a sequinned emerald-green dress which she teamed with a pair of matching heels. She also had a coat to keep her warm. Oyelowo, meanwhile, looked dapper in a light gray suit, a purple shirt and a light blue tie. Roth opted for a dark suit, while Cuba Gooding Jr. chose a warm attire and combined it with a flat cap.

Actors Wendell Pierce and Corey Reynolds who also attended the premiere wore a shirt with a message "I Can't Breathe" on the front part to show support to Eric Garner, an African-American man who died recently after being put on a choke hold by a police officer in New York. The event was also attended by Martin Luther King III, Winfrey's friend Gayle King, Aretha Franklin, rapper Common, Carmen Ejogo and Dylan Baker.

The cast members talked about racial issues during a chat with media. "You can look out your window and you can see people protesting and you can look at the film and it looks similar," Winfrey told The Associated Press. "People are wearing different kind of clothes, it's a different era but the same issues still prevail."

Pierce gave a similar comment on the Ava DuVernay-directed flick. "This is not a movie about the past. It's a movie about a very, very acute present because it's all the same issues that have been going on for a long time," he said.