The Oscars and the Golden Globes get a lot of flack for being toxic and prejudiced and that reputation is well earned. This is especially the case for Black women filmmakers and showrunners. As a recent example, The Woman King, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, was shut out from the Oscars this year despite being a critical and commercial hit. And in 2021, the HFPA rejected Shonda Rhimes’ requests for press conferences about Bridgerton until it became a surprise hit. In 2019, Ava DuVernay sat through a press conference for When They See Us where only 20 of the 87 HFPA members showed up and none of them had watched the series. But some of the European film festivals like Cannes and Venice are just as bad as the American awards ceremonies. The European festivals still give premieres, awards and standing ovations to the Roman Polanskis and Woody Allens of the world, while ignoring films from BIPOC filmmakers. Ava DuVernay’s upcoming movie Origin was selected to premiere at Venice and it’s the first time in the festival’s eighty year history (!) that they are including a film directed by a Black woman. At a press conference, Ava admitted that people told her not to bother applying to the festival at all because she “won’t get in.” She was told that people in other parts of the world don’t care about stories from BIPOC directors or perspectives. But she hopes this is a door that the festival will “keep open.”
At the Venice Film Festival press conference for Ava DuVernay’s new film “Origin” on Wednesday, the director revealed that she has previously been told not to apply to the festival because “you won’t get in.”
DuVernay is making history this year as the first African American woman in the festival’s 80-year existence to have a film compete for the Golden Lion. “Origin,” starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Jon Bernthal, “chronicles the remarkable life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson as she investigates the genesis of injustice and uncovers a hidden truth that affects us all,” according to the film’s official synopsis.
“For Black filmmakers, we’re told that people who love films in other parts of the world don’t care about our stories and don’t care about our films. This is something that we are often told: you cannot play international film festivals, no one will come,” DuVernay said. “People will not come to the press conferences, people won’t come to the P&I screenings. They will not be interested in selling tickets. You might not even get into this festival, don’t apply. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told, ‘Don’t apply to Venice, you won’t get in. It won’t happen.’ And this year, something happened that hadn’t happened in eight decades before: an African American woman in competition. So now that’s a door open that I trust and hope the festival will keep open.”
This is one of the things that drives me nuts about Hollywood. The industry presents itself as being progressive, but it never really has been. It’s apparently similar in Venice. I’m not shocked it took this long for them to include a film directed by a Black woman, but it is discouraging. Being so racist and exclusionary is a dumb financial decision for studios and power brokers in the film industry. Like…do they not realize that diverse films like Black Panther and Parasite have done well and made money and made a cultural impact? On a global scale? I’m really happy this happened for Ava, because she has a track record of excellence and her work deserves to be recognized. But this also comes after she has been well-established in the industry and is one of a small number of name-brand directors who is not a white man in his seventies. If she had applied even five years ago, with a little less experience or name recognition, they probably wouldn’t have let her in. Though I share Ava’s hope that this is the start of a new trend prioritizing BIPOC filmmakers, I’m also skeptical that it will continue.
photos credit: IMAGO/Anna Maria Tinghino / Avalon
Until white actors and directors refuse to attend these festivals because they are racist nothing is ever, ever going to change.
Ava did a great job with A Wrinkle in Time.
MarryMeJane, I’m afraid you have a really good point. Either that or her white peers need to be clamoring for more BIPOC films. I’m glad she’s there, but the fact that she’s the first is unbelievably sad and wrong.
I’m sorry, but A Wrinkle in Time was an awful film that butchered its source material. They had a phenomenal chance to make something truly amazing and blew it. It’s not an example of a BIPOC movie that failed just because of it’s cast.
“Saint Omer” one of the best films of 2022 premiered at Venice last year and won the Grand Jury Prize and is directed and written by a Black, French woman, Alice Diop. https://variety.com/2022/film/festivals/venice-alice-diop-saint-omer-1235367521/amp/
@Film Critic That’s great about the Black, French woman director but this article is about the first African American woman director to be included in the festival. Black American directors (especially women) are seriously discouraged from expecting support overseas. That is the whole point of this article. It’s about the attitudes of Hollywood.
Well the international audience (speaking from europe) wants to hear and see those stories very much. I gobble up a lot of the Black content that Netflix has been offering and I would love to see more. It’s moronic that the studios don’t understant that there’s money to be made here, and heart-breaking that the studios don’t understand that there’s important stories to be told here.
Absolutely. These kind of short sighted comments are by studio gate keepers and in my experience it’s false. In France many of the top box office actors are of African or North African decent and films about and by non white French people do great here. The festivals need to get on board.
Hollywood dosent want black American people seen in a positive light . The last thing Hollywood wants promoted is Black Americans with agency and dimension. That’s why so much of black film and content in general these day are comedies that rely on tired and negative stereotypes. Tiffany Haddish is a minstrel that Hollywood promotes heavily. Also white savior films are still adored by Hollywood.
Ava DuVernay is brilliant and, wow, does she look fantastic in these photos.
Industry execs are notoriously dumb and short-sighted, and the people who perpetuate the whole “audiences-won’t-watch-black-stories” trope are the same ones who think audiences don’t want stories about women, or made by female filmmakers. Newsflash: we do.
Content by black filmmakers or starring black actors are hugely successful all over the world. Bridgerton, Black Panther, Spike Lee, anything with Denzel, Samuel L. muthaeffing Jackson etc are just as successful where I live (Australia) as anywhere else.
Unless industry execs are talking about remote villages in Uzbekistan, I imagine it’s the same everywhere.
I think movie Executives mean China. The Chinese are notoriously anti-black. They may watch a movie where a black person is featured as long as there are enough white people in the movie for them too look at. They edit black people put of movie posters in China all the time.
As someone who loves fantasy, I would love black fantasy.
The european stories have been told so often, an eqivalent to LotR based on african/black american storytelling written, produced an directed by people who grew up with the stories and not through a white lense would be great and I’m sure there would be a huge audience.
Africans have their own film industry to tell their stories. They don’t need Hollywood.
BIPOC should create our own film festivals and keep out bs old yt man movies. Currently, bc of racism, studios are just recycling the same 3 stories, white savior, woman who finds man, and yt child coming of age in some cliche.
Instead, BIPOC need to focus on our own funding sources and creating our own big festivals to promote our work.
It’s wonderful that she’s the first. What matter more, though, is that there be a second, a third, a forth…
Much like Obama being the first Black president. Or Hattie McDaniels being the first Black actress to win an Oscar (for racist tripe). It’s when you see the door has remained open that real progress has been made. Otherwise, it was just a performative blip and a whitelash is imminent.
This isn’t true! Please correct!
Ava is the first African American woman director at the festival. Last year a French Black female director, Alice Diop, was there with her film, Saint Omer. It won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize and is currently showing on Netflix.
I know “firsts” make for great publicity, but too often they are erasing someone else’s work or contributions.
@ConcernFae Thanks for this info and clarification! And I just looked for it – in the US Saint Omer is now on Hulu. I will definitely watch it!
Also, the ONLY African-American female to ever win an Oscar for Best Actress is Halle Berry in 2001 (Monster’s Ball). Angela Bassett will soon receive an honorary Oscar (she should have won Best Actress for her excellent portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It).
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American female to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1939 (Gone With the Wind). The next AA female to win Best Supporting Actress was Whoopi Goldberg in 1990 (Ghost). Most recently, Ariana deBose won in 2021 for West Side Story. To date, 9 AA females have won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress with Ariana
Hollywood has always had that racist viewpoint and still does despite evidence to the contrary. It’s why they still don’t understand when Black movies or movies with Black leading actors/actresses are really successful at the box office. Spike Lee’s School Daze and Malcolm X were successful and cultural phenomenons. Blade starting Wesley Snipes did so well at the box office even being Rated R that it launched The MCU and led to Iron Man and some of it’s special effects influenced and are seen in The Matrix. The most recent example of a surprisingly successful/profitable movie despite limited marketing and with a predominantly Black cast is The Blackening. It was a good and hilarious horror movie, and I’m not really a fan of horror movies. Hollywood still rarely funds a lot of good Black led and Black themed movies and TV shows despite repeated instances of their profitability.
Many Congrats to Ava and I hope she wins. It sounds like a really good movie so I will definitely watch it.
Ariana is not African American; her mom is white, her dad is PR and she has been on record I’d-ing as Latina (not sure if she includes Afro-Latina in that).
Yep. I heard this back on the 90s. Then someone proved them wrong and Hollywood STILL claimed that international audiences don’t want to see black people. There are probably countries that don’t want to see black or African-Americans but all the big countries do.
Bootleg/underground tapes are big business. Especially our old movies. Take the Nigerian movie Aki na Ukwa – the character pawpaw is HUGE in India and a few European countries. The actor doesn’t see any of the money because it’s bootleg and youtube views.
Anyone who has been paying attention, would not be surprised by what AVA is saying here. Her statements here reminded me of the controversy surrounding the ‘hacked’ SONY emails with their BIG execs back in2014……….They targeted DENZEL of all people. 3 movies later the Equalizer franchise has been a success. I had no choice but to use the Daily FAIL for reference because the other websites insist I accept cookies.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2878621/Producer-says-Denzel-Washington-won-t-make-money-Sony-black-leaked-emails-claims-rest-world-racist.html
Anyway, AVA Is the 1st African AMERICAN to get her foot through the door after 80 years? Better late than never & congrats to her. Unfortunately I don’t see any changes coming soon. Maybe NEXT 80 years again. She was a RARE exception that they’d use in their defense to say “see we’re open minded but ya’ll will always complain. Never satisfied”.
When it comes to Venice, racism is definitely one of the culprits, but when it comes to the general lack of support for international releases of ethically significant films, I suspect part of the problem is China. That’s the elephant in the room. Investors are so spoiled by twenty years of blockbuster Marvel films that they can’t stand the idea of movies that may not do as well overseas in the huge markets in Asia. That’s why you’re seeing less sex, less politics, less Americana, etc., anything that might prove challenging enough that it won’t make the cut for a Chinese release.
Racism is definitely part of it, but I’d argue capitalism is as much to blame. We’ve seen the death of entire genres at this point because nothing is allowed to just do well at home instead of overseas and at the payout of hundreds of millions.
This is the same excuse I roll my eyes at about anything Hollywood doesn’t want to do because it “won’t play in middle america” or the “midwest doesn’t want to see that”. Just offsetting blame for their own prejudices