Chloe Zhao wins the 2021 Best Director Oscar award: what movies has she made?
The 39-year-old became only the second woman to win the prestigious Academy Award, after Kathryn Bigelow in 2010, for the drama film Nomadland.
Chloe Zhao picked up the prestigious Best Director award at the 93rd Oscars on Sunday evening, proving the predictions right on what could be a successful evening for the team behind Nomadland.
Nomadland has been widely praised at awards shows this year and Zhao has picked up numerous gongs already, adding the Oscar to her Best Director wins at the Golden Globe Awards, Directors Guild of America Awards, Academy Awards, and British Academy Film Awards. In doing so she becomes only the second woman to win the category at each awards body.
After receiving the award, Zhao said: “This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves. And to hold on to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that. And this is for you, you inspire me to keep going.”
What other movies has Chloe Zhao directed?
Nomadland was the third film directed by the 39-year-old after Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) and The Rider (2017). She followed up the 2020 release with Eternals (2021), made in collaboration with Walt Disney studios. In all previous films Zhao was listed as director, writer and producer, but she drops the latter credit for Eternals.
She has had some award show recognition in the past with The Rider nominated for Best Foreign Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards. Both The Rider and Songs My Brother Taught me received two nominations each at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Nomadland has won Zhao almost universal critical acclaim for telling the tale of a widow who travels the country in a van after losing her livelihood in the Great Recession. The narrative is adapted from a book of the same name by Jessica Bruder.
She becomes only the second woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director after Kathryn Bigelow won the prize for The Hurt Locker in 2010; which also won Best Picture at the same ceremony.