A. V. Rockwell (born Alina Victoria Rockwell) is an American film director. In 2023, she made her directorial feature film debut with the film ''

A Thousand and One A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'', which gave her a Gotham Award, a Black Reel Award, an Independent Spirit Award, a Director's Guild nomination, and nominations at the NAACP Image Awards.

Early life and education

Rockwell was born and raised in Queens, New York, to parents from Jamaica. She attended high school at Brooklyn Technical High School and attended film school at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. One of her early inspirations to pursue film came from studying European cinema while studying in Paris.

Career

One of Rockwell's early works was the series ''Open City Mixtape'', which followed young people's stories in New York City, and was shot in black-and-white. Subsequently, Rockwell worked with Alicia Keys on the music-focused music short film ''The Gospel'' for Keys' sixth studio album, ''Here''. The work gave her a silver Clio Awards. In 2018, Rockwell released her short film ''Feathers,'' which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. For ''Feathers'', Rockwell was named the grand-prize winner of the Tribeca Film Institute and CHANEL’s Through Her Lens grant; the film was selected as part of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was then acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures for their Searchlight Shorts collection. In 2023, Rockwell made her feature debut with ''

'', starring Teyana Taylor and set in Harlem, New York, between 1994 and 2005. The film debuted at the 2023

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. She has cited Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee as influences, as well as the films '' Goodfellas'', ''

Crooklyn ''Crooklyn'' is a 1994 American semi-autobiographical film produced and directed by Spike Lee and co-written with his sister Joie and brother Cinqué. Occurring in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, during the summer ...

'', ''

Do the Right Thing ''Do the Right Thing'' is a 1989 American comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, and Samuel L. Jackson, a ...

'', '' Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', '' Z'', '' The Battle of Algiers'', and '' Seven Beauties''. Over her career, Rockwell has been named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, was a 2018 Young Guns award winner, and has received fellowships from the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute and the John S. Guggenheim Foundation. She won the Breakthrough Director Award at the 2023 Gotham Awards for her work in her feature film directorial debut ''

''.

Filmography

Accolades

References

External links

A.V. Rockwell website
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Video: The Gospel

Video: The Director Imagining Freedom for Black Boys
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockwell, A. V. Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Brooklyn Technical High School alumni New York University alumni Tisch School of the Arts alumni Sundance Film Festival award winners Mass media people from Queens, New York Film directors from New York City African-American film directors African-American directors American women film directors American people of Caribbean descent American people of Jamaican descent