Arrival: First clips from Amy Adams sci-fi appear online

The film adapts Ted Chiang's stunning novella Story of Your Life - with Adams starring as the expert linguist tasked with ensuring the planet's survival

Arrival has now officially made its debut at the Venice Film Festival; with strong reviews pouring in from all sides, the Denis Villeneuve-directed sci-fi is quickly escalating the ranks of major awards contenders.

Adapting Ted Chiang's stunning novella Story of Your Life into full-blooded cinematic escapism, Villeneuve places Amy Adams at the centre of Earth's first extraterrestrial contact.

She plays expert linguist Louise Banks, recruited by an elite team to investigate the eerie spacecraft which have suddenly descended across the globe. It's Louise who becomes the key to communication with the beings and - with mankind poised on the edge of a global war - it is her who provides the one hope for her planet's survival.

Following an absolutely gripping first trailer, Paramount has now released a couple of clips for the film (via The Playlist); including the moment Banks first enters the strange spacecraft, and the her initial encounters with the mysterious beings.

Adams here stars alongside the likes of Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. Really, though, it's about time Adams - a five-time Oscar nominee - got a flashy leading role with this wealth of material to chew on; so could we finally be looking at an Academy Award win for one of the strongest talents out there?

Sci-fi's never been an easy play within the awards circuit, but Villeneuve's rising reputation in Hollywood, directing the highly-antitcipated Blade Runner sequel, could potentially be enough of a drive for Arrival to win big.

Arrival hits UK cinemas 11 November