The 6 essential Ava DuVernay movies and TV shows that everyone should see

Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%

Where to watch: Netflix

Three years after making her directing debut with documentary "This Is the Life," DuVernay took on her first narrative feature film, which was made in just 14 days. The movie chronicles a day in the life of a grieving woman named Maye, and the 12 visitors who help her begin to move forward.

Film critic Roger Ebert described "I Will Follow" as "one of the best films I've seen about coming to terms with the death of a loved one."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%

Where to watch: Available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, or YouTube

While "I Will Follow" was the director's first narrative feature film, it was "Middle of Nowhere" that really put her on the map. Starring Emayatzy Corinealdi and David Oyelowo, it's a quiet drama about a woman who drops out of medical school after her husband is sent to prison, but slowly embarks on a journey of self-discovery in the process.

DuVernay won best director at 2012's Sundance Film Festival for the film, making her the first Black woman to ever win the award.

"What could suds into soapy melodrama stays for the most part impressively real," wrote Lisa Schwarzbaum for Entertainment Weekly, adding, "This is a tough-minded story of change that happens in almost imperceptibly tiny increments — as true growth so often does in reality."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 99%

Where to watch: Available to stream for free on FandangoNow and iTunes (through the month of June)

Through her 2014 biographical drama "Selma," DuVernay became the first Black woman (and woman of color in general) to ever make a film nominated at the Oscars for best picture, and the first Black woman to be nominated for best director at the Golden Globes.

The movie recounts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1965 campaign to secure equal voting rights through an epic but dangerous march from Selma to Birmingham, Alabama.

"DuVernay has made a film that is less about easy catharsis or reignited fury than it is a drama that speaks of the vision, strategic discipline, and political wrangling required to maintain and grow democracy," wrote Denver Post critic Lisa Kennedy.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%

Where to watch: Netflix

Using a combination of archival footage and interviews with prominent activists, historians and politicians, "13th" traces how the U.S. prison industrial complex was established. In doing so, DuVernay's documentary explores America's history of anti-Black racism and policies that disproportionately affect Black Americans and other people of color.

The film was nominated for best documentary feature at the 2017 Oscars, and won three Emmys later that same year.

The documentary "takes an unflinching, well-informed and thoroughly researched look at the American system of incarceration, specifically how the prison industrial complex affects people of color," wrote Odie Henderson for RogerEbert.com.

Henderson added: "The film builds its case piece by shattering piece, inspiring levels of shock and outrage that stun the viewer, leaving one shaken and disturbed before closing out on a visual note of hope designed to keep us on the hook as advocates for change."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%

Where to watch: Hulu

Based on Natalie Baszile's 2014 novel of the same name, "Queen Sugar" (which DuVernay created for OWN) follows three estranged siblings, who must come together to run the struggling sugarcane farm that their father has left them after his sudden death.

"This is a family drama with soap-opera-style storylines for people who hate soap operas like me," wrote Eric Deggans for NPR. "It's also a sign of the magic that can happen when you let black writers, producers, directors and performers tell stories about black people."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%

Where to watch: Netflix

DuVernay's most recent project, the Netflix miniseries "When They See Us," tells the harrowing true story of the Exonerated Five, five Black and Latino boys who were wrongfully convicted for the rape and assault of a jogger in 1985 Central Park.

The show was nominated for 16 Emmys in 2019, with DuVernay receiving nods for directing and writing.

"The series enters a broader landscape of artistic reckoning with the Central Park Five case, as well as with the country's history of weaponizing language against black and brown people," wrote The Atlantic critic Hannah Giorgis.

Elsewhere in the review, Giorgis wrote, "To the extent that young black and Latino men still require external humanizing from artistic productions, 'When They See Us' presents a gut-wrenching look at the real-life terror wrought by their ongoing dehumanization."