Ava DuVernay – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SPOTLIGHT January 2026: Madame Toussaint, Tressie Souders, Maria P. Williams and Zora Neale Hurston

January 1, 2026January 18, 2026 Leslie Combemale Ava DuVernay, Black women filmmakers, Cheryl Dunye, jule dash, madame toussaint, maria p williams, nia dacosta, spotlight, zora neal thurston

The current political climate, systemic bias and gatekeeping in moviemaking impacts the industry’s entire workforce, but they hit Black women filmmakers hardest. Those who today are overcoming – count Nia DaCosta, Julie Dash, Cheryl Dunye, Ava Duvernay among them – can look back and thank the early 20th Century Black Women filmmakers whose work and careers pioneered the path to current successes. It’s important for film lovers and filmmakers to know film history, and to recognize artists who created the chronology. We SPOTLIGHT four Black Women filmmakers who are oft offed in the telling of cinema history. They must be remembered, honored, celebrated for their fearlessness, creativity, and determination. Their work deserves space in our brains and their names should be on the tips of our tongues, not sidelined or forgotten.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Ava DuVernay inducted into American Academy of Arts & Sciences – Brandy McDonnell reports

September 25, 2025September 26, 2025 Brandy McDonnell academy of motion picture arts and sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, american film institute, array, Ava DuVernay, directors guild of america, the week in women, twiw

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay will be inducted Oct. 11 into the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Established in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent research centers, bringing together luminaries from academia, the arts, industry, policy, research and science to confront challenges facing the United States and the world.

SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT June 2025: Cheryl Dunye, Iconic Queer Filmmaker

June 1, 2025June 4, 2025 Leslie Combemale Ava DuVernay, Cheryl Dunye, Dunyementary, Jingletown Films, Karina Hodoyán, leslie combemale, national film registry, Shaz Bennett, spotlight, the criterion collection, The Gilda Stories

It’s high time we created a SPOTLGHT feature on trailblazing female filmmaker Cheryl Dunye. Her 1996 feature film debut, The Watermelon Woman, made history as the first feature-length narrative written and directed by an out Black lesbian about Black lesbians. Along with classics like My Own Private Idaho and Paris is Burning, the film is considered a seminal work of the Queer New Wave movement. Dunye quite literally invented a film genre, the “Dunyementary,” a style of cinema in which the lines of documentary, fiction, and personal life are blurred together. Many films, projects on the small screen, and art videography have been inspired by her work over the years. These projects, that center queerness or Blackness or both, would otherwise not exist.

Awards Intelligencer

AWARDS INTELLIGENCER: The Snubs Heard Round the BARBIE Dreamhouse Bubble – Thelma Adams Reports

January 25, 2024January 26, 2024 Thelma Adams Ava DuVernay, awards intelligencer, Barbie, celine song, Christopher Nolan, greta gerwig, hilary clinton, justine triet, Margot Robbie, oscar snubs 2024, oscars, Ryan Gosling

I empathize with the director’s need to come from her heart. I honor the genuine disappointment that Gerwig and her star Robbie might have experienced after riding their wave of hype and success. Still, let’s insert a little context here. Barbie, despite its eight Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling) and Actress (America Ferrara), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and two Best Songs, is not your typical Oscar-winner.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK January 19, 2024: ORIGIN

January 13, 2024January 29, 2024 Jennifer Merin aunjanue ellis-taylor, Ava DuVernay, Bernthal, betsy bozdech, Blair Underwood, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, Cate Marquis, connie nielsen, Isabel Wilkerson, jennifer merin, leslie combemal, liz whittemore, loren king, Movie of the Week, nell minow, neon rated, Niecy Nash-Betts, nikki fowler, origin, pam brady, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, vera farmiga

Making a dramatic feature based on a nonfiction book can be a tricky proposition, but Ava DuVernay does it adeptly with her thought-provoking, powerfully moving Origin. Inspired by journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, the film combines the book’s arguments with Wilkerson’s experiences researching and writing it; the end result is a compelling look at trauma, grief, and the absolute tragedy of dehumanizing certain groups of people.

Awards Intelligencer

AWARDS INTELLIGENCER: Five Female Contenders for Best Director! Who’s on the List? – Thelma Adams reports

January 5, 2024January 26, 2024 Thelma Adams A.V. Rockwell, Ava DuVernay, awards intelligencer, best director, celine song, emerald fennell, greta gerwig, justine triet, nancy buirski, oscars

Imagine there’s no bias. It isn’t hard to do. What if all five Best Director nominees were women? Who would they be? When we put together our AWFJ EDA Awards Nominations, we managed it. We had our ultimate winner, Barbie’s Greta Gerwig, who has gone from the female-driven indie Lady Bird to the female-driven literary adaptation of Little Women to the 2023 blockbuster inspired by the iconic Mattel doll.

Reviews

ORIGIN – Review by Sherin Nicole

December 14, 2023December 18, 2023 Sherin Nicole aunjanue ellis-taylor, Ava DuVernay, Isabel Wilkerson, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash, origin

Ava DuVernay is a sculptor of non-fiction, shaping her films into something real and yet interpretive. Her best work is art and reality all at once. Origin is her finest work to date. A film that fills in the missing pieces of our societal woes and makes us want to shatter the mirror it holds up with equal potency.

Reviews

ORIGIN – Review by T.J. Callahan

December 6, 2023December 24, 2023 T. J. Callahan Aunjanue Ellis, Ava DuVernay, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Finn Wittrock, Isabel Wilkerson, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash, origin, vera farmiga

Origin is an historical fiction drama based on the non-fiction book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by journalist Isabel Wilkerson. In Caste, Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winning features writer and New York Times bestselling author, explains that America’s founding ideology and ideals of liberty and equality for all are really an enduring hierarchy that isn’t racial, but an unspoken caste system much like that which exists in India.

Reviews

ONLY IN THEATERS – Review by Diane Carson

February 21, 2023February 25, 2023 Diane Carson Ava DuVernay, Carl Laemmle, documentary, Greg Laemmle, James Ivory, Kenneth Turan, Laemmle cinema chain, leonard maltin, Only in Theaters, Raphael Sbarge, universal studios

Only in Theaters honors the Laemmle commitment to arthouse cinema. An homage to the eighty-four-year old Laemmle cinema chain devoted to arthouse fare, the documentary Only in Theaters elucidates the dire prospects for immensely rewarding, but financially unprofitable, exhibition of independent and foreign productions. Beginning in 2019 at a Shabbat dinner, Greg and Tish Laemmle clearly and wholeheartedly celebrate and have realistic concerns over the future of the Laemmle theaters.

Reviews

ONLY IN THEATERS – Review by Lois Alter Mark

January 18, 2023January 21, 2023 Lois Alter Mark Ava DuVernay, cameron crowe, Carl Laemmle, James Ivory, Laemmle Theaters, Only in Theaters, Raphael Sbarge, universal pictures

A love letter to movies, Only in Theaters is a must-see for anyone who has experienced the emotional power of watching a film in a dark room with a group of strangers – in other words, everyone. As much as it’s a celebration of cinema, though, Raphael Sbarge’s surprisingly moving documentary about Laemmle Theaters also serves as a cautionary tale about the future of the industry in this age of streaming.

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