Chloé Zhao

Chloé Zhao is a Chinese-born filmmaker acclaimed for her lyrical, naturalistic neorealist dramas. She gained international prominence with her award-winning films *The Rider* and *Nomadland*, the latter earning her the Academy Award for Best Director, making her the first woman of color and second woman ever to win the award. Her work, often blending professional actors with non-professionals in real-world settings, explores themes of frontier life, marginalization, and the search for community against vast landscapes.

Early life and education

Born in Beijing, she attended the British-international Beijing Huijia Private School before moving to London for her final years of secondary education. She then moved to Los Angeles to complete high school. Zhao studied political science at Mount Holyoke College before pursuing film production at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where she was mentored by filmmaker Spike Lee. Her early student film work, including the short *Daughters*, showcased her emerging interest in intimate, character-driven stories.

Career

Her feature debut, the Sundance Film Festival-premiered *Songs My Brothers Taught Me* (2015), was shot on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with a cast of local non-actors. This established her collaborative method and thematic focus. Her breakthrough came with *The Rider* (2017), a contemporary Western about a injured rodeo cowboy on the South Dakota plains, which won the Art Cinema Award at the Cannes Film Festival. This success led to her being hired by Marvel Studios to direct the superhero film *Eternals* (2021), a significant departure in scale for the director. Her most celebrated work, *Nomadland* (2020), starring Frances McDormand, depicted the lives of modern-day van-dwelling itinerant workers in the American West and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Filmmaking style and themes

Zhao's style is characterized by a profound documentary realism, utilizing natural light, extensive location shooting, and often casting non-professional actors to play versions of themselves. She frequently collaborates with cinematographer Joshua James Richards, crafting visually stunning, wide-frame portraits of marginalized American communities and landscapes, from the Great Plains to the Badlands. Her narratives persistently explore themes of economic displacement, personal grief, rugged individualism, and the fragile bonds of found family, drawing comparisons to directors like Terrence Malick and Kelly Reichardt. This approach creates a unique hybrid of fiction and ethnographic film.

Filmography

* *Songs My Brothers Taught Me* (2015) – director, writer, editor, producer * *The Rider* (2017) – director, writer, editor, producer * *Nomadland* (2020) – director, writer, editor, producer * *Eternals* (2021) – director, co-writer * An untitled *Star Wars* film (announced) – director, writer

Awards and recognition

For *Nomadland*, she received the Academy Award for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. She is also a recipient of a BAFTA Award for Best Direction and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director. Her earlier film *The Rider* was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Gotham Independent Film Awards. In 2021, *Time* magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:Chinese film directors Category:Best Director Academy Award winners