Oscars 2021: Chloe Zhao, from outsider to Hollywood history-maker
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image captionChloe Zhao with her Oscar for best director
Chloe Zhao has made history by becoming the first woman of colour - and only the second woman at all - to win the best director award at the Oscars.
Chinese-born, British-educated, US-based Zhao is also up for best picture and editing for Nomadland.
She is known for her quietly compelling portraits of people, often played by non-professional actors, in the margins of society in the American West.
But her next film will be a departure - a Marvel comic blockbuster, Eternals.
Oscars 2021: Chloé Zhao Becomes First Woman of Color to Win Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow won for “The Hurt Locker” in 2010
Beatrice Verhoeven | April 25, 2021 @ 6:03 PM
ABC
On Sunday, Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color in history to win Best Director at the Academy Awards for “Nomadland,” a victory that came more than a decade after Kathryn Bigelow broke the gender barrier with “The Hurt Locker” in 2010.
David Fincher (“Mank”), Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”), Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”), Zhao (“Nomadland”) and Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) were nominated in the category this year.
Zhao is only the second woman ever to win the award. Her win also means that Asian directors have won the Oscar the last four times they’ve been nominated (Ang Lee won in 2006 and 2013, while Bong Joon-ho won in 2020).
Oscar winner ‘Nomadland’ based on book by former Oregon journalist
Updated 10:54 AM;
Today 10:54 AM
Jessica Bruder atop Halen, her van. She spent three years reporting on campsites, job sites and other domains of those who prefer to live a life without the burden of rent and mortgages.Courtesy of Jessica Bruder
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Sunday’s big winner at the Academy Awards has an Oregon connection: The book that inspired “Nomadland” was written by a former reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“Nomadland,” which follows a woman in her 60s as she takes up a nomadic lifestyle after losing everything in the Great Recession, won Best Picture. Its director, Chloé Zhao, won Best Director, becoming the first woman of color and the second woman ever to win that award. Frances McDormand won Best Actress, her third such Oscar.
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