OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network announced today that Ava DuVernay, award-winning filmmaker and creative force behind the network’s critically acclaimed drama series “Queen Sugar,” is bringing her next series to OWN.

With a straight-to-series order, DuVernay will create and executive produce “Cherish the Day,” an original anthology series from Warner Horizon Scripted Television as part of her recently announced overall deal with the studio. Oprah Winfrey will executive produce alongside DuVernay for a winter 2020 premiere on OWN.

Additionally, DuVernay has set acclaimed filmmaker Tanya Hamilton (“Queen Sugar,” “Night Catches Us”) as executive producer/showrunner. Hamilton will direct the series premiere. DuVernay’s longtime producing partner Paul Garnes (“Queen Sugar,” “Selma”) will also executive produce the series.

Each season, the anthology series chronicles the stirring romance of one couple, with each episode spanning a single day. The season-long narrative will unfold to reveal significant moments in a relationship that compel us to hold true to the ones we love, from the extraordinary to the everyday.

“OWN is home. I’m honored to create television for a network headed by an artist with spectacular vision and unbridled passion for the stories that we want to tell,” said DuVernay.

“Ava is a visionary storyteller. She brings so much care, so much heart, so much love to the art she creates,” said Winfrey. “I’m excited to continue collaborating together with our very first anthology series for OWN.”

“Cherish the Day” will join OWN’s programming slate of popular dramas including “Queen Sugar,” “Greenleaf,” “The Haves and the Have Nots” and “If Loving You is Wrong” – four of the top 12 original scripted series on ad-supported cable in 2018 for women 25-54 and the top four original scripted series on ad-supported cable for African American women and total viewers. In addition, OWN will premiere two new anticipated drama series in 2019 – “Ambitions” from box office hit-maker Will Packer and “David Makes Man” from Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney (“Moonlight”).

“Cherish the Day” is produced for OWN by Forward Movement and Harpo Films in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television. Ava DuVernay, Paul Garnes, Tanya Hamilton and Oprah Winfrey are executive producers.

About Ava DuVernay

Winner of four Emmys, the Peabody Award and the BAFTA for Best Documentary, Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay is a writer, director, producer and film distributor. She directed the award-winning historical drama “Selma,” which garnered four Golden Globe nominations and two Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and was the first African American female director to cross $100 million-dollars at the domestic box office with her Disney fantasy epic “A Wrinkle in Time.” DuVernay’s Academy Award nominated “13th” was one of the most critically-acclaimed films of 2016. She is executive producer of OWN’s hit drama “Queen Sugar,” and the upcoming CBS series “The Red Line.” Additionally, DuVernay recently wrapped production on the anticipated limited drama series “When They See Us” for Netflix, serving as executive producer, director and writer.

DuVernay wrote, produced and directed the dramatic feature, “Middle of Nowhere,” which earned her the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Best Director Award. In 2010, she wrote, financed, produced and directed her first narrative feature, “I Will Follow,” after making her directorial debut with the cult-classic hip hop documentary, “This is the Life.” She has directed several network documentaries and commercials, including “Venus Vs.” for ESPN, as well as branded content for Prada, Fashion Fair and Apple. Additionally, she directed “August 28: A Day in the Life of a People,” a short film commissioned by Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

DuVernay is the founder of ARRAY, a grassroots distribution and advocacy collective dedicated to the amplification of films by people of color and women which was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies. In 2017, DuVernay was named one of Fortune Magazine’s 50 Greatest World Leaders. DuVernay sits on the board of Sundance Institute.

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