Ava DuVernay says ‘Origin’ is bigger than awards but still worth the nomination

Ava DuVernay has been widely heralded for how her groundbreaking, historical works such as "Selma" and "13th" have helped to move the needle in diverse storytelling.

Yet, with all her stunning accomplishments, the lauded director still does not have an Emmy, Oscar or Golden Globe for directing. It's a complex contradiction that she's learned not to lose sleep over, she says.

Awards don't “get you up at 4 o’clock in the morning to go do something that on its face may or may not work,” she says in an interview with TODAY.com.

"You’re doing it because you’re an artist, and you must tell the story," she says. "You must say what you want to say. We must express ourselves."

In her latest project, "Origin," the director does just that: She manages to creatively tell a global story in a deeply moving way.

Adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 bestselling nonfiction work “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” which centers on the caste system as the foundational social hierarchy that informs other types of oppression, DuVernay takes on the daunting task of breaking down an academic thesis into a full-screen feature.

Enlisting a star-studded cast that includes Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, newly minted Emmy-winner Niecy Nash-Betts and Jon Bernthal as central characters, DuVernay's "Origin," which opened in theaters Jan. 19, is one of many culturally impactful projects that the director is proud of.

In September 2023, the director made history when she became the first Black woman to have a film ("Origin") compete at the Venice Film Festival. At a press conference tied to the event, she revealed that she'd previously been advised not to apply because she "won't get in."

But “Origin,” which has been trumpeted as “powerful and artful,” still joins her long list of previous projects with few to no nominations for her work as a director.

DuVernay’s shows “Queen Sugar” and “Colin in Black & White” garnered zero Emmy or Golden Globe nominations. Her 2018 fantasy film, “A Wrinkle In Time,” which made DuVernay the first African American woman to direct a live-action movie with a $100 million budget, was shut out of the Golden Globes and Oscars. “13th” also received zero Golden Globe nominations, but did get an Oscar nod for documentary feature, landing DuVernay two Emmys wins for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special and outstanding writing for a nonfiction program.

And then there's “Selma,” one of her most celebrated and inspiring films about Martin Luther King Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights by organizing a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. It received four Golden Globes and two Oscar nominations for non-director categories, but only won for best song at each awards show.

Meanwhile, her poignant 2019 Netflix series, “When They See Us,” which captured the true story of the now exonerated “Central Park Five,” was shut out of the Golden Globes, but received 16 Emmy nominations. The series ended up taking home two awards: a Primetime Emmy for Jharrel Jerome for outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series and a Creative Emmy for casting.

Now, more than three years later, her latest project “Origin,” has been similarly shut out of the award show circuit, receiving no nods from the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards or SAG Awards, among others. (Oscar nominations are announced Jan. 23 with "Origin" as a potential hopeful in the race.)

During award show season, DuVernay has been vocal about "Origin" being passed over for major nominations. On Dec. 11, the day Golden Globe nominations were announced, Ellis-Taylor went to a local theater and passed out the movie’s flyers “to remind herself what matters,” DuVernay said on Instagram the following month.

“I wish she didn’t have to do this to remind herself. I wish she was at the Globes or SAG Awards or Critics Choice or the other nominations that didn’t come,” wrote DuVernay on Instagram Jan. 3.

DuVernay, who serves on the Academy’s board of governors directors branch, has previously said that critiquing awards considerations and wins go beyond ego.

"Unfortunately, these shiny things matter to those who finance, greenlight, produce, distribute and market our projects," she explained on X, formerly know as Twitter, in 2021.

The post came amid the #TimesUpGlobes campaign, highlighting the fact that the award show's voting body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, did not have a single Black member. But its message rings true today.

DuVernay primarily funded “Origin” through investments from philanthropists and foundations, not Hollywood studios, The Washington Post reported.

Historically, impactful projects by Black people have gone largely unrecognized at the premier award shows, and there are currently no Black filmmakers who’ve won an Oscar for directing.

When it comes to Emmys and Golden Globes, the lack of Black filmmakers nominated or who have won is also concerning. Directors Thomas Carter, Eric Laneuville, Paris Barclay, Spike Lee and Donald Glover have won Emmys for directing achievements in drama (Carter in 1991, Laneuville in 1992 and Barclay in 1998 and 1999), nonfiction (Lee in 2007) and comedy (Glover in 2017). On the Golden Globes side, nominations for best director of a motion picture has included DuVernay (2015), Lee (1990 and 2019), Barry Jenkins (2017) and Regina King (2021), but none of them won.

But DuVernay says being shut out of award honors does not negate one's body of work.

“At the end of the day, we think about James Earl Jones and Ruby Dee and Diahann Carroll and Rosalind Cash and all of our greats — James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry — we’re not talking about the awards that they have. We’re talking about what they gave us. What they told us. What they shared with us,” she tells TODAY.com.

DuVernay admits that being nominated and appreciated for her work is still meaningful to her as a creative, but she's quick to note that it shouldn't always hold the most value.

"In these modern times in our industry, sometimes I have been guilty of losing sight of that because you get caught up in the drama of the awards and the high test scores and the all of that," she says.

"The real thing is how people feel after they watch it, what they remember, what becomes a part of them, the images that they talk about," she continues, adding that it's the "people who come up to me after screenings with tears in their eyes or smiles on their faces or texted me and said, 'I’m still thinking about this four days later,'" that really moves her.

It's also worth noting that DuVernay, an alternate board member for the Directors Guild of America, has won directing awards from outside of the big three aforementioned award shows, including the Critics' Choice Documentry Awards, the African-American Film Critics Association and the Black Reel Awards. She, along with her multi-platform arts and social impact collective Array, have also won Peabody’s Institutional Award, and she's taken home a visionary award from American Black Film Festival.

As award show season comes to a close, the accomplished director says she welcomes both mainstream recognition and the public's opinion with open arms.

"It’s definitely two things can be true at once," she tells TODAY.com. "(Maya) Angelou said it really well, she said, 'It’s beautiful to be embraced.' And so yes, you want to be embraced by all the award shows, but you mostly want to be embraced by the people who watch and that’s what we’re on the precipice of. ... And so it’s exciting to me."

Still, and DuVernay would agree, nothing is as exciting as leaving a lasting and meaningful impression.

"Having been nominated before and understanding how that feels, it is a very beautiful feeling," she says. "Also beautiful is the feeling of a real sense of accomplishment in creating something that I feel contributes to my canon of work. When I’m no longer here, I am proud to be able to say I was the author of this film, and that we made this film together. And that looms large for me, and that happens regardless of what else is attached to the film, or what group of people deem it worthy."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com