Chloe Zhao, 39, created history on Monday by becoming the second woman to win the best director award at the Oscars. She won the best directing Oscar for ‘Nomadland’. Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win the best director in 2009 for her film “The Hurt Locker”.

Zhao is also the first woman of colour to win the honour. 

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Born in Beijing, Zhao was educated in UK and Los Angeles. Her father worked with the Shougang Group steel company in Beijing  and later as a real estate developer and equity manager. Her mother worked at a hospital.

The filmmaker moved to the US when she was a teenager and started her journey as a director with the 2015 movie ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’. However, it was her second movie, “The Rider”, that brought critical acclaim and global attention to her. ‘Nomadland’ was her third film.

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‘Nomadland’ is a semi-fictional drama about the hidden community of older, van-dwelling Americans who call the open road their home.

“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,” the director said after her win.

The nominees in her category were – Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman”, Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari,” Thomas Vinterberg for “Another Round,” and David Fincher for “Mank.” Based on Jessica Bruder’s book of the same name, “Nomadland” stars Frances McDormand as Fern, a woman who, after the economic collapse of her company town in rural Nevada, packs her van and sets off on the road to explore a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.