‘Origin’ Review: Ava DuVernay’s Monumental Look at ‘Caste’ Frames America’s Most Difficult Conversation

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic The creator of “The Creator,” Gareth Edwards, started his filmmaking career teaching himself VFX at home. He’s an innovator on that front, devising ways to generate creepy CG monsters for “Monsters” more than a dozen years ago, then overseeing deceptively massive blockbusters, like “Godzilla,” ever since (deceptive because much of that stunning scale comes from virtual detail added in post).

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Michaela Zee After winning this year’s Toronto International Film Festival’s people’s choice award, “American Fiction” has pushed back its limited release to Dec. 15 and will expand in theaters on Dec. 22.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Poor Things” can win things. That’s a nugget of information we gleaned at the conclusion of Venice, Telluride and Toronto, the three major fall festivals. For starters, Yorgos Lanthimos’ sci-fi dramedy collected the Golden Lion at Venice.

Movies containing portrayals of autism haven’t always treated the subject with sensitivity and conviction. Some breakout successes like “Rain Man” have conflated it with the savant syndrome, which isn’t representative of the full spectrum of people with autism.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Every awards season, pundits leave themselves open to late-year breakers. This is where a film not necessarily on anyone’s radar comes in and walks away with the industry’s most coveted prize for best picture.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In Cord Jefferson’s idea-dense “American Fiction,” no one wants to publish literary professor Thelonious Ellison’s latest novel. Thelonious — or “Monk” to his friends — has delivered a modern reworking of Aeschylus’ “The Persians” (hardly bestseller material to begin with), but all the industry can see is the color of his skin.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic “Finestkind,” the name of both Brian Helgeland’s new film and the high-line fishing boat Tommy Lee Jones captains within it, is one of those words that New Englanders find hard to define, but seem to have no trouble using in a sentence. It means quality — of fish, of people, of principles — and it sets the bar for the shaggy family portrait Helgeland crafts around two half-brothers wrestling with their place in the blue-collar New Bedford community. The movie, alas, is just so-so, tripping over its own feet for the first couple reels until such time as the siblings cross the Northern Line to (illegally) dredge for scallops in Canadian waters, and then it gets good.

Angelique Jackson After directing “Origin” — the feature adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” — Academy Award-nominee Ava DuVernay is feeling incredibly content. In fact, when she appears over Zoom from her office at the ARRAY creative campus in L.A. in late August, just a couple days ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, there’s a glow about her.

Ava DuVernay touched down at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday evening with her new film Origin, which world premiered in Competition and received a more than eight-minute ovation in its debut screening.

Ellise Shafer Ava DuVernay’s latest film, “Origin,” premiered in competition at Venice Film Festival to a 5 minute and 46 second standing ovation. Based on Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” “Origin” chronicles “the remarkable life and work” of Wilkerson “as she investigates the genesis of injustice and uncovers a hidden truth that affects us all,” according to the film’s synopsis. The drama stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Niecy Nash-Betts, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, Connie Nielsen, Emily Yancy, Jasmine Cephas-Jones, Finn Wittock, Victoria Pedretti, Isha Blaaker and Myles Frost.

When Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) first conceived of the multifaceted premise that would eventually become the lauded non-fiction book “Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents,” her editors were concerned about whether she would manage to cohesively merge her personal experiences with all the moving parts of her research across cultures and continents to prove that it all interconnects.   Venice Film Festival 2023: The 17 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch That’s in turn the same task that writer-director Ava DuVernay faced to convey the big-picture ideas and Wilkerson’s revelatory odyssey to put them on the page in an enticingly cinematic manner.

Ava DuVernay’s past experiences with the Venice Film Festival have been more exclusionary than esteemed, revealed the director during a press conference for her new film “Origin” on Wednesday.

In Ava DuVernay’s 7th feature, Origin, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival tonight, the exploration of caste systems as a mode of oppression takes center stage. Written by DuVernay and Isabel Wilkerson, the film is adapted from the latter’s book, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. The narrative delves into the deep-seeded intricacies of caste and how it underpins much of society’s discrimination, sometimes transcending even race. The film stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, and includes performances by Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood and Connie Nielsen.

Ava DuVernay is making history today. In Venice with Origin, which world premieres in the Sala Grande this evening, she is the first African American female filmmaker to ever have been selected in competition at the world’s oldest festival. DuVernay earlier told Deadline’s Dominic Patten, “Venice was a big goal. It feels like a real full-circle moment.”

Ellise Shafer At the Venice Film Festival press conference for Ava DuVernay’s new film “Origin” on Wednesday, the director revealed that she has previously been told not to apply to the festival, because “you won’t get in.” DuVernay is making history this year as the first African American woman in the festival’s 80-year history to have a film compete for the Golden Lion. “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.

“That is the part where you look up and you say, ‘how could people have allowed their neighbors to be taken and put in the camps?’” says Origin director Ava DuVernay of the deep roots of discrimination and the cruel consequences of subjugation.

It’s crazy to think that it’s been nine years since the release of Ava DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated film, “Selma.” And over that time, while she has produced quite a bit and even directed an acclaimed limited series, DuVernay has only released one feature film, the underwhelming “A Wrinkle in Time.” However, it would appear the filmmaker is returning in a big, big way with her new film, “Origin.” READ MORE: ‘Origin’ First Look: Ava DuVernay’s Adaptation Of ‘Caste’ With Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal & Vera Farmiga Premieres At Venice On September 6 As seen in the new teaser for “Origin,” the film is inspired by the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson as she writes the book, “Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents.” The journey to bring that book to life finds Wilkerson traveling all over the world and experiencing various cultures.  Continue reading ‘Origin’ Teaser: Ava DuVernay’s New Drama Is Picked Up By NEON & Will Hit Theaters Later This Year at The Playlist.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Neon has acquired worldwide rights to Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The movie, starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, will also screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Origin” will be released in theaters later this year.

Neon has acquired worldwide rights for Ava DuVernay’s Origin ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday (September 6).