Asian-American filmmaker Chloé Zhao became the first woman of colour to win the Best Director award at the Oscars for her film Nomadland. Zhao was a frontrunner for the Academy Award after having won at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs earlier. The Chinese-American also becomes the second woman ever to win the Best Director trophy in the 93 years of the existence of the Oscars.
Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win the Best Director award for her film The Hurt Locker. So far only five women have ever been nominated in the Best Director category at the Academy Awards - Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion forThe Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003), Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009) and Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (2017).
Speaking at the 93rd Academy Awards after her big win, Zhao said, “This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves and to hold on to the goodness in each other.”
Nomadland features Frances McDormand as Fern, a woman in her sixties who after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
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