MEET A HOLLYWOOD HISTORY-MAKER
As Chloé Zhao wins big at the Oscars, Hanna Flint looks at her phenomenal rise
Chloé Zhao has made a career out of no-frills film-making, so it was fitting to see that reflected at the Oscars. This awards season, the Chinese auteur behind critical darling Nomadland – the soulful, Frances Mcdormand-led drama about a widow who joins a nomadic community – has seen her collecting trophies via Zoom in plaid shirts and overalls. For Hollywood’s big night, she cemented her queen-of-casual status by going bare-faced in an Hermès knitted dress, pigtails and trainers to take home the gongs for Best Picture and Best Director.
It was an historic moment: Chloé, 39, is only the second female director to win the directing award in the Academy’s 92-year history, and the first woman of colour to do so. It’s an honour long overdue for diverse female film-makers, but one Chloé was primed for: she has been earning acclaim ever since her first film, Songs My Brother Taught Me – about siblings in a Native American community – debuted five years ago at Sundance. She followed it up with absorbing film The Rider in 2017. Her rise comes as no surprise to Alison Withers, her teacher at Brighton College, where Chloé – a ‘curious’ student – learned English in her teens. Her success has gone down less well in China. Social media posts relating to her win were censored: she has criticised China as ‘a place where there are lies everywhere’.
Chloé’s next film is Eternals, the 26th instalment of Disney’s Marvel franchise. Starring Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Gemma Chan, it is set to establish a new narrative in its cinematic universe, and will establish Chloé as a director that Hollywood can bank on.