Ava DuVernay Biography, Age, Husband, Movies, Selma, 13th, Net Worth

Ava DuVernay Biography  | Who Is Ava DuVernay?

Ava DuVernay born Ava Marie DuVernay is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film marketer, and film distributor. She was the first black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her work on Selma (2014). Ava won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, and becoming the first black woman to win the award.

She was also the first black female director to have her film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture with Selma. She was then nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for her film 13th (2016) in 2017.

Her 2018 fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time, had a production and marketing budget between $150 million and $250 million, and this made her the first black-American woman to direct a live-action film with a budget of that size. A Wrinkle in Time also made her the first black-American woman to direct a film that then earned at least $100 million domestically, though the movie then failed to turn a profit.

Ava DuVernay Age | How Old Is Ava DuVernay?

Ava Marie DuVernay was born on August 24, 1972 in Long Beach, California, U.S. She is 46 years old as of 2018.

Ava DuVernay Photo

Ava DuVernay Family

Ava was born to Darlene, an educator, and her father, Murray Maye. She then grew up in Lynwood, California, which is near Compton. Ava would travel to the childhood home of her father, which was not far from Selma, Alabama during her summer vacations.

She said that the summers influenced the making of Selma, as her father saw the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches as a small child.

Ava DuVernay Husband | Ava DuVernay Married

Ava is considered single as she has not disclosed any information regarding her dating life or marriage.

Ava DuVernay Children

Ava has no children yet.

Ava DuVernay Career

Ava’s first interest was in journalism, a choice influenced by an internship with CBS News, where she was then assigned to help cover the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Ava became disillusioned with journalism however, and then decided to move into public relations, working as a junior publicist at 20th Century Fox, Savoy Pictures, and also a few other PR agencies before opening her own public relations firm, The DuVernay Agency, which is also known as DVAPR, in 1999.

Through the agency she provided marketing and PR services to the entertainment and lifestyle industry, where she worked on campaigns for movies and television shows such as Lumumba, Spy Kids, Shrek 2, The Terminal, Collateral, and Dreamgirls.

Director Ava DuVernay

Over the Christmas holiday of 2005, Ava decided to take $6,000 and make her first film, a short called Saturday Night Life. The film was based on her mother’s experiences, the 12-minute film about an uplifting trip by a struggling single mother (Melissa De Sousa) and also her three kids to a local Los Angeles discount grocery store toured the festival circuit and was then broadcast on February 6, 2007, as part of Showtime’s Black Filmmaker Showcase.

Ava then moved on to documentaries because she realized they can be done on a smaller budget than fiction films, and she also could learn the trade while doing so.

Ava DuVernay When They See Us

DuVernay created, co-wrote, and directed the 2019 American drama web television miniseries, When They See Us (originally Central Park Five). The series is based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case and explores the lives of the five suspects who were prosecuted on charges related to her assault, and their families. The series premiered on May 31, 2019 on Netflix.

The film stars; Asante Blackk as Kevin Richardson, Justin Cunningham as adult Kevin Richardson, Caleel Harris as Antron McCray, Jovan Adepo as adult Antron McCray, Ethan Herisse as Yusef Salaam, Chris Chalk as adult Yusef Salaam, Jharrel Jerome as Korey Wise, Marquis Rodriguez as Raymond Santana, Freddy Miyares as adult Raymond Santana, Marsha Stephanie Blake as Linda McCray, Kylie Bunbury as Angie Richardson, Aunjanue Ellis as Sharonne Salaam, Vera Farmiga as Elizabeth Lederer, Felicity Huffman as Linda Fairstein, John Leguizamo as Raymond Santana Sr., Niecy Nash as Delores Wise, and Michael K. Williams as Bobby McCray.

The streaming service announced on Wednesday 12 June 2019 that When They See Us was the most watched series on Netflix in the US since its May 31, premiere.

Ava DuVernay 13th | 13 Ava DuVernay | 13th By Ava DuVernay

The New York Film Festival made the surprise announcement in July 2016 that 13th, a documentary directed by DuVernay, would open the festival. Until the announcement, there was no mention of the film by either DuVernay or Netflix, who are the film’s distributor. The film is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery (unless as punishment for a crime) which is centered on race in the United States criminal justice system.
Ava’s documentary opens with the idea that 25 percent of the people in the world who are incarcerated are incarcerated in the U.S. and also argues that slavery is being effectively perpetuated in the U.S. through mass incarceration. The film then features several prominent activists, politicians, and also public figures such as, Angela Davis, Bryan Stevenson, Van Jones, Newt Gingrich, Cory Booker, Henry Louis Gates Jr., among others.

Selma Ava DuVernay

Ava directed Selma, a $20 million budget film produced by Plan B Entertainment, about Martin Luther King, Jr., Lyndon B. Johnson, and also the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march. The movie was then released on December 25, 2014 to critical acclaim.

For the film, DuVernay did uncredited re-writes of most of the original screenwriter Paul Webb’s script with an increased emphasis on King and also the people of Selma as central figures. In the response to the criticisms of historians and also media sources that accused her of irresponsibly rewriting history to portray her own agenda, Ava pointed out that the film is “not a documentary. I’m not a historian. I’m a storyteller”

The film was then nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song, but not Best Director, at the Academy Awards.

Ava DuVernay A Wrinkle In Time | A Wrinkle In Time Ava DuVernay

It was announced that Disney carried the film rights to the 1962 novel A Wrinkle in Time in 2010. Following the success of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Disney then announced the hire of Jeff Stockwell to write the screenplay for Cary Granat and also his new Bedrock Studios. Cary Granat had before worked with Disney on the Chronicles of Narnia and also Bridge to Terabithia films. Jennifer Lee was announced as the screenwriter on August 5, 2014. He took over from Stockwell, who had written the first draft. It was then on February 8, 2016 reported that Ava had been offered to direct the film, and she was also confirmed as director later that same month.

A Wrinkle in Time began its filming in November 2016. Ava is the first woman of color to direct a live-action film with a budget of over $100 million, and also the second woman to do so after Patty Jenkins (who directed Wonder Woman).

The film was then released in March 2018 and also brought in $33 million its opening weekend, second at the box office behind Black Panther.

Middle Of Nowhere Ava DuVernay

Ava began production on her second narrative feature film in the summer of 2011, Middle of Nowhere, off a script she had written in 2003 but couldn’t get financed then. The film then had its world premiere on January 20 at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it then played in U.S. dramatic competition and hence garnered the U.S. Directing Award: Dramatic for DuVernay, the first African-American woman to ever win the prize. Ava also won the 2012 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for her work on the film.

I Will Follow Ava DuVernay

Ava first narrative feature film, I Will Follow, a drama starring Salli Richardson-Whitfield, was released theatrically in 2011. Her aunt Denise Sexton was the inspiration for the film. The film cost her $50,000 and was then made in 14 days. Roger Ebert called it “one of the best films I’ve seen about coming to terms with the death of a loved one.” I Will Follow was then an official selection of AFI Fest, Pan-African Film Festival, Urbanworld and Chicago International Film Festival.

The Door Ava DuVernay

Ava partnered with Miu Miu as part of their Women’s Tales film series in 2013. Her short film The Door starred actress Gabrielle Union and also reunited Ava with her Middle of Nowhere star Emayatzy Corinealdi. The film which premiered online in February 2013 was presented at the Venice Days sidebar of the 70th Venice International Film Festival in August.

Ava DuVernay Queen Sugar

Ava announced in 2015 that she would be creating and executive producing the drama series Queen Sugar, based on Natalie Baszile’s novel.

Queen Sugar then premiered September 6, 2016 on Oprah Winfrey Network to critical acclaim and positive reviews. Ava directed two episodes and wrote four. The series was then renewed on August 1, 2016 for a second season ahead of its television premiere which then aired in a two-night premiere on June 20 and June 21, 2017. The series was then renewed for a third season on July 26, 2017.

Ava DuVernay Documentaries

13th

This Is the Life – 2008

My Mic Sounds Nice: The Truth About Women in Hip Hop – 2010

Half the Picture

13th: A Conversation with Oprah Winfrey & Ava DuVernay

August 28th – 2017

Life Itself – 2017

Ava DuVernay Production Company

Ava founded her production company, Array Now in 2010. It is a grassroots distribution, arts and advocacy collective focused on films by people of color and women. It was founded under the name African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM) but later rebranded as ARRAY in 2015.

Ava DuVernay Quotes

Some of DuVernay’s very famous quotes include;

“We [Americans] know Martin Luther King Jr. as a statue. We know him as a holiday. We know him as a speech. We don’t know him as a man. Most people don’t even know the whole speech, just “I have a dream.” They don’t know what his speaking voice was like, how he looked at his wife, or that he had four kids.”

“Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.”

“If your dream only includes you, it’s too small.”

“I love making films. I’m happiest when I’m doing it. For me, the fear is not being able to make the next thing and not being able, as a woman filmmaker and as a filmmaker of color, to put together the resources to make another thing.”

“Time will tell … whether folks want to point and stare at the black woman filmmaker who made a certain kind of film, and pat her on the back, or if they want to actually roll up the sleeves and do a little bit of work so that there can be more of me coming through.”

“There’s something very important about films about black women and girls being made by black women. It’s a different perspective. It is a reflection as opposed to an interpretation, and I think we get a lot of interpretations about the lives of women that are not coming from women.”

“Don’t wait for permission to do something creative.”

“Hollywood needs more women directors, and Mama Ava needs a carafe and a half of that sweet vino divino.”

Ava DuVernay Net Worth

The award-winning filmmaker and former publicist has an estimated net worth of $60 million.

Ava DuVernay Gay

There is no any available information regarding Ava’s sexual orientation.

Ava DuVernay Barbie

The Ava DuVernay Barbie Doll is sculipted to the likeness of DuVernay. Fittingly, she sits in a director’s chair wearing a black turtleneck sweater, jeans and red sneakers. Her hair is long in a natural style and she sports a chunky wooden bangle on one wrist and a braided bracelet on the other. DuVernay has generously donated the doll proceeds to the non-profit organization, Witness that trains and supports people using video in their fight for human rights, and to ColorofChange, a non-profit organization that serves as the political voice of underrepresented communities.

Ava DuVernay Movies and TV Shows

Ava DuVernay Movies | Ava DuVernay Films

I Will Follow – 2010 (as director, writer, and producer)
Middle of Nowhere – 2012 (as director, writer, and producer)
Selma – 2014 (as writer and executive producer)
A Wrinkle in Time – 2018 (as director)
Saturday Night Life – 2006 (as director and writer)
The Door – 2013 (as director and writer)
Say Yes – 2013 (as director and writer)

Ava DuVernay TV Shows

Scandal – 2013 (as director)
For Justice – 2015 (as director and executive producer)
Queen Sugar – 2016 (director, writer, and executive producer)
When They See Us – 2019 (director, writer, and executive producer)
The Red Line – 2019 (as executive producer)

Ava DuVernay Facebook

Ava DuVernay Twitter

https://twitter.com/ava

Ava DuVernay Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByoD5d3lOMM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Ava DuVernay Talks of 13th