Chloé Zhao First Woman of Color Nominated for Academy Award for Best Director

"For the past several years, truly, the conversation has been Oscars So White. And this year that's just not the case," says Brande Victorian.

The Senior Editor at Essence magazine says there's "diversity really across the board" in today's nominations for 2021.

For performers, it’s the most diverse group of nominees ever - and a far cry from the all-white acting nods that spawned the aforementioned #OscarsSoWhite hashtag five years ago.

Nine of the 20 acting nominees are people of color, including a posthumous best-actor nomination for Chadwick Boseman ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"), as well as nods for Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Steven Yeun (“Minari”), Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) and Andra Day (“The People vs. Billie Holiday”) and supporting nominations for Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”) and Yuh-Jung Youn (“Minari”).

Davis, who won for her performance in 2016’s “Fences,” landed her fourth Oscar nomination, making her the most nominated Black actress ever. Yeun is the first Asian American ever nominated for best actor. “Judas and the Black Messiah" is the first all-Black producing team - director Shaka King with producers Ryan Coogler and Charles D. King - nominated for best picture. Overall, a record 70 women were nominated for 76 Oscars, the academy said.

"You know, it's not just about putting more black actors and actresses in the mix," says Victorian. "It has to be across the board. And so, we see Chloe Zhao, you know, with being the first woman of color for best director and even having the first time the two women are up for best director. We have Steven Yeun as the first Asian-American nominated for best actor. And then you do have best supporting actor with LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya and Leslie Odom Jr.. So, it's incredible just to see that the Academy has taken the concerns seriously."

While overall, the Academy has done a "great job this year," Victorian notes that people have been surprised that Regina King didn't pick up a nomination for best director for her film "One Night in Miami."

"Which also would have been another groundbreaking moment in diversity for the Academy," she says.

"'One Night in Miami' was really just such an imaginative drama and looking at these huge figures of history. And so, it was surprising that to see that she's someone who's been acting her whole life and just been a part of Hollywood. So, I think there was some disappointment there and also no best picture for that."

When it comes to the broader selection, Victorian believes this year's pick consists of more "substantive" pictures than previous years, which she thinks is largely due to the amount of time audiences have had to spend at home.

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