Chloé Zhao (bornZhao Ting, in Chinese: 赵婷;[a] 31 March 1982) is a Chinese filmmaker. She is known primarily for her work onindependent films. For her filmNomadland (2020), Zhao became the second of three women to win theAcademy Award for Best Director.
Chloé Zhao was born Zhao Ting (赵婷;Zhào Tíng) on 31 March 1982, in Beijing, China. Her father, Zhao Yuji (赵玉吉;Zhào Yùjí), was a successful executive atShougang Group, one of the country's largest state-owned steel companies. After amassing significant personal wealth, he moved on to real-estate development and equity investment.[7]Song Dandan, her stepmother, is a well-known Chinese actress who was in varioussitcoms, mostly known for her appearance inHome with Kids.
According to her own description, Zhao was a curious child who was drawn toWesternpop culture, especially in the realm offilm andmusic. Zhao was uninterested in school in Beijing, as she focused on art and her own pursuits instead.[8] As a teenager, Zhao described herself as a "rebellious and lazy student" who was more interested in drawing manga-style comics and writing fan fiction than in academics. She was strongly influenced by the films ofWong Kar-wai, particularlyHappy Together. During this period of her life, her parents divorced. Her father remarried Song Dandan. Although she was still learning English at the time, her parents sent her toBrighton College in 1998 at the age of 15.[9][10] Zhao later moved to Los Angeles by herself in 2000, living in aKoreatown apartment and attendingLos Angeles High School.[11] Afterwards, she attendedMount Holyoke College, where she majored in politics and minored in film studies, graduating in 2005.[12][13][14][15]
Post-graduation, while bartending and working odd jobs, Zhao realized she enjoyed meeting people and hearing about their lives, giving her the push to attend film school.[16] AVulture article reported that "Four years was enough to turn her off of politics...she found herself drawn more to people than to policy".[17] In 2010, she followed up on her undergraduate film minor by joining the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television Graduate Film Program[18] atNew York University's Tisch School of the Arts.[19] While attending Tisch, Zhao studied under directorSpike Lee.[16] She toldUSA Today that she appreciated Lee not sugarcoating anything, saying that "he will just tell you as it is", something that she claims she needed.[16]
Zhao's first short filmThe Atlas Mountains, released in 2009, was about a woman who develops a brief yet passionate relationship with an immigrant worker who comes to fix her computer.[20] In 2010, while atNew York University, she released a second short film,Daughters, about a 14-year-old girl living in rural China who is forced into an arranged marriage and attempts to break free.[21] It won First Place Student Live Action Short at the 2010Palm Springs International Short Fest and Special Jury Prize at the 2010Cinequest Film Festival.[22]
In 2015, Zhao premiered her debut feature,Songs My Brothers Taught Me, at theSundance Film Festival as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition.[23] Shot on location at thePine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the film depicts the relationship between aLakotaSioux man and his younger sister. Partially improvised, around 100 hours of footage was collected as Zhao worked with the real residents of the reservation to draw inspiration from their lives and personalities in order to help shape the story.[24][25] Zhao noted that her experience leaving China to study abroad helped her connect to the story of a character struggling with the decision to leave his hometown.[26][27][28]
In 2017, Zhao directedThe Rider, a contemporary western drama, which follows a young cowboy's journey to self-discovery after a near-fatal accident ends his professional riding career.[32] The film was executive produced by her father, Yuji Zhao.[33] As with her first feature, Zhao engaged a cast of non-actors who lived at the filming location, in this case on a ranch.[34][35] The film was praised for being an innovative spin on theWestern, with Zhao's perspective as a Chinese immigrant revitalising the "oldest genre."[36]
The film premiered atCannes Film Festival as part of the Directors' Fortnight selection and won the Art Cinema Award.[37] It earned her nominations forBest Feature andBest Director at the33rd Independent Spirit Awards. At the same ceremony, Zhao became the inaugural winner of the Bonnie Award, named afterBonnie Tiburzi, which recognizes a mid-career female director.[38][39] The film was released on 13 April 2018 bySony Pictures Classics and was critically acclaimed.[40] Peter Keough ofThe Boston Globe wrote: "[The film] achieves what cinema is capable of at its best: It reproduces a world with such acuteness, fidelity, and empathy that it transcends the mundane and touches on the universal."[41]
In September 2018,Marvel Studios hired Zhao to directEternals, based on the comic book charactersof the same name.[52] The film follows the events of the 2019 Marvel movieAvengers: Endgame, featuring a new team of superheroes that must reunite in order to fight an ancient enemy of the human race.[53] Zhao namedRidley Scott'sPrometheus andNick Cassavetes'The Notebook as influences on the film.[54] It was released on 5 November 2021. Zhao is both the director and one of the four writers of the film, the others beingPatrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, andKaz Firpo.[55]Eternals received mixed reviews.The New Yorker stated that Zhao's style of directing dialogue scenes "reveals the absurdity of the script," saying "it might as well have been done via green screen, for the little tangibility and texture that it offers the characters and viewers alike."[56] The article also claimed that the film has reportedly been banned in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait due to the relationship between two male characters,Phastos and Ben.[57] In spite of negative reviews, it still made $161.7 million during its opening weekend and became No. 1 at the box office.[58] Critics noted Zhao's efforts to integrate her own visual realism into a classic superhero genre format.[59]
In 2023, Zhao served as an executive producer onThe Graduates directed by Hannah Peterson.[60]
Zhao's films consistently explore themes of loneliness, identity, displacement, connection, and the search forbelonging. Her characters are often positioned as domesticated people in society and are portrayed through natural lighting and lived-in locations, often blurring the line between fictional storyline and documentary. Believing filmmakers tell their stories to not feel alone, she focuses on the themes of authenticity and places an emphasis on real stories.[8][64]
Frances McDormand toldRolling Stone that Zhao is "basically like a journalist...she gets to know your story, and she creates a character from that" and that she "draws a razor-sharp line between sentiment and sentimentality".[65] AFilmmaker article quoted Zhao as saying, "I want to find new ways to place the camera to evoke more of a feeling. My goal is to put the camera inside of [the character]".[26] An example of her process can be found inEternals when she saw the connection between actorsLauren Ridloff andBarry Keoghan, who playMakkari andDruig, respectively. She states, "It's the same as I did withNomadland andThe Rider. I would see how they interact and I would write that into the film".[66]
Zhao's style ofcharacter-driven realism was also influenced through the scriptwriting process ofAndrea Arnold'sadaptation ofWuthering Heights for the way its characters are shown interacting with their environment. In afantasy realm perspective, she mentionsThe Lord of the Rings, praising the series for their immersive landscapes. She mentions the films had an emphasis on scenic cinematography, as they inspired her for that immersive visual approach with vivid storytelling.[67] These influences also explain her tendency to center characters with their surroundings, which allows emotion and settings to coexist.[68]
Zhao's style also leans on perspective of the female gaze. In a 2023 interview with Brut America, she mentions, "For me, there is a yin and yang in all of us, feminine and masculine strength and I think often in our society in our industry, the masculine strength is being celebrated, and that's a painful way to exist both for women and men." On directing these myriad of characters from the female perspective, she says, "I always try to find a way to give them a chance to be in touch with their feminine side...We must also allow our male characters to access their softer side, I think that's the true female gaze."[69]
Zhao citesWong Kar-wai's romanceHappy Together as the "film that made me want to make films". She was also influenced bySpike Lee, who was her film professor while she studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.[70][71] She citedAng Lee as an influence as well, saying, "Ang Lee's career has been very inspiring to me — how he's able to bring where he comes from to all the films that he makes". She also has mentionedWerner Herzog andTerrence Malick as key influences.[72][73] In a January 2026 episode ofThe Interview podcast, Zhao revealed that Malick had called her — despite the two never having met before — onNew Year's Day that year. During the conversation Zhao told Malick that she was a part of his storytelling "lineage".[74] As for her early introductions to American cinema, they wereThe Terminator,Ghost, andSister Act.[70]
After Zhao became the second woman to win aGolden Globe Award for Best Director forNomadland, many Chinese viewers, as well as Chinese state media, celebrated her win and "sought to claim Zhao's glory for China".[75] Shortly afterward, somenetizens began to question Zhao's citizenship and debated "whether it is appropriate to claim Zhao's victory as China's", withVariety calling the claim "a common move by state-backed outlets to drum upnationalism".[75] Much of the controversy hinged on two sets of remarks: a 2013Filmmaker magazine interview in which Zhao described China as "a place where there are lies everywhere",[76] and a late 2020 interview in which Zhao was misquoted as saying, "The US is now my country". She had actually said, "The US is not my country", and the error was corrected around two months later.[77][75][78] References to Zhao in Chinese media were censored following her Oscar win.[79][80]
As of 2021, Zhao resided inOjai, California, with her partner and cinematographerJoshua James Richards.[7][81] Richards and Zhao met while she was researching for her first feature filmSongs My Brothers Taught Me and Richards was still a film student at New York University. He was her cinematographer for her next two films and served as camera operator onEternals.[82] In anElle article, Richards stated that Zhao was "gnarly and extreme", someone he wanted to find at film school.[17] In 2025, Zhao stated their relationship had ended.[83]
OnThe Interview podcast, Zhao said she had played "hours and hours" ofThe Sims video game series and added that she "would just control everything" in the game "to regulate" herself.[74]
Daughters (2010) won First Place Student Live Action Short at the 2010 Palm Springs International Short Fest and Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Cinequest Film Festival. In 2021 Zhao'sNomadland (2020) won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Director.Nomadland (2020) also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the BAFTA Award for Best Direction, the BAFTA Award for Best Film, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing, 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 theBBC's100 Women list.[87]
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