Chloé Zhao just made Academy Awards history.
The Nomadland filmmaker just won the award for Best Directing at the 2021 Oscars, making her only the second female director ever to take home the trophy in this category. Kathryn Bigelow was previously the only female to win Best Director for 2008’s The Hurt Locker.
Zhao was nominated against Another Round‘s Thomas Vinterberg, Mank‘s David Fincher, Minari‘s Lee Isaac Chung, and Promising Young Woman‘s Emerald Fennell. 2021 marks the first year in Oscars history that more than one female filmmaker was nominated in the Best Director category.
Zhao is the first Asian woman and woman of color to win Best Director in Oscars history and the first woman to receive four nominations in one year—she’s also up for Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.
Only five women had been nominated in the best director category before the 2021 Oscars ceremony: Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for The Piano, Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker and Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird.
