MacDowell, the Peterborough, New Hampshire, artist residency, is the latest organization to honor Ava DuVernay. The Associated Press reports the Oscar-nominated filmmaker will receive the first Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award next month in a virtual ceremony. ARRAY, the film collective boosting the work of women and people of color DuVernay founded, is also being recognized.
The prize is named for MacDowell co-founder Marian MacDowell. Filmmaker Isabel Sandoval (“Lingua Franca”) and screenwriter Guinevere Turner (“American Psycho”) are among the residency’s alumni.
“I am touched that our narrative change collective ARRAY, which is built upon a mission to articulate and amplify stories from the widest range of art makers, is being honored in Ms. MacDowell’s name,” DuVernay stated. “I look forward to cultivating a partnership between ARRAY and MacDowell to enable more artists of color, specifically women, to be a part of the residency program in coming years.”
Four-time Oscar nominee and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts Jane Alexander (“The Good Fight”) will present DuVernay with the honor on October 19.
DuVernay recently became the first female filmmaker to win the prestigious Gish Prize. “13th,” her doc about the direct ties between slavery and modern mass incarceration, won a BAFTA and two Emmys and scored an Oscar nod. “When They See Us,” DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries about five young men of color who were wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman in Central Park in the early ’90s, received a Peabody and two Emmys.
Next, the multi-hyphenate will narrate and exec produce “One Perfect Shot,” an HBO Max project unpacking some of film and TV’s most iconic shots. Adaptations of Vertigo comic “DMZ,” Octavia Butler’s “Dawn,” and DC comic “The New Gods” are also on DuVernay’s packed slate. Her other credits include “Queen Sugar,” “Selma,” and “A Wrinkle in Time.”
