Chloé Zhao Trivia | 50 facts about the Chinese filmmaker

Chloé Zhao is a Chinese filmmaker that made lauded films like “The Rider” and the awards darling “Nomadland”.

She directed the MCU film “Eternals” which will premiere in November 2021. Before her big break and possible Oscar win for Best Director, let’s find out some trivia and facts about her life and career.

1. Chloé Zhao was born on March 31, 1982
2. She is a Chinese filmmaker
3. Zhao is known primarily for her work in independent U.S. films
4. Her debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), premiered at Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim
5. The film earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
6. Her second feature film, The Rider (2017), was critically praised
7. It received nominations for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and Best Director
8. Zhao garnered further success with Nomadland (2020)
9. The film attracted international recognition and won many awards
10. Including Best Director at the Golden Globe Awards
11. Zhao is the second woman and first Asian woman to win the category at the Golden Globes
12. “Nomadland” won awards at film festivals
13. Including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival
14. She ventured into blockbuster filmmaking with the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film “Eternals”
15. “Eternals” is slated for release in November 2021
16. Zhao was born Zhao Ting in Beijing in 1982
17. Her parents were the manager of a steel company and a hospital worker who was in a People’s Liberation Army performance troupe
18. Vogue said she described herself as “a rebellious teen, lazy at school” who drew manga and wrote fan fiction
19. She loved films growing up, especially Happy Together by Wong Kar-wai
20. When she was 15 years old, despite knowing nearly no English, her parents sent her to a boarding school in the United Kingdom
21. Her parents separated and her father later remarried to actress Song Dandan
22. Growing up, she was drawn to influences from Western pop culture
23. She attended a boarding school in London, then moved to Los Angeles to finish high school
24. Zhao studied at Mount Holyoke College earning a bachelor’s degree in political science
25. She studied film production at New York University Tisch School of the Arts
26. In 2015, Zhao directed her first feature film, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me”
27. Filmed on location at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota
28. Τhe film depicts the relationship between a Lakota Sioux brother and his younger sister
29. The film premiered as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance Film Festival
30. It later played at Cannes Film Festival as part of the Director’s Fortnight selection
31. In 2017, she directed The Rider
32. Α contemporary western drama which follows a young cowboy’s journey to discover himself after a near-fatal accident ends his professional riding career
33. Similar to her first feature, Zhao utilised a cast of non-actors who lived on the ranch where the film was shot
34. Zhao’s impetus for making the film came when Brady Jandreau, a cowboy whom she met and befriended on the reservation where she shot her first film, suffered a severe head injury when he was thrown off his horse during a rodeo competition
35. Jandreau later starred in the film playing a fictionalised version of himself as Brady Blackburn
36. The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors’ Fortnight selection and won the Art Cinema Award
37. The film was released on April 13, 2018 by Sony Pictures Classics and was critically acclaimed
38. In 2020, Zhao directed her third feature film Nomadland
39. The film was shot over four months traveling the American West in an RV with real-life nomadic workers
40. The film premiered at Venice Film Festival where it received critical acclaim and won the Golden Lion award
41. The film was released on February 19, 2021 by Searchlight Pictures
42. On February 15, 2021, Variety reported that “with 34 awards season trophies for directing, 13 for screenplay and nine for editing, Chloe Zhao has surpassed Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) as the most awarded person in a single awards season in the modern era”
43. In April 2018, it was announced that Amazon Studios greenlit Zhao’s upcoming untitled Bass Reeves biopic, a historical Western about the first black U.S. Deputy Marshal
44. Zhao is set to direct the film and write the screenplay
45. In 2013, Zhao was preparing to film “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and told the magazine Filmmaker that the premise of a closed environment with a high teen suicide rate reminded her of her Chinese upbringing
46. Zhao said in 2018 that while growing up in China, she felt constricted “an ancient culture where I was expected to be a certain way” and was drawn to Western culture
47. In 2020, while promoting her US film Nomadland, she told News.com.au that she had felt like an outsider in the United States in not having “the weight of history” on her
48. The newspaper initially reported her statement, “The US is now my country, ultimately, but maybe it is easier for me than how I see my friends are reacting [to everything], especially this year”
49. The comment was removed by February 16
50. The newspaper later restored a corrected quote of Zhao, saying she had said “not” instead of “now”