In 2021, Chinese filmmakerChloe Zhaomade history. She became the second woman (after Kathryn Bigelow) and the first woman of color to win the Academy Award for Best Director forNomadland, beating out big names like David Fincher. She also won Best Picture for the same film. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic’s less glitzy Oscar ceremony, Zhao was far from her roots.She was born in Beijing in 1982 to a well-off family. As a teenager, Zhao said she was “rebellious… lazy at school.” She was drawn to influences from pop culture in the Western world, drew Manga comics, and wrote fan fiction. Even as a teen, Zhao was developing what would become her signature way of telling stories.What’s interesting about Zhao’s career trajectory is the fact that her chosen genre is Westerns. Is there any genre more inherently American than the Western? An argument could also be made that theMarvel Cinematic Universealso follows the storytelling arc of a Western, and that is what made Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao the perfect choice to helmEternalsdespite only having experience in small indie films up until that point.Let’s take a look at exactly how Chloe Zhao went from the darling of the indie film world to a celebrated Oscar-winning director of a major blockbuster MCU film over the course of just six years.Related:Chloe Zhao Explains the Unused Bleak Ending Eternals Could Have Had
Chloe Zhao planned to go into politics
Although Chloe Zhao was born in Beijing, she attended a private boarding school in the UK called Brighton College when she was 15. She then moved on her own as a teenager to Los Angeles and attended L.A. High School while living in an apartment in Koreatown. She enrolled in Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, majoring in politics and film. During this period of her life, Zhao intended to go into politics. However, after graduation in 2005, she became disenchanted with the idea of going into politics after working as a bartender in New York City. That experience made her realize that she truly enjoyed meeting people and hearing their stories. This inspired her to enroll in film school at NYU.
Her NYU short films made waves
While studying at NYU,Chloe Zhaomade the short filmThe Atlas Mountainsin 2009. The film is about a girl who has a brief but passionate fling with an immigrant worker who fixes her computer. Zhao’s second film at NYU,Daughters,was about a 14-year-old girl named Maple in rural China who is forced into an arranged marriage. In an effort to avoid that fate, she finds herself on a dangerous path.Daughterswon the First Place Student Live Action Short at the 2010 Palm Springs International Short Fest as well as a Special Jury Prize at the Cinequest Film Festival the same year.
Her first feature told the story of Lakota siblings
When Zhao set out to shoot her first feature film, she focused on a story about Native American siblings. The film,Songs My Brothers Taught Me, was about an Oglala Lakota boy on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Her film was influenced by the things she learned from the people living on the reservation. The film debuted in 2015 and told the story of a boy who is torn between staying on the reservation to help care for his younger sibling and mom or following his girlfriend to L.A. The cast of the film was mainly locals from around the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, not professional actors, and it completely worked; the naturalism of the performances complimented the gorgeous nature surrounding them, and the entire product was entirely organic. The film was screened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Camera D’Or at Cannes, and the hallowed and revered Criterion Collection tweeted about it and included it in their exclusive, elite list of films on their streaming channel.
Her filmTheRidercaught the eye of Frances McDormand
For her follow-up toSongs My Brothers Taught Me, Zhao stepped completely into the genre ofthe American WesternwithTheRider.She returned to an Indian Reservation to shoot the story of an American-Indian cowboy who sustains a near-fatal injury in a bronco riding competition. In the act of filming, this Chinese-born filmmaker “reinvented the Western” (to quote Vogue) to suit her own cinematic vision. In the sameinterview with Vogue, Zhao said, “I have an obsession with the old West,” which clearly shows through her focus on silent and strong characters, fascination with natural rhythms, and interest in the American heartland.Riderscaught the eye of Academy Award-winning actressFrances McDormand, who owned the option to the bookNomadlandand, after seeing the film, thought Zhao had exactly the right sensibility to tell the story.
Related:Is Eternals Director Chloe Zhao Directing Kevin Feige’s Star Wars Movie?
Nomadland brought acclaim and Oscar glory
When Frances McDormand contacted Zhao about directingNomadland, it didn’t take a lot of convincing. Zhao said that adapting the book into a screenplay and directing it felt likea natural next step after her first two films. It is similar in its structure and storytelling, along with its intimate look at a small subset of people (again, mostly played by non-actors).Nomadlandwas nominated for several Oscars and surprisingly won the awards for Best Actress (Frances McDormand,) Best Director (Zhou), and Best Picture, beating out such films asMank,The Trial of the Chicago 7, andJudas and the Black Messiah.
That led to Eternals and her entrance into the MCU
Six years after debuting her first feature film and one year after becoming the second woman and first woman of color to win the Oscar for Best Director,Chloe Zhaohit the big time by any measurable standard when she was picked to helm the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,Eternals.The film marks a departure for Zhao in many ways, including the fact that she was working with major A-list talent (Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie) rather than casting non-professional actors, along with a budget literally hundreds of millions of dollars more than she’s ever had.
While some may look at Zhao’s body of work and not see how it led to directing an MCU blockbuster, consider the fact that superhero movies are essentially westerns. The storylines and relationships follow a very similar arc to a western. It’s good vs. evil, everyone in appropriate uniforms, fighting to save the town, just on another planet and with superpowers. Zhao brings her Western and artistic sensibilities to the film nonetheless, providing sweeping landscapes and a stronger level of emotion (and queerness) to the film than many Marvel movies before it. If fans dislikedEternals, that’s both a testament to Zhao’s iconoclastic vision and theMCU’s surprising willingness to look outside the boxfor directors.
