Chloé Zhao facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chloé Zhao
Zhao in 2019
Born	Zhao Ting (1982-03-31) 31 March 1982 (age 43) Beijing, China
Education	Mount Holyoke College (BA) New York University (MFA)
Occupation	Film director screenwriter film producer film editor
Years active	2008–present
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	赵婷
Traditional Chinese	趙婷
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhào Tíng Wade–Giles Chao4 T'ing2 IPA [ʈʂâu̯ tʰǐŋ]
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Chloé Zhao (born Zhao Ting, in Chinese: 赵婷; 31 March 1982) is a filmmaker from China. She is famous for making independent films. These are movies made outside of big Hollywood studios. Chloé Zhao is one of only three women to win the Academy Award for Best Director. She won for her film Nomadland (2020).

Her first movie, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. It was praised by critics and nominated for an award. Her next film, The Rider (2017), also received great reviews. It was nominated for Best Film and Best Director awards.

Zhao became known worldwide with Nomadland (2020). She wrote, produced, edited, and directed this American film. Nomadland won many awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. It also won the People's Choice Award. Zhao received four Academy Award nominations for the film. She won Best Picture and Best Director. This made her the first woman of color to win Best Director. She also won directing awards at the Directors Guild of America Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and British Academy Film Awards. She was the second woman to win each of these.

Zhao's most recent film is the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero movie Eternals (2021). She helped write and directed this film.

Early Life and School

Chloé Zhao was born Zhao Ting (Chinese: 赵婷; pinyin: Zhào Tíng) on March 31, 1982. She was born in Beijing, China. Her father, Zhao Yuji (Chinese: 赵玉吉; pinyin: Zhào Yùjí), was a successful business executive.

As a teenager, Zhao said she was a "rebellious" student. She was more interested in drawing comics and writing stories than in schoolwork. She loved Western pop culture and movies by director Wong Kar-wai. One of her favorite films was Happy Together.

When she was 15, her parents sent her to Brighton College in England. She was still learning English at the time. Later, in 2000, she moved to Los Angeles by herself. She went to Los Angeles High School. After that, she attended Mount Holyoke College. She studied politics and film, graduating in 2005.

After college, she worked different jobs. She realized she enjoyed meeting people and hearing their stories. This inspired her to go to film school. She joined the film program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. There, she studied with famous director Spike Lee. She said she liked that Lee was honest with her. In 2010, she made her first short film, Daughters.

Filmmaking Career

Zhao in 2015

Chloé Zhao's first film was a short movie in 2009 called The Atlas Mountains. It was about a woman who meets an immigrant worker. She also made another short film called Daughters. This film was about a 14-year-old girl in rural China. The girl was forced into an arranged marriage and tried to escape. Daughters won awards at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films and the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.

In 2015, Zhao directed Songs My Brothers Taught Me. This movie was filmed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It shows the relationship between a Lakota brother and his younger sister. The brother, Johnny, wants to move to Los Angeles after high school. But he worries about leaving his sister, Jashaun, with their troubled mother. The film focuses on the real lives and challenges of the people in the community. Zhao worked with the local residents to get ideas for her story. She used the beautiful natural landscape to create an authentic feeling. The film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.

In 2017, Zhao directed The Rider. This is a modern Western drama. It tells the story of a young cowboy who gets a serious injury. The injury ends his career in rodeo riding. He then goes on a journey to find himself. Zhao used real people from the filming location as actors. Her idea for the film came from Brady Jandreau. He was a cowboy she met who had a bad head injury from a rodeo accident. Jandreau played a version of himself in the movie. The film shows a new side of the Western story.

The Rider premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won an award. Zhao was nominated for Best Feature and Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards. She also won the Bonnie Award, which honors female directors. The film was released on April 13, 2018. Critics praised it, saying it showed a world with great feeling and understanding.

In 2018, Zhao directed Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand. This film was based on a book by Jessica Bruder. Zhao filmed it over four months, traveling across the American West in an RV. Many of the people in the film were real nomadic workers. The movie tells the story of a widow who lost everything after a big economic downturn. She decides to travel in her van across the American Midwest. This journey helps her discover more about herself. Actress Frances McDormand and Zhao worked closely together. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Golden Lion award. It also won the People's Choice Award.

Nomadland was released on February 19, 2021. Zhao won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Nomadland. She was the first woman of Asian descent and only the second woman ever to win this award. In April 2021, Zhao won the Academy Award for Best Director. She was the second woman to do so.

In September 2018, Marvel Studios hired Zhao to direct Eternals. This superhero film is based on comic book characters. It follows the events of the 2019 Marvel movie Avengers: Endgame. A new team of superheroes must come together to fight an ancient enemy. Zhao was one of the four writers for the film. Eternals was released on November 5, 2021. It made a lot of money at the box office.

In 2021, Chloé Zhao was named one of the Time 100. This is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2023, Zhao was an executive producer for the film The Graduates.

Future Projects

In April 2018, it was announced that Amazon Studios approved Zhao's film about Bass Reeves. This will be a historical Western about the first Black U.S. Deputy Marshal. Zhao is set to direct and write the movie.

In February 2021, it was confirmed that Zhao is working on a new version of the classic Universal monster Dracula. She will write, produce, and direct this film. It will be a futuristic science fiction Western.

In April 2023, a film adaptation of the novel Hamnet was announced. Zhao will direct this film.

In February 2025, it was announced that Zhao would direct the first episode for a new series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Hulu.

Filmmaking Style

Chloé Zhao uses similar styles and techniques in her films. Actress Frances McDormand said that Zhao is like a journalist. She gets to know people's stories and creates characters from them. Zhao tries to find new ways to place the camera to create a certain feeling. Her goal is to make the audience feel like they are inside the character's experience.

For example, in Eternals, Zhao noticed how actors Lauren Ridloff and Barry Keoghan interacted. She then wrote more scenes for their characters. She believes that everyone wants to feel connected. Filmmakers tell stories because they don't want to feel alone. This is why she focuses on real stories and making them feel authentic.

Zhao also believes in directing from a "female gaze." She says that society often celebrates masculine strength. She tries to show the feminine side in her characters. She wants to allow male characters to show their softer side too. Zhao is known for her films about real people from different backgrounds. Now she is also directing movies with characters from bigger universes, like Marvel's Eternals.

Influences

Zhao says that Wong Kar-wai's film Happy Together made her want to make movies. She was also influenced by Spike Lee, who was her professor at New York University. She also looks up to Ang Lee. She admires how he brings his background to all his films. Other directors who influenced her include Werner Herzog and Terrence Malick.

Zhao mentioned that her first introductions to American movies were The Terminator, Ghost, and Sister Act.

Filmography

Feature films

Short films

Commercials

• A Clydesdale's Journey (2022) for Budweiser
• Diablo IV: Saviors Wanted (2023) for Blizzard Entertainment

Awards and Recognition

Her short film Daughters (2010) won First Place Student Live Action Short at the 2010 Palm Springs International Short Fest. It also won a Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Cinequest Film Festival. In 2021, Zhao's film Nomadland (2020) won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Director.

Nomadland (2020) also won many other awards. These include the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the BAFTA Award for Best Direction, and the BAFTA Award for Best Film. She also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing. Additionally, she received the Critic's Choice Movie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Critic's Choice Movie Award for Best Director.

In December 2024, Chloé Zhao was included on the BBC's 100 Women list.

Personal Life

Chloé Zhao lives in Ojai, California. She lives with her partner and cinematographer Joshua James Richards. Richards and Zhao met when she was researching her first feature film, Songs My Brother Taught Me. Richards was a film student at New York University at the time. He worked as her cinematographer for her next two films. He also was a camera operator on Eternals.

See also

In Spanish: Chloé Zhao para niños