15 Aug Chloé Zhao and Women in Filmmaking
Even though there are many brilliant female directors, only a few have had massive box office success. Women are still outnumbered by men when it comes 1to directing commercial films, although several of their films have had surprising success in recent years.
Zhao, who was born in Beijing, was a young woman with a bright future ahead of her. She went to boarding school in the United Kingdom as a 14-year-old in the 1990s, and eventually relocated to the United States, where she studied political science before enrolling at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the graduate cinema program in year 2010, where she was taught by Spike Lee.
Songs My Brother Taught Me, her debut feature film, was shot on a American reservation in South Dakota and released in 2015, followed by The Rider, a contemporary Western drama, in 2017.
Chloé Zhao, the director of the Chinese film Nomadland, created history at the 2021 Academy Awards. Zhao became the 1st Chinese woman, 1st Asian woman, and the 1st woman of color when she won the Academy Award for Best Director in the 93-year history of the award. She is only the 2nd woman who won the award, after Kathryn Bigelow’s triumph who won award for The Hurt Locker in 2010.
She was also competing for adapted screenplay and editing, in addition to producing and directing. After several virtual panels, especially with her fellow filmmakers, she was finally able to meet the other finalists in person on Sunday night.
Zhao was referred to as “the glory of China” by Chinese official media after winning Best Director at the Golden Globes. Back in China, however, her moment of triumph was met with deafening silence by the government and mainstream media
When Zhao won the award for best director at the Golden Globes on Feb. 28 she was greeted with equal enthusiasm in China and the United States, with Chinese news sources and social media users hailing her as a source of national pride.
She said: “I’m extremely lucky to be able to do what I love for a living.” “This win means more people get to live their dreams. I’m extremely grateful.”
During her acceptance speech, she remarked, “This is for anybody who has the faith and bravery to hold on to the kindness in themselves and hold on to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do so.”
Zhao was so outstanding in each of her duties on the film — writer, director, producer, and editor — that it seemed as if she was playing multiple roles. “And what’s amazing is how well she integrates all of those diverse skills into one individual. That’s unlike anything else I’ve ever seen.”
A female filmmaker with a distinct point of view? It hasn’t always been seen positively. So it’s fantastic to see Chloé Zhao take entire control of her film by doing many duties, ensuring that the final cut is exactly what she envisioned. I’m ecstatic for her and the current situation of female filmmakers. We’ve come a long way since then.”
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With love, Cyberpink