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Chloé Zhao at the Oscars 2021: the first Asian woman to win best director, for Nomadland, on how China influenced her, why directing Marvel’s Eternals is a dream come true, and ‘the power of storytelling’

STORYSusan HornikRobbie Collin
Chinese director and producer Chloe Zhao poses with one of her Oscars awards for best picture and director for Nomadland, at the press room of the 93rd Oscars Academy Awards at Union Station in Los Angeles on April 25, 2021. Photo: AMPAS/PA Media/DPA
Chinese director and producer Chloe Zhao poses with one of her Oscars awards for best picture and director for Nomadland, at the press room of the 93rd Oscars Academy Awards at Union Station in Los Angeles on April 25, 2021. Photo: AMPAS/PA Media/DPA
Academy Awards

  • Zhao made Academy Award history as the second woman to win an Oscar for best director after Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2010
  • Before Covid-19 hit, Zhao was filming Eternals in the UK and the Canary Islands with Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Richard Madden and Salma Hayek

Chloé Zhao is all anyone can talk about right now. The filmmaker from China just made history as the first Asian woman to win best director at the Oscars for her work on Nomadland – among other awards for the film – and she is keen to credit her peers at the momentous occasion.
“For Asian filmmakers, for all filmmakers, we have to stay true to who we are, and we have to tell the stories that we feel connected to,” she says in the post-award interview. “We shouldn’t feel like there is only a certain type of story we have to tell. It’s a way for us to connect with other people. That is why I love filmmaking. And hopefully a lot of the stories, brilliant stories we tell tonight, like Tyler Perry said … [will help] stop hate, hate for anybody.” 
For Asian filmmakers, for all filmmakers, we have to stay true to who we are, and we have to tell the stories that we feel connected to
Chloé Zhao

 

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Chinese director and producer Chloé Zhao, winner of the award for best picture and director for Nomadland, poses in the press room at the Oscars on April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. Photo: AFP
Chinese director and producer Chloé Zhao, winner of the award for best picture and director for Nomadland, poses in the press room at the Oscars on April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. Photo: AFP

In addition to being the first woman of colour to win best director, she is also only the second woman to win the Oscar – the first was Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for her work on The Hurt Locker. Zhao acknowledges that “it’s pretty fabulous to be a woman in 2021”, and also recounts her recent experience dining with Bigelow.

“I have had a group dinner with Kathryn Bigelow, and definitely fangirled big time. And, yeah, I would love to talk to her if you have her e‑mail,” she jokes. “I’m extremely fortunate to be able to do what I love for a living, and if this win helps more people like me get to live their dreams, I’m so grateful for this.”

In her acceptance speech, she mentions how a game she used to play with her father, in which they would “memorise classic Chinese poems and texts … recite them together and try to finish each other’s sentences”, would help her keep going when things got hard. One phrase in particular is about how people at birth are inherently good, and it had a significant impact on her when she was young.

Chloé Zhao on stage at the 93rd Oscars after Nomadland was named best picture on Sunday, April 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: ABC/AMPAS/TNS
Chloé Zhao on stage at the 93rd Oscars after Nomadland was named best picture on Sunday, April 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: ABC/AMPAS/TNS

“I still truly believe [those words] today. Even though sometimes it might seem like the opposite is true,” she says. “But I have always found goodness in the people I met, everywhere I went in the world. So this [Oscar] is for anyone who had 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. This is for you. You inspire me to keep going.”