Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker and former film publicist.
42 Facts About Ava DuVernay
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Ava DuVernay is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee of an Academy Award and Golden Globe.
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In 2017, Ava DuVernay was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
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Ava Marie DuVernay was born on August 24,1972, in Long Beach, California.
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Ava DuVernay said that these summers influenced the making of Selma, as her father had witnessed the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.
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In 1990, Ava DuVernay graduated from Saint Joseph High School in Lakewood.
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Ava DuVernay is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
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Ava DuVernay became disillusioned with journalism and decided to move into public relations, working as a junior publicist at 20th Century Fox, Savoy Pictures, and a few other PR agencies.
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Ava DuVernay opened her own public relations firm, The DuVernay Agency, known as DVAPR, in 1999.
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In 2005, over the Christmas holiday, Ava DuVernay decided to take $6,000 and make her first film, a short called Saturday Night Life.
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Ava DuVernay next explored making documentaries, because they can be done on a smaller budget than fiction films, and she could learn the trade while doing so.
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Ava DuVernay was a fighter and was active in her treatment to the end, which was different than the character in the film who wants to fight in a different way.
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Ava DuVernay was the first African-American woman to win the prize.
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Ava DuVernay won the 2012 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for her work on the film.
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Ava DuVernay was commissioned by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture to create a film about African-American history.
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Ava DuVernay directed Selma, a $20 million budget dramatic film, which is relatively low for a film of this caliber, about the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
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Ava DuVernay made uncredited re-writes of most of the original screenplay by Paul Webb in order to emphasize King and the people of Selma as central figures.
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Ava DuVernay said that she had not expected to be nominated as director, so the omission did not really bother her, but she was disappointed that actor David Oyelowo, who portrayed King, was not nominated as Best Actor.
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Ava DuVernay said that the obstacles to people of color being represented in the Academy Awards were systemic.
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Ava DuVernay's documentary opens with the statement that 25 percent of the people in the world who are incarcerated are incarcerated in the US, and argues that slavery has been effectively perpetuated in the US through disproportionate mass incarceration of people of color.
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On February 8,2016, it was reported that Ava DuVernay had been offered to direct the film, and she was confirmed as director later that same month.
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Ava DuVernay is the first African-American woman to direct a live-action film with a budget of over $100 million, and the second woman to do so after Patty Jenkins.
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Ava DuVernay directed the John Legend episode of the performance-and-interview series HelloBeautiful Interludes Live, which was shown September 14,2013, on TV One as the series' broadcast premiere.
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Ava DuVernay directed the eighth episode of the third season of the political thriller television series Scandal.
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In 2015, Ava DuVernay executive produced and directed the CBS civil rights crime drama pilot For Justice, starring Anika Noni Rose.
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That same year, Ava DuVernay announced she would be creating and executive producing the drama series Queen Sugar, based on Natalie Baszile's novel.
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The series was created by Ava DuVernay, who served as executive producer, co-writer, and director.
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In 2013, Ava DuVernay partnered with Miu Miu as part of their Women's Tales film series.
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Also in August 2013, Ava DuVernay released, through Vimeo, a second branded short film entitled Say Yes.
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In 2010 Ava DuVernay founded African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement, her own company to distribute films made by or focusing on Black people.
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Ava DuVernay owns Forward Movement, a film and television production company.
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In 2015, it was announced that Ava DuVernay would be writing, producing, and directing a fictional account which will focus on the "social and environmental" aspects of Hurricane Katrina while including a love story and a murder mystery.
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In 2018, it was announced that Ava DuVernay would be directing a New Gods film for the DC Extended Universe.
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On May 29,2019, Ava DuVernay announced that she and Tom King would co-write the film.
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On October 29,2018, it was announced that Ava DuVernay would be working with the estate of Prince to direct a biopic covering his life for Netflix.
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On February 11,2020, news reports speculated about Ava DuVernay possibly co-producing and directing a Nipsey Hussle documentary for Netflix.
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In September 2013, Ava DuVernay started a podcast series called The Call-In, a series of phone conversations recorded by AFFRM of Black filmmakers of feature narrative and documentary work.
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On October 27,2013, Ava DuVernay gave one of the Executive Keynote addresses for Film Independent, a non-profit organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, at their 2013 Film Independent Form, a three-day event.
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Ava DuVernay was one of two keynote speakers along with the chief executive officer of Netflix, Ted Sarandos.
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Since May 2019, Ava DuVernay has cohosted The Essentials, a weekly film series on Turner Classic Movies, with Ben Mankiewicz.
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Ava DuVernay has appeared in wraparounds each Saturday night on the channel, discussing a wide range of films, including Marty, Ashes and Embers, Harlan County, USA and La Pointe Courte.
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Ava DuVernay has two primary areas of interest: the first, exploring the intricacies of the Black American family, particularly "Black women's agency and subjectivity" within the family and within a racist, patriarchal society.