Celebrity FIRST LOOK: Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep & Helena Bonham Carter Stand Firm in 'Suffragette' Movie Poster The drama chronicles the fight for women's right to vote in early 20th-century Britain By Jodi Guglielmi Jodi Guglielmi Instagram Twitter Writer-Reporter, PEOPLE People Editorial Guidelines Published on August 26, 2015 11:00 AM Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Photo: Focus Features As the summer movie season comes to a close, buzzworthy Oscar hopefuls are starting to move to center stage – and Suffragette is ready to take a stand. PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly have an exclusive joint look at the poster for the women’s-rights drama, which stars Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter. In it, the three women stand firm as they gaze at the camera with quiet conviction. Their mood is fitting for the film, which is based on true events and chronicles the fight for women’s right to vote in early 20th-century Britain. The film follows Maud (Mulligan), a working mother, who joins a feminist movement led by Emmeline Pankhust (Streep) to lobby against injustice and advocate for women’s right to suffrage. It’s a crusading spirit that Streep has heeded off-screen: This summer, she petitioned Congress to revive the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which supports equal pay for women in the United States, and sent individual letters at all 535 members of Congress. Suffragette will open this year’s London Film Festival on Oct. 7 and hit U.S. theaters on Oct. 23.