Ava was the first African American woman to compete for the coveted Golden Lion, with her film Origin.

Prior to the film’s official world premiere on Wednesday, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker spoke up at a press conference about “becoming the first Black woman filmmaker” ever to be accepted at the festival.

“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,” said Ava.

She continued, “People will not come to the press conferences, people won’t come to the [press and industry] 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,” stated the 51-year-old.

Ava mentioned, “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.”

Reflecting on the film to remain independent, Ava added, “I don’t feel like we would have had the cast that we had if it had remained in the studio system.