overdue milestones

With A Wrinkle in Time, Ava DuVernay Is the First Woman of Color to Direct a Live-Action $100 Million Movie

OWN Presents:
Photo: Josh Brasted/Getty Images

Ava DuVernay is hitting an overdue milestone with her upcoming adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, becoming the first woman of color to direct a live-action film with a budget over $100 million. The news came to light when DuVernay’s project was included on a list of big-budget films receiving California tax incentives, with Deadline noting that A Wrinkle in Time’s budget tops $100 million. Women and Hollywood put together the significance of that information, as DuVernay is the first women of color to helm such a film and only the third woman overall. Despite the increasing frequency of tentpole movies, the only women behind the camera on such projects, until DuVernay, have been Kathryn Bigelow for 2002’s K-19: The Widowmaker and Patty Jenkins for the upcoming Wonder Woman. DuVernay, who’s having a pretty dang good week with Queen Sugar’s early renewal, reacted to news of the milestone on Twitter, writing that she’s “Not the first capable of doing so. Not by a long shot. Thanks to for breaking this glass with me.” Looks like you can only hang with Oprah for so long until you too are touching the big bucks.

Ava DuVernay Is First WOC to Make $100 Mil Film