Ryan Coogler and Chloe Zhao Lead Most Inclusive Director Oscars Race

Directors are bringing laughs, tears — and an international lens.

For decades, awards season conversations about diversity have circled the same stage: the faces in front of the camera. Each Oscar cycle elicits scrutiny of who is — or isn’t — nominated in the acting categories. This year, the most vital shift in cinematic recognition is occurring behind the lens.

The best director race could present one of the most globally inclusive, stylistically eclectic and generationally diverse lineups in modern Academy history.

This isn’t the industry’s first attempt at inclusion. The 2010s belonged to a trio of Latino auteurs — Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro — who collectively claimed five directing statuettes between 2013 and 2018. Yet this year’s field sugge