Chloé Zhao makes Oscar history with best director win; China censors reaction

It's about time.

On Sunday night, Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win best director at the Academy Awards for her haunting, meditative drama "Nomadland," about a middle-aged widow (Frances McDormand) who lives out of a van after losing her factory job.

Zhao, 39, took the stage at Los Angeles' Union Station for her acceptance speech, where she thanked her "Nomadland" cast and crew. She also recalled reading and memorizing Chinese poems and texts with her dad growing up in Beijing, including the "Three Character Classic." She cited a particular line that informed her life philosophy: "People at birth are inherently good."

"It might seem like the opposite is true, but I've always found goodness in the people I've met in the world," Zhao said. "This is for you. You inspire me to keep going."

But in China, where Zhao was born, her history-making success has not been celebrated. State media in China remained silent as of Monday, with no mention of her win by either CCTV and Xinhua, the two main state-run outlets.

A post announcing Zhao’s directing win by film magazine Watch Movies, which has over 14 million followers on the ubiquitous Weibo microblog, was censored a few hours after it appeared Monday morning. The hashtag “Chloe Zhao wins Best Director” was also censored on the platform. Douban, an app popular with film buffs, banned searches for “Nomadland," and multiple discussion threads about Zhao’s win were deleted on the app.

The filmmaker faced a nationalist backlash in March when she won a Golden Globe for best director, with internet users in China questioning whether she could be called Chinese and some saying she had insulted her home country in comments on the political system. Before the backlash, "Nomadland" was slated for an April 23 release in China according to local media, but it did not open last week and there was no official word on a release.

In comparison, Yuh-Jung Youn topped Twitter's trending list in her native South Korea after her supporting actress win for "Minari," while other South Korean celebrities offered their congratulations.

Zhao is only the second woman ever to win a directing Oscar, more than a decade after Katheryn Bigelow for her 2009 Iraq War drama "The Hurt Locker." In the show's 93-year history, only seven women have been nominated for best director: Bigelow, Zhao, Emerald Fennell (2020's "Promising Young Woman"), Greta Gerwig (2017's "Lady Bird"), Sofia Coppola (2003's "Lost in Translation"), Jane Campion (1993's "The Piano") and Lina Wertmüller (1976′s "Seven Beauties").

Of those women, Zhao is the first woman of color to even be nominated in the category – an infuriating fact, particularly given the awards-worthy films from women directors including Lulu Wang ("The Farewell"), Dee Rees ("Mudbound") and Ava DuVernay ("Selma") that have recently been snubbed for director honors.

"Nomadland" marks Zhao's third feature film after her 2016 debut "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" and 2018 breakthrough "The Rider." All three dramas are set in the American West – a region that has fascinated the Beijing native since graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied filmmaking.

"I had spent a decade in New York and didn't think I was going to be able to tell a story there that could be any better than what's already been done," Zhao told USA TODAY in February. "I was feeling a little restless because I wasn't sure what I wanted to say, partially because it was too noisy around me. That's why I first traveled to South Dakota."

"Nomadland" is based on Jessica Bruder's 2017 nonfiction book and features a cast of mostly non-professional actors, many of whom are real-life nomads playing versions of themselves. Prior to shooting in late 2018, Zhao and her producing team spent time getting to know the van-dwellers as she wrote the script.

"That's what Chloé is the best at: gaining people's trust and listening to their stories," McDormand told USA TODAY. "She says that part of what she enjoys about her filmmaking is getting to know people. And they really do want to tell her their stories."

Throughout awards season, Zhao has been hard at work editing her next movie, Marvel's "Eternals" (in theaters Nov. 5). The blockbuster-sized superhero film features an all-star cast led by Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani and Richard Madden, and marks historic firsts for deaf, South Asian and LGBTQ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

And in February, she signed on for a new Dracula movie for Universal Pictures, in what's been described as a "futuristic sci-fi western" take on the classic vampire tale.

Both projects are sharp left turns for a filmmaker known for her quiet character studies. But after the masterpiece of "Nomadland," we'll happily follow Zhao wherever she takes us next.

Contributing: Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chloé Zhao: China censors reaction to historic best director Oscar win