Eternals director Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color — and the second woman ever — to win the Oscar Best Director at the 93rd Academy Awards for her film Nomadland, which also won Best Picture.
Zhao took home the Best Director prize over fellow nominees Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round), Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), David Fincher (Mank) and Lee Isaac Chung (Minari). This marks Zhao’s first Academy Award nomination and first win. In addition to Best Director and Best Picture, Nomadland lead Frances McDormand won Best Actress. With three Oscars, Zhao’s film received the most wins of the night. The film was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.
Born in Beijing, Zhao attended a boarding school in London before moving to Los Angeles to finish high school. She studied film at NYU before helming independent films such as Songs My Brothers Taught Me and The Rider. Nomadland stars now two-time Oscar winner McDormand as a woman named Fern, and provides a glimpse at older Americans who live and travel in their vehicles for either economic reasons or a love for the nomadic lifestyle.
Zhao follows Kathryn Bigelow, who became the first female to win Best Director in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. Zhao is also only the third director of Asian descent to win the Best Director Prize following Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain in 2006 and Bong Joon-ho for Parasite in 2019.
Earlier this year, Zhao became the first woman to receive four Oscar nominations in a single year, in the Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture categories. Zhao is currently helming The Marvel Studios film Eternals, which will introduce the eponymous race of immortal beings to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Source: Variety
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