Women to Admire: Ava DuVernay

For a few years now, Ava DuVernay has been the talk of directing in Hollywood. She’s made incredible movie after incredible movie, and that’s why she’s one of our Women to Admire.

Ava DuVernay has been on the scene for quite some time, but she’s had quite a lot of buzz for the past two years. From directing A Wrinkle in Time to landing New Gods to being an integral part of Time’s Up, to know Hollywood today is to know her name.

One important aspect of all of Ava’s work is her desire for inclusion and to make a cast that looks like everyday life. Look at A Wrinkle in Time. It wasn’t just an all-white cast (like most of the original TV movie).

All of Ava’s work is diverse, beautifully directed, and tells a story the world needs in that moment. She became the director to watch out for with her film Selma, about the civil rights era March to Selma, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of others marched to get the right to vote.

While the film didn’t win the Oscars it deserved, it is still regarded as one of the best out there. And that’s all because of Ava DuVernay and her visionary eye. She continues to impress us with her work (A Wrinkle in Time just being the latest), from the upcoming The Central Park Five to the aforementioned New Gods.

Truly, Ava is one of those directors that has you enthralled. Whether it is listening to her talk about movies or watching one of her works, you just want to have Ava’s approval. Maybe it is because they’re friends but truly, I have the same feelings about Ava that I do about Oprah. I just want to be their friend, basically.

Editor’s Note: Every day in March, we here at Culturess will feature a Woman to Admire — both real and fictional — for Women’s History Month. Keep coming back every day to see who’s made it on the list.