Ava DuVernay talks Oscars, inclusion and reimagining winning at Spirit Awards

We may have missed her Essence at the Black Women in Hollywood Awards Thursday, but Ava DuVernay made it to Saturday’s Film Independent Spirit Awards just in Time.

Fresh off her return from New Zealand, where she was shooting her feverishly anticipated adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, DuVernay acknowledged this year's inclusive slate of Oscar nominees, but said "it remains to be seen if this year is a trend or if it’s a part of a real systemic change.”

“The Academy has done a lot over the last couple of years — since 2015 — to try to create systemic changes in rules and regulations, the different ways that we’re really gonna change this as opposed to just putting it back on the studios,” said the filmmaker, who is the first woman of color to direct a live-action film with a production budget exceeding $100 million (Time) and is nominated for an Oscar for her documentary, 13th.

“I appreciate those structural changes and it remains to be seen whether the results are enough," DuVernay added on the blue carpet. "And if they’re not, you gotta change some more.”

Oscar nominations 2017: Diversity is not a simple black-or-white issue

Still, DuVernay also acknowledged that there’s something to the idea that artists who put out specific art — “radical” art — reimagine what winning looks like.

“It’s something that I talk about all the time with my colleague, (Arrival's) Bradford Young, a cinematographer, the first African-American cinematographer ever nominated this year,” she said. “We talk about it all the time — what achievement means, what validation means, what authentication means. Where does it have to come from for it to be deeply rooted in us? Is the community rallying around it enough? Is our own personal satisfaction with it enough? Are our elders being proud of us enough? Or do you need to have those statues in order to feel like you’ve actually done something that’s worthwhile?"

For DuVernay, being fêted at awards shows is “just a gold cherry on top.”

“Because I know so many stunning artists who the Academy has never tipped their hat to, the Grammys have never tipped their hat to, the Emmys have never tipped their hat to, the Tonys have never tipped their hat to,” she said. “It makes them no less stunning, so you have to keep it all in perspective.”