Ava DuVernay is an American director, screenwriter, and producer, and a prominent figure in contemporary cinema for her commitment to exploring themes of racial justice and African-American history. After a career in marketing, she made her directorial debut, gaining her first major recognition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where she won the Best Director award for *Middle of Nowhere*, becoming the first African-American woman to receive the honor. Her international profile rose with the film *Selma* (2014), which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Her most notable works include the Oscar-nominated documentary *13th* (2016), about mass incarceration in the United States, and the critically-acclaimed Netflix miniseries *When They See Us* (2019), which won numerous Emmy Awards. With the Disney film *A Wrinkle in Time* (2018), she became the first woman of color to direct a film with a budget of over $100 million.