Ava DuVernay Is the First Woman of Color to Direct a $100M Film 

The Los Angeles Times reports that Disney’s upcoming film of Madeline L’Engle’s brilliant and beloved YA novel is on a list of films released by the California Films Commission to receive tax incentives for filming in the state. Set to release in 2017, the film will reportedly bring in $85 million in spending plus an additional incentive of $18 million, tipping the scale in DuVernay’s favor and allowing her access to a very elite and relatively small club of women live-action film directors who’ve been responsible for such high budget productions.

Hollywood’s myriad issues with diversity are no secret and this milestone is a huge one for DuVernay, who has worked her way up from low-budget indie films to huge studio tentpole productions like this one. As the blog Woman and Hollywood rightfully notes, “This is a normal path for male directors, but one rarely accessible to women.”

A Wrinkle In Time, which will star Oprah Winfrey, is slated to be released sometime in 2017. It’s going to be awesome.