Spotlight on Director Chloé Zhao

On February 28, filmmaker Chloé Zhao won the Golden Globe for best director, becoming the first Asian woman to do so. She is the second woman to win the award, after Barbra Streisand won for Yentl nearly 40 years ago. Zhao’s film Nomadland follows a woman who loses everything and sets off on the road to become a modern day nomad

Growing up in Beijing, Zhao was raised by her father, the owner of a successful steel company, and her stepmother, famous comic actress Song Dandan. As a child, she was drawn to manga, Michael Jackson, and director Wong Kar-Wai’s movies. At the age of 14, Zhao moved to London to attend boarding school in the U.K.

In 2000, she moved to Los Angeles to finish high school and majored in political science at Mount Holyoke College. After realizing she was more interested in people than policy, Zhao worked odd jobs as a bartender, real estate agent, and as a party promoter, before enrolling in film school at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. 

Zhao is best known for her three feature films: Songs My Brother Taught Me, The Rider, and Nomadland. All three had low budgets, were filmed on location, and include breathtaking panoramic landscapes. In addition, Zhao prefers to use untrained actors, or “real people,” she meets while researching her projects and incorporates their lives into her films. 

Zhao’s first feature film, Songs My Brother Taught Me, came out in 2015. Filmed at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, it depicts the struggles of a Lakota Sioux teenager who struggles with the decision to move away from his reservation, leaving his sister behind. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, played at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Best First Feature at the 31st Spirit Awards.

Also filmed in the South Dakota Badlands, The Rider came out in 2017. It stars Lakota horse trainer and rodeo competitor Brady Jandreau, who Zhao befriended while filming Songs.  Inspired by an injury Jandreau suffered, The Rider depicts the life of Brady Blackburn whose near-fatal accident ends his professional riding career. The critically acclaimed film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won many awards.

Zhao’s most recent film, Nomadland, follows the life of Fern (Frances McDormand) as she travels around America in her van. Based on Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book of the same name, it stars a collection of real life nomads playing fictionalized versions of themselves. According to Vulture, “It’s an exploration of tattered safety nets, stubborn individualism, and economic decay in the heartland.”

Zhao currently lives in the Topatopa Mountains outside of LA. She lives with her partner, Joshua James Richards, their two dogs, and some chickens. Richards is the cinematographer behind all three of her films. Zhao’s next movie is on a very different scale: Marvel’s “The Eternals.” In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Zhao asked, “How much further and bigger can we go after [Avengers:] Endgame?… Because I’m not just making the film as a director. I’m making the film as a fan.”

You can watch Nomadland in theaters and on Hulu.