Ava DuVernay is a director, producer, writer and pioneer in the entertainment industry. She was the first Black woman to be awarded the Sundance Film Festival Best Director award in 2012. She became the first Black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe and the first Black female director to have a film nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. DuVernay was the first African-American woman with a movie production budget topping $100 million when she directed “A Wrinkle in Time”.
DuVernay has directed some of the decade’s finest cinema, and she has used her rise to fame to lift up other filmmakers. She founded the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement, a group dedicated to supporting the release and distribution of black indie movies. This championing of other people’s work, and using her voice to uplift people of color in the industry, makes DuVernay a hero and she is still making history.
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