Los Angeles: Filmmaker Chloe Zhao has scripted history at the 93rd Academy Awards.
The “Nomadland” filmmaker is the first woman of colour and only the second woman in the Academy Award’s history to win best directing Oscar.
Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win best director in 2009 for her film “The Hurt Locker”.
“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.
It is only the third film for Zhao, 39.
She was a clear favourite in the category, which has nominees such as 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.
The filmmaker, who moved to the US when she was a teenager, started her journey as a director with the 2015 movie “Songs My Brothers Taught Me”. It was her second movie, “The Rider”, that brought critical acclaim and global attention to her.
