Age: 53
female
Ava Marie DuVernay (/ˌdjuːvərˈneɪ/; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. She is a recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, a BAFTA Film Award, and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. In 2011, she founded her independent distribution company ARRAY. After making her directorial debut with I Will Follow (2010), DuVernay won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film, Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first black woman to win the award. For her work on Selma (2014), a biopic about Martin Luther King Jr., DuVernay became the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the film went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Her other film credits include the Academy Award-nominated Netflix documentary 13th (2016) and the Disney fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time (2018), the latter making her the first African-American woman to direct a film with a $100 million budget. In 2023, she directed the biographical film Origin based on Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020). DuVernay's television credits include the OWN drama series Queen Sugar (2016) and two Netflix drama limited series: When They See Us (2019), based on the 1989 Central Park jogger case, and Colin in Black & White (2021), based on the teenage years of NFL player Colin Kaepernick. In 2017, DuVernay was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2020, she was elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board of governors as part of the directors branch. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ava DuVernay, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Ava DuVernay
Director
for Director in The Brightest Shadows: The Life of Ned Vizzini
Suggested by kamsismith
In The Brightest Shadows, we journey into the life of Ned Vizzini, a brilliant yet conflicted author whose works like It’s Kind of a Funny Story brought humor and hope to readers navigating their struggles with mental health. The film captures the highs and lows of Ned’s life, exploring his rise as a young literary sensation, his unfiltered take on adolescence and mental health, and the emotional burdens that often lay behind his wit and wisdom. Opening in Brooklyn, we see a teenage Ned finding solace in his writing, weaving stories that would one day resonate with readers across the globe. Through raw flashbacks and heartfelt narration, we witness the creation of his most beloved works, each fueled by Ned’s own battles with anxiety and depression. As his success grows, so do the complexities of fame and expectation, pressuring him to confront the dark side of creativity and mental illness. Anchored by the relationships that shaped him—including his family, mentors, and complex friendships with fellow writers—the film paints a nuanced portrait of a man who gave so much light to others while struggling to find his own. At its heart, The Brightest Shadows is a celebration of the courage it takes to speak honestly about mental health and a testament to the lasting legacy of a voice that still speaks to young people today.
