Ava DuVernay Wiki, Age, Biography, Height, Boyfriend, Family, Images, And More

Ava DuVernay Wiki, Age, Biography, Height, Boyfriend, Family, Images, And More

Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker and former film publicist who was born on August 24, 1972. In addition to being a nominee for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe, she has won the Primetime Emmy Award, the NAACP Image Award, the BAFTA Film Award, and the BAFTA TV Award.

After directing her first film, I Will Follow (2010), DuVernay went on to win the directing prize for the U.S. dramatic competition with her second feature, Middle of Nowhere, making history as the first black woman to do so.

DuVernay made history by becoming the first African-American woman to be nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Director for her work on the Martin Luther King Jr. film Selma (2014). A Wrinkle in Time (2018), a Disney fantasy film, made her the first African-American woman to direct a movie with a $100 million budget, and the Netflix documentary 13th (2016), which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Her television credits include the OWN drama series Queen Sugar (2016) and two Netflix drama limited series: Colin in Black & White (2021), which is based on the adolescent years of NFL star Colin Kaepernick, and When They See Us (2019), which is based on the 1989 Central Park jogger case.

DuVernay was listed as one of the most influential persons in the world in 2017 on the Time 100 list. She was chosen to serve on the directors branch of the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2020.

Early Life and Education

In Long Beach, California, Ava Marie DuVernay was born on August 24, 1972. Murray Maye, her stepfather, and her mother Darlene (née Sexton), a teacher, raised her. Her biological father, Joseph Marcel DuVernay III, has Louisiana Creole background, which is reflected in his last name. In Lynwood, California, she was raised. She is one of four siblings.

She would go to her stepfather's childhood home, which wasn't too far from Selma, Alabama, during her summer breaks. Due to the fact that her father had witnessed the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, DuVernay claimed that these summers had an impact on the creation of Selma.

DuVernay received his diploma from Saint Joseph High School in Lakewood in 1990. She pursued a dual BA at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in English literature and African-American studies. The sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha welcomes Ava as an honorary member.

Career

Despite her success in the film and television sectors, DuVernay didn't start using a camera until she was 32 years old. An internship with CBS News had a big impact on DuVernay's decision to pursue journalism as her first passion. She was tasked with assisting with the O.J. Trial for Simpson's murder. However, DuVernay lost interest in journalism and made the decision to enter the field of public relations. She began by working as a junior publicist at 20th Century Fox, Savoy Pictures, and a few other PR firms. In 1999, she established The DuVernay Agency, often known as DVAPR, as her own public relations business.

She worked on marketing campaigns for films and television programmes such Lumumba, Spy Kids, Shrek 2, The Terminal, Collateral, and Dreamgirls through her company, DVAPR, which offers marketing and PR services to the entertainment and leisure industries.

Among DuVernay's other projects is the Urban Beauty Collective, a marketing network that debuted in 2003 and by 2008 had grown to include 20 U.S. cities and more than 10,000 African-American beauty and barbershops. They received free mailers from Urban Eye, a daily two-minute celebrity and entertainment news show distributed to radio stations, HelloBeautiful, a digital platform for millennial women of colour, and UBC-TV, a free monthly Access Hollywood-style promotion programme.

Film

Over the Christmas break in 2005, DuVernay made the decision to spend $6,000 on her first film, a short called Saturday Night Life. The 12-minute movie, which was based on her mother's experiences, told the inspiring story of a struggling single mother (Melissa De Sousa) taking her three children to a nearby budget grocery store in Los Angeles. The movie made its way around the festival circuit before being aired on February 6, 2007, as a part of Showtime's Black Filmmaker Showcase.

The second thing DuVernay looked into was producing documentaries because they could be made on a cheaper budget than fiction films and she could pick up skills in the process. In 2007, she made her feature directorial debut with the alternative hip hop documentary This Is the Life, a history of LA's Good Life Cafe's arts movement, in which she took part as a member of the duo Figures of Speech. For the short Compton in C Minor, she "challenged herself to capture Compton in only two hours and present whatever she found." This is the Life garnered audience prizes at the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival in Seattle, the Hollywood Black Film Festival, the Los Angeles Pan-African Film Festival, and the ReelWorld Film Festival in Toronto.

I'll Comply

Article focus: I Will Follow (the movie).

I Will Follow, a 2011 drama starring Salli Richardson-Whitfield and directed by Ava DuVernay, was released in theatres. The movie was inspired by DuVernay's aunt Denise Sexton. In a recent interview, DuVernay discussed how her real-life experiences differed from the storyline: "I was a carer for my aunt, Denise Sexton, in the last year and a half of her life. She was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. She was a fighter and was active in her treatment to the end, which was different from the character in the film who wants to fight in a I Will Follow was an official selection of AFI Fest, Pan-African Film Festival, Urbanworld, and Chicago International Film Festival. Roger Ebert praised it as "one of the best films I've seen about coming to terms with the death of a loved one."

DuVernay didn't completely quit her career in public relations until after I Will Follow. DuVernay said: "I knew that as a Black woman in this industry, I wouldn't have people knocking down my door to give me money for my projects, so I was happy to make them on the side while working my day job."

Nowhere in Particular

Middle of Nowhere, a 2012 motion picture

Middle of Nowhere, which DuVernay is directing, is her second narrative feature film. The script for the movie was written by DuVernay in 2003 but she was unable to secure funding for it. She drew inspiration for the movie from her own upbringing in Compton and Inglewood. The wife of an inmate who is serving a 10-year sentence is the subject of the narrative. In order to devote more time and emotional energy to her incarcerated spouse, she withdraws from medical school. The movie exposes how frequently this burden of incarceration falls on women of colour and examines how the relatives of the prisoners are also victims of the system. According to DuVernay, who discussed the film's motivation in an interview with the LA Times, "The idea of looking at the victims of incarceration - the mothers, sisters, and daughters -- really came out of knowing women who were going through it."

At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it competed in the American dramatic competition, the movie had its world premiere on January 20. It won over the US. Dramatic for DuVernay in the director's prize. She received the award for the first time as an African-American woman. For her contribution on the movie, DuVernay also received the 2012 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian commissioned DuVernay to make a movie about African-American history. Six historical occurrences that took place on August 28 in various years are examined in her book August 28: A Day in the Life of a People. It made its premiere on September 24, 2016, at the opening of the museum. Lupita Nyong'o, Don Cheadle, Regina King, David Oyelowo, Angela Bassett, Michael Ealy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, André Holland, and Glynn Turman are among the cast members of the 22-minute movie. William IV's royal assent to the UK Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, the 1955 Mississippi lynching of Emmett Till, age 14, the release of "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvellettes, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 I Have a Dream speech, Hurricane Katrina's landfall in 2005, and the night Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president at the 2008 Democratic National Convention are among the events depicted.

DuVernay's mission and "call to action" is to "further and foster the Black cinematic image in an organised and consistent way, and to not have to defer and ask permission to traffic our films: to be self-determining," according to Michael T. Martin, who also describes her as being among the vanguard of a new generation of Black filmmakers who are the "busily undeterred catalyst for what may very well be a Black film renaissance in the making."

The DuVernay test is the racial equivalent of the Bechdel test (for women in movies), as first proposed by The Guardian writers Nadia and Leila Latif and then by The New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis in January 2016 asking whether "blacks and other minorities have fully realised lives rather than serve as scenery in white stories."

Selma

Main text: Selma (the movie)

Selma, a dramatic movie with a $20 million budget, directed by Ava DuVernay, is about the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights, which was led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson. On December 25, 2014, Plan B Entertainment released the critically acclaimed film. Selma will be a historical milestone in the history of biopics because, according to DuVernay, it will be "the first major feature film in theatres that has anything to do with King's essential character" in an interview at Indiana University.

To make King and the residents of Selma the main characters, she uncreditedly rewrote the majority of the original screenplay by Paul Webb. The biggest mistake of her career, according to DuVernay, was letting Paul Webb "take credit for writing Selma when I wrote it." In response to criticism from some historians and media sources who accused her of irresponsibly rewriting history to portray her own agenda, DuVernay said that the movie is "not a documentary. I don't study history. As a storyteller, I am.

This film was the only one directed by a person of colour that was nominated for the 87th Academy Awards. The award for Best Original Song went to "Glory" from Selma. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song, but not Best Director, at the 2014 Academy Awards. DuVernay said that she had not expected to be nominated as director, so the omiss was not surprising.

DuVernay declined the opportunity to direct Black Panther, Marvel's first movie about a superhero of colour, after Selma, saying in an interview with Essence, "I think I'll just say we had different ideas about what the story would be. Marvel operates in a particular manner that I find to be amazing, and many people adore what they do. She also stated her support for the project continuing forward, saying, "I love the character of Black Panther, the nation of Wakanda, and all that that could be visually. I loved that they reached out to me." I'll be the first in queue to see it and wish them luck.

13th

The thirteenth (movie)

In July 2016, the New York Film Festival made the surprise announcement that 13th, a documentary directed by DuVernay, would open the festival. Until the announcement no mention of the film had been made by either DuVernay or Netflix, the film's distributor. Centered on race in the United States criminal justice system, the film is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery (except as punishment for a crime). DuVernay's documentary opens with the statement that 25 percent of the people in the world who are incarcerated are incarcerated in the U.S., and argues that slavery has been effectively perpetuated in the U.S. through disproportionate mass incarceration of people of color. The film features several prominent activists, politicians, and public figures, such as Bryan Stevenson, Angela Davis, Van Jones, Newt Gingrich, Cory Booker, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Michelle Alexander, and others, who discuss such issues as convict leasing, the war on drugs, and disproportionate arrests, convictions and sentencing of minorities. It was also the first critically acclaimed documentary to highlight the tragic story of Kalief Browder.

13th was released on Netflix on October 7, 2016, and received positive reviews from critics. It has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 94 reviews, and the consensus among them is that it "strikes at the heart of America's tangled racial history," offering observations that are both explosive and restrained. In an interview with Awards Circuit, Angela Davis said that "13th is probably the most important movie you'll ever see."

The Time Warp

A Wrinkle in Time, a 2018 motion picture

Following the success of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Disney announced the hiring of Jeff Stockwell to write the screenplay for Cary Granat and his new Bedrock Studios. Cary Granat had previously worked with Disney on the Chronicles of Narnia and Bridge to Terabithia films. In 2010, it was announced that Disney carried the film rights to Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 novel A Wrinkle in Time.

Filming for A Wrinkle in Time began in November 2016. DuVernay is the second woman, after Patty Jenkins (who directed Wonder Woman), to have directed a live-action movie with a budget of over $100 million.

Despite Disney's Q2 earnings report in May 2018, Yahoo! Finance predicted the movie would cost the studio between $86 and 186 million. A Wrinkle in Time still made the list of the top 100 grossing movies of 2018, making Ava DuVernay one of four female directors to do so. The movie was released in March 2018 and earned $33 million in its opening weekend, placing second at the box office behind Black Panther.

The movie received mixed reviews once it came out, with some "taking issue with the film's heavy use of CGI and numerous plot holes" and others "celebrating its message of female empowerment and diversity."

Television

The first, two-hour concert film TV One Night Only: Live from the Essence Music Festival, which aired on August 28, 2010, on TV One, featured live performances and behind-the-scenes vignettes and showcased the U.S.'s largest annual African-American entertainment gathering, the Essence Music Festival, which in 2010 was held July 2-4 in New Orleans. Two days later, BET premiered its first original music documentary, My Mic Soun, which was directed by DuVernay.

DuVernay's 44-minute documentary special Essence Presents: Faith Through the Storm, about two Black sisters who recovered their lives after experiencing personal catastrophe during Hurricane Katrina, aired on TV One on Thanksgiving 2010 and was produced for a client, Essence. Because it was so important to them, they wanted to discuss how their faith had gotten them through. Gospel music, pictures of Katrina, their house, and family are so interspersed.

For their film series Nine for IX, which debuted on July 2, 2013, ESPN commissioned DuVernay to create and direct Venus Vs., a documentary on Venus Williams's quest for equal prize money.

As the broadcast premiere of the performance-and-interview series HelloBeautiful Interludes Live, DuVernay also directed the John Legend episode, which aired on TV One on September 14, 2013.

Additionally, she was the director of Scandal's eighth episode of the third season, "Vermont is for Lovers, Too," which had its television premiere on ABC on November 21, 2013.

The CBS civil rights crime drama pilot For Justice, starring Anika Noni Rose, was executive produced and directed by DuVernay in 2015; however, it was not picked up for distribution.

The drama series Queen Sugar, based on the book by Natalie Baszile, was announced by DuVernay to be created and executive produced in the same year.

On August 1, 2016, the series was renewed for a second season ahead of its television debut; it aired in a two-night premiere on June 20 and 21, 2017. The series was renewed for a third season on July 26, 2017. In August 2018, OWN renewed the series for a fourth season, which premiered on June 12, 2019. Queen Sugar made its television debut on September 6, 2016, on the Oprah Winfrey Network to positive reviews. DuVernay wrote four episodes and directed two.

When They See Us was created by Ava DuVernay, who also served as executive producer, co-writer, and director. Other executive producers credited include Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Oprah Winfrey, Jane Rosenthal, and Berry Welsh. Production companies involved with the series included Participant Media, Harpo Films, and Tribeca Productions. On July 6, 2017, it was announced that Netflix had given the production When They See Us a series order consisting of four episodes.

It garnered a record-breaking 16 nominations for Emmy Awards for writing, directing, and acting for leads and supporting performers. On June 25, 2019, Netflix stated that the miniseries had been streamed by over 23 million viewers within its first month of release.

Music videos and Advertisements

In 2013, DuVernay collaborated with Miu Miu as part of their Women's Tales film series. Her short film The Door, which debuted online in February 2013 and was shown at the Venice Days sidebar of the 70th Venice International Film Festival in August, starred actress Gabrielle Union and brought DuVernay and her Middle of Nowhere co-star Emayatzy Corinealdi back together.

The second branded short film, Say Yes, which was sponsored by the cosmetic company Fashion Fair and stars Kali Hawk, Lance Gross, Julie Dash, Victoria Mahoney, Lorraine Toussaint, and Issa Rae, was also published by DuVernay in August 2013 via Vimeo.

Chapter 1, which debuted on September 20, 2015 during Fox's Emmy broadcast, was the first of three commercials directed by DuVernay for Apple Music and their advertising agency Translation in 2015.Chapters 2 and 3 followed in November 2015 and February 2016, respectively.

On December 29, 2017, her music video for the Jay-Z and Beyoncé song "Family Feud" debuted on Tidal.

Distribution and Creation of Films

The main text is ARRAY

DuVernay founded African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM) in 2010 to release films made by or starring Black people. DuVernay describes AFFRM as "not so much a business, but a call to action."

Additionally, DuVernay owns the film and television production company Forward Movement.

Future Initiatives

She revealed in 2013 that she was working on a Compton-set narrative feature film with the working title Part of the Sky.

David Oyelowo was reportedly involved in the project when it was revealed that Ava DuVernay would be writing, producing, and directing a fictitious account that will focus on the "social and environmental" aspects of Hurricane Katrina while also featuring a love tale and a murder mystery.

On May 29, 2019, DuVernay revealed that she and Tom King will co-write the picture; by April 2021, the film was no longer moving forward. In 2018, it was announced that DuVernay would be directing a New Gods film for the DC Extended Universe.

On October 29, 2018, it was revealed that DuVernay would collaborate with the Prince estate to helm a Netflix biopic on his life; however, in August 2019, DuVernay resigned from the position owing to "creative differences."

Colin in Black & White, a six-episode series developed by Ava DuVernay and Colin Kaepernick and set to premiere on Netflix in 2020, will focus on Kaepernick's youth and the different incidents that shaped him into the activist he is today.

On February 11, 2020, rumours circulated that Ava DuVernay might co-produce and film a Netflix documentary about Nipsey Hussle.

Her following movie, Caste, a Netflix original movie based on the book by Isabel Wilkerson, will be released in October 2020.

Other Tasks

The Call-In is a podcast series that DuVernay started in September 2013 with AFFRM. DuVernay explains her goals with The Call-In: "For people of colour and women filmmakers, so often the questions we get asked are about being a woman or a person of colour. Therefore, The Call-In served as a forum for us to simply discuss craft.

On October 27, 2013, DuVernay delivered one of the executive keynote addresses for Film Independent, a non-profit organisation that organises the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Film Independent Spirit Awards. She was one of two keynote speakers alongside Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, at the three-day 2013 Film Independent Form.

In a keynote speech at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival, DuVernay revealed that she was the seventh person to be asked to direct Selma and that, despite being an honour to attend, the 2015 Oscars were just "a room in L.A." for her.

The Evolve Entertainment Fund, founded by DuVernay, producer Dan Lin, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, aims to foster inclusion and give members of underserved communities the chance to pursue their aspirations in the entertainment industry.

DuVernay has appeared in wraparounds on Turner Classic Movies each Saturday night, discussing a variety of movies, including Marty, Ashes and Embers, Harlan County, USA, and La Pointe Courte. Since May 2019, DuVernay has cohosted The Essentials, a weekly film series on the network with Ben Mankiewicz.

Design and Themes

DuVernay is interested in two main topics: first, the complexities of the Black American family, especially "Black women's agency and subjectivity" within the family and within a racist, patriarchal society; and second, the injustices that have affected and continue to affect Black families and communities throughout history.

For instance, Selma, a movie about Martin Luther King Jr. and a historical march, makes a big effort to centre and explore the significant female activists who participated in the event: "Each woman is shown within the film to propel the Selma campaign."

One of the social issues that DuVernay repeatedly returns to in her work is mass incarceration and the effects of incarceration on African American communities. This is the main topic of her Netflix documentary, 13th, which finds the roots of mass incarceration in the legal end of slavery. The film moves chronologically through history, keeping "a running total of the rapidly rising incarceration numbers since the 1970s; it works to contextualize these rising digits with a grand narrative that weaves together the racist, political, and financial motivations that paved the nation's way to mass incarceration." DuVernay's television work addresses this as well: When They See Us depicts the ways in which the U.S. justice system targets Black people and other people of color, and in her show Queen Sugar one of the primary characters "is a convicted felon whose prison past makes it difficult for him to find a job and puts an ongoing strain on his relationship with his family." This is an issue that DuVernay returns to again and again in her work.

Middle of Nowhere, which centres on a Black woman and shows how incarceration affects her life and the lives of her family, encapsulates both of DuVernay's interests. This fictional story highlights the ways in which incarceration infiltrates even those who are not in prison through close association with someone who is incarcerated.

The cinematography and staging of the film emphasizes the protagonist, Ruby's, own entrapment via association to incarceration. Ruby puts her life on hold to provide emotional, legal, and financial support for her incarcerated husband, Derek. In Marquita Smith's analysis of the film, she explains that "carceral logic dictates that those who desire to maintain contact with incarcerated spouses...must endure an often invisible form of punishment...which criminalizes caring for the incarcerated." When Ruby visits Derek, the camera takes special notice of the ways in which her own freedoms and bodily autonomy are restricted within the prison: "the camera follows the various examination acts, lingering on Ruby's body parts as they are inspected." Lastly, there is a visual parallel drawn between the women who are visiting and the inmates. The women are often shown in lines and shot from behind fences and bars. They are herded into the visitation room in a way that parallels the male prisoners. DuVernay frames Ruby in a larger context of incarceration and its peripheral effects by showing her among a community of women whose situations parallel Ruby's. We see Ruby riding the bus to the prison with many other women, most of whom are Black, waiting in line with these women, and eventually being shuffled into the meeting area with these women. In the scene where Ruby visits Derek on their anniversary after hearing that he is up for parole, the camera pans over many other couples who sit in the visiting room with them- "by panning to show the various families in the visitation room before focusing on the protagonist, the film enables viewers to see beyond Ruby's individual happiness and recognize the importance of intimacy for the collective."

Filmography

Film

Year

Title

Director

Writer

Producer

2010

I Will Follow

Yes

Yes

Yes

2012

Middle of Nowhere

Yes

Yes

Yes

2014

Selma

Yes

No

No

2018

A Wrinkle in Time

Yes

No

No

TBA

Caste

Yes

Yes

Yes

Executive producer

  • The White Tiger (2021)

Short films

Year

Title

Director

Writer

Producer

2006

Saturday Night Life

Yes

Yes

No

2013

The Door

Yes

Yes

Yes

Say Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Documentary films

Year

Title

Director

Writer

Producer

Notes

2007

Compton in C Minor

Yes

No

Yes

Short

2008

This is the Life

Yes

Yes

Yes


2016

August 28: A Day in the Life of a People

Yes

Yes

Yes

Short

13th

Yes

Yes

Yes


Television

Year

Title

Director

Writer

Executive
Producer

Creator

Notes

2013

Scandal

Yes

No

No

No

Episode "Vermont is for Lovers, Too"

2015

For Justice

Yes

No

Yes

No

Unaired TV pilot

2016–2022

Queen Sugar

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Writer (4 episodes), Director (2 episodes)

2019

When They See Us

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Director (4 episodes)

The Red Line

No

No

Yes

No


2020–present

Cherish the Day

No

Yes

Yes

Yes


2021

Colin in Black & White

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Episode "Cornrows"

Home Sweet Home

No

No

Yes

Yes


2022

Naomi

No

Yes

Yes

Yes


DMZ

Yes

No

Yes

No

Episode "Good Luck"

Documentary series

Year

Title

Director

Writer

Producer

2010

TV One Night Only: Live from the Essence Music Festival

Yes

Yes

No

My Mic Sounds Nice: A Truth About Women and Hip Hop

Yes

No

executive

Essence Presents: Faith Through the Storm

Yes

Yes

Yes

2013

Venus Vs.

Yes

Yes

No

HelloBeautiful Interludes Live: John Legend

Yes

No

No

Commercials

Year

Title

Notes

2015–2016

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3

Apple Music

Music video

Year

Title

Director

Writer

Producer

2017

"Family Feud," Jay-Z ft. Beyoncé

Yes

Yes

Yes

Awards, nominations, honors

Year

Award

Category

Work

Result

2011

African-American Film Critics

Best Screenplay

I Will Follow

Won

2012

Black Reel Awards

Best Screenplay

Nominated

Best Director

Nominated

NAACP Image Awards

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture

Nominated

Sundance Film Festival

Directing Award

Middle of Nowhere

Won

Grand Jury Prize

Nominated

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award

Won

Humanitas Prize

Sundance Film

Nominated

African-American Film Critics

Best Independent Film

Won

Best Screenplay

Won

Best Picture

Nominated

Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Best Woman Screenwriter

Nominated

Women Film Critics Circle

Josephine Baker Award

Won

2013

Black Reel Awards

Best Director

Won

Best Screenplay

Won

Best Film

Nominated

Gotham Awards

Best Feature

Nominated

2014

Online Film Critics Society Award

Best Director

Selma

Nominated

Black Film Critics Circle

Best Director

Won

Central Ohio Film Critics Association

Best Director

Won

Breakthrough Film Artist

Won

Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award

Best Director

Nominated

Georgia Film Critics Association

Best Director

Nominated

Breakthrough Award

Nominated

Golden Globe Award

Best Director

Nominated

Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Best Director

Nominated

Best Woman Director

Won

Female Icon of the Year

Won

Critics' Choice Movie Awards

Best Director

Nominated

Satellite Awards

Best Director

Nominated

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Best Director

Nominated

African-American Film Critics Association

Best Director

Won

Black Reel Awards

Black Reel Award for Best Director

Won

NAACP Image Award

Outstanding Director

Nominated

Online Film Critics Society

Best Director

Nominated

Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards

Best Director

Nominated

2016

Grammy Awards

Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media

Nominated

Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Best Woman Director

13th

Won

Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry

Won

Black Reel Awards

Best Film

Nominated

Best Feature Documentary

Won

Critics' Choice Documentary Awards

Best Director (TV/Streaming)

Won

Women Film Critics Circle

Best Woman Storyteller (Screenwriting Award)

Won

Courage in Filmmaking

Won

2017

Academy Award

Best Documentary Feature

Nominated

Primetime Emmy Award

Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special

Won

Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming

Nominated

Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming

Won

2018

BET Awards

Video Director of the Year

"Family Feud"

Won

2019

TCA Awards

Program of the Year

When They See Us

Nominated

Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials

Nominated

Primetime Emmy Awards

Outstanding Limited Series

Nominated

Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special

Nominated

Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special

Nominated

2020

Directors Guild of America Award

Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film

Nominated

Producers Guild of America Award

Best Limited Series Television

Nominated

Quick Bio

Nickname

Ava

Gender

Female

Age

50 years old (in 2023)

Date of Birth

August 24, 1972

Full Name

Ava Marie DuVernay

Profession

Filmmaker and Film distributor

Nationality

American

Birthplace

Long Beach, California, United States

Religion

Not Known

Zodiac Sign

Virgo

Qualification

Double BA Major in “English literature” and “African-American” Studies

School

Saint Joseph High School in Lakewood

College

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Profession

Filmmaker and Film distributor

Net Worth

USD $60 million approx.

Height, Weight & Physical Stats

Body Measurements

34-24-36 inches

Body type

Average

Height

5 feet 6 inches (1.67 m)

Waist

24 inches

Hair Color

Black

Eye Color

Brown

Family & Relatives

Father

Joseph DuVernay Jr.

Mother

Darlene Maye

Brother

None

Sister

Jina DuVernay

Marital Status

Single

No. of Children

None

Facts

  • She had never gone to any film school and had always dreamed of being a journalist. She had not even used a film camera until she was 32 years old, making her a late bloomer in the area of filmmaking.
  • She received the 'Directing Award' at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her work on the direction of Middle of Nowhere. She accomplished the accomplishment for the first time as a black woman.
  • She had been nominated for the Best Director prize at the 2014 Golden Globe Awards as well as the Best Picture prize at the 2015 Academy Awards for her direction of Selma. She was the first female black director to accomplish both of those goals.
  • She made history by directing the science fiction adventure movie A Wrinkle in Time (2018), making her the first black woman to have directed a live-action picture to gross more than USD 100 million in the United States.
  • She was chosen to serve on the directors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 'Board of Governors' in 2020.
  • Ava's business, Array, was discovered to have terminated a multi-year agreement with Spotify in February 2022 and would no longer produce podcasts for the firm.
  • Ava won the Gracie Award for "Best Family Series" for Home Sweet Home in May 2022.
  • Ava wears corrective lenses or spectacles because she is nearsighted (myopic).
  • Ava used the money she had set aside for her home to produce her first narrative feature.
  • With the cash she received for directing A Wrinkle in Time (2018), she purchased three properties close to Echo Park in Los Angeles.

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