Check the Resume: Ava DuVernay
With A Wrinkle In Time, the filmmaker becomes the first African-American woman to direct a movie with a $100 million budget. Take a look back at the rest of her career.
Photo: Cara Robbins012008
**This is the Life**\ \ After a long stint as a film publicist, DuVernay took her first step into making movies with this documentary chronicling the underground hip-hop movement that sprang up from Los Angeles’ Good Life Cafe.
Photo: BET022010
**My Mic Sounds Nice: A Truth About Women and Hip Hop**\ \ Another documentary, this one for BET, explored the history of female emcees in hip-hop.
Photo: Everett Collection032010
**I Will Follow**\ \ For her first narrative feature, DuVernay took money she’d been saving to buy a house and put it toward this story of a woman grieving the death of her aunt.
Photo: AAFRM042012
**Middle of Nowhere**\ \ DuVernay’s second feature, about a woman who drops out of medical school to help her husband survive a prison sentence, landed her Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival.
Photo: Everett Collection052014
**Selma**\ \ With *Middle of Nowhere* star David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. and an appearance from Oprah Winfrey, *Selma* became an Academy Award Best Picture nominee and vaulted DuVernay into the directorial A-list.
Photo: Netflix062016
**13th**\ \ This documentary, a scathing indictment of how the US prison system effectively became a new form of slavery, received four Emmys (it was made for Netflix) and yet another Oscar nomination for Duvernay (this one for Best Documentary).
Photo: OWN072016
**Queen Sugar**\ \ The TV drama about a Louisiana family, which DuVernay created and directed multiple episodes for, turned Winfrey’s OWN Network into a destination for prestige scripted series.
Photo: Tidal082017
**Jay Z feat. Beyonce, “Family Feud”**\ \ Going from Oscar-nominated films to a music video might seem like an odd step, but when that video is a futuristic eight-minute parade of stars (Thandie Newton, Jessica Chastain, Omari Hardwick, etc.) that feels more like a short film, it’s got DuVernay written all over it.
Photo: Everett Collection092018
**A Wrinkle in Time**\ \ DuVernay's adaptation of the classic Madeiline L’Engle young-adult fantasy novel is her first feature since *Selma*, and promises timeless themes re-imagined for the current age.
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