This year’s Oscar nominated directors were honored at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival with the ‘Outstanding Directors of the Year Award’ Tuesday, February 10th. The honorees Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme), Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value), and Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) took the stage one at a time to talk about their Oscar nominated films, their filmmaking journey and more. Although not part of the line up, Oscar nominated director Paul Thomas Anderson, was at SBIFF the night before to present the Hammond Cinema Vanguard Award to his One Battle After Another actors, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Benicio Del Toro. At the end of the tribute, all of the directors participated in a group interview moderated by Scott Feinberg. The award was presented to the nominees by director Julian Schnabel.
We spoke with Chloé Zhao about what it means to be honored at the film festival
Check out more of our interviews from SBIFF 2026.
— Kari Lane