The National chime in for new 'Theory of Everything' trailer

With the Best Actor Oscar race heating up, as this week’s New York Film Festival sheds the spotlight on Ben Affleck (Gone Girl), Joaquin Phoenix (Inherent Vice), Miles Teller (Whiplash), and Michael Keaton (Birdman), Focus Features debuted a new trailer for The Theory of Everything, perhaps as a gentle reminder that Eddie Redmayne was the talk of the town just a few weeks ago in Toronto.

His performance as British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is a major career breakthrough for the dashing young actor best known for Les Miserables, and the role of Hawking, the brilliant mathematician whose disease cost him his voice and confined him to a wheelchair, is quintessential Oscar bait. The new trailer focuses on the man versus the crippling disease, with the help of his devoted first wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). Focus also splurged on the music, plugging in The National’s “Heavenfaced” to help inspire.

The Theory of Everything, directed by James Marsh (Man on Wire), opens Nov. 7.