--- description: Alejandro Iñárritu's win for Best Director at the 2016 Oscars made history in more than one way. title: Here's How Alejandro Iñárritu Just Made Oscar History image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f820b8d8c4e708/69887f7a196cf4c67203a8a7/alejandro-inarritu-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [awards](/tag/awards/) ## awards Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Here's How Alejandro Iñárritu Just Made Oscar History  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Feb 29, 2016 5:00 AM CUT  Alejandro Iñárritu accepts the Best Director award for The Revenant during the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif. Alejandro Iñárritu accepts the Best Director award for The Revenant during the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.Kevin Winter—Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Feb 29, 2016 5:00 AM CUT Alejandro Iñárritu, who won the [Academy Award](http://time.com/4240519/oscars-2016-winners-list/ "undefined") for Best Director on Sunday night for _The Revenant_, made history at the Oscars, and not just because he’s the first director to win two consecutive years since Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1950\. Iñárritu’s win marks the fourth year in a row that the award went to a nonwhite director: The Mexican director won last year for _Birdman_, Alfonso Cuarón won in 2014 for _Gravity_ and Ang Lee won in 2013 for _Life of Pi_. The winners are a rare exception in a sea of otherwise very white faces—though, it must be said, only one woman, Kathryn Bigelow, has ever taken home the award (for _The Hurt Locker_, in 2009). [Oscars 2016: See Celebrities Walk the Red Carpet](http://time.com/4239855/oscars-2016-red-carpet-fashion-celebrities/ "undefined") In his acceptance speech, Iñárritu quoted a line from his own film: “They don’t listen to you. They see the color of our skin.” “So what a great opportunity to our generation,” he continued, “to really liberate ourself from all prejudice and this tribal thinking and make sure for once and forever that the color of skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4240789/oscars-2016-alejandro-inarritu-best-director-twice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4240789/oscars-2016-alejandro-inarritu-best-director-twice/"},"headline":"Here's How Alejandro Iñárritu Just Made Oscar History","datePublished":"2016-02-29T05:00:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:27:10.781Z","description":"The director of The Revenant won for a second consecutive year","url":"https://time.com/4240789/oscars-2016-alejandro-inarritu-best-director-twice/","keywords":["awards"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f820b8d8c4e708/69887f7a196cf4c67203a8a7/alejandro-inarritu-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f820b8d8c4e708/69887f7a196cf4c67203a8a7/alejandro-inarritu-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"88th Annual Academy Awards - Show","caption":"Alejandro Iñárritu accepts the Best Director award for The Revenant during the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 28, 2016 in Hollywood, Calif.","creditText":"Kevin Winter—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/awards/","name":"awards"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4240789/oscars-2016-alejandro-inarritu-best-director-twice/","name":"Here's How Alejandro Iñárritu Just Made Oscar History"}}]}] ```