Ava DuVernay has been named one of four new members of the Sundance Institute Board of Trustees, the organization announced on Thursday. 
The filmmaker, whose groundbreaking film Middle of Nowhere earned her the Best Director award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, joins such heavy-hitters as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, hedge fund manager and George Lucas' wife Mellody Hobson, actress Christine Lahti and, of course, Sundance founder Robert Redford.
DuVernay worked as a publicist for years before she made her critically-acclaimed debut film I Will Follow. She will next get behind the camera for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. film Selma, which she took over from Lee Daniels. 
Congratulations to Ava for this incredible honor!
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(Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for AFI)