It’s been two years since the #OscarsSoWhite controversy; a year since Barry Jenkins’ queer black coming-of-age story Moonlight won Best Picture (after a slight kerfuffle with La La Land, you may remember); and a few months since Jordan Peele became the first black person to win a Best Original Screenplay award for Get Out – his ingenious social horror film about racism in America.

For their 2019 awards, meanwhile, the Academy’s controversial decision to include a Best Popular Film category suggests they already know that the groundbreaking superhero film Black Panther deserves an award – even if there's an element of condescension in the new format. In any case, all of these extremely belated developments in the representation of black people onscreen and behind the camera are continuing this year, as films like Sorry To Bother You and BlackKklansman are not only earning rave reviews, but igniting important conversations about race.

While Boots Riley’s dark comedy Sorry To Bother You addresses racial profiling as well as the pull between activism and capitalism, BlackKklansman is also funny – but its grounding in reality makes it particularly affecting. Based on a real investigation in the 1970s, the film details how Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first black detective on the Colorado Springs Police Department, bravely set out on a dangerous mission: infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan. Yes, you read that right: a black man went undercover in the KKK and posed as a racist extremist, in order to expose the oppressive views of the Klan and prevent any terrorist actions.