A woman in a gold gown stands in front of photographers against a blue backdrop.
Director Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) walks the red carpet at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. (Photo by Aston Smith/Special for the Santa Barbara News-Press)

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival honored a variety of outstanding directors.

Academy Award nominees Ryan Coogler of “Sinners,” Josh Safdie of “Marty Supreme,” Joachim Trier of “Sentimental Value” and Chloé Zhao “Hamnet” with the 2026 Outstanding Directors of the Year Award.

Journalist Scott Feinberg moderated the event, and the award was presented to the nominees by director Julian Schnabel. 

The Santa Barbara News-Press’ social media team interviewed Zhao. Check out the interview below.

Here are some of the images captured by the team. You can find more photos and video on the News-Press’ Instagram page.

A woman in a gold gown stands in front of photographers against a blue backdrop.
Director Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) walks the red carpet at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. (Photo by Aston Smith/Special for the Santa Barbara News-Press)
A wearing glasses in a black jacket smiles with a blue backdrop behind him.
Joachim Trier, director of Sentimental Value, walked the red carpet at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Tuesday. (Photo by Aston Smith/ Special for the Santa Barbara News-Press)

Joshua Molina is editor of the News-Press and an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of reporting across the South Coast. He is a professor of journalism at Santa Barbara City College and host of local news show SB Talks with Josh Molina.