07. Chloé Zhao
UK
Oscar-winning film director and writer Chloé Zhao is the first woman of colour - and one of only three women in history - to receive the academy’s best director award.
Born in Beijing, Zhao moved to the UK and the US. She describes herself as a nomad - a theme her award-winning film, Nomadland (2020), celebrates.
From representing an indigenous community in her early films to directing the most diverse cast to date in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Zhao feels passionately about what connects us as human beings.
This year she has been on set directing an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed Shakespeare-era novel Hamnet, to be released in 2025.
- If we don't change the structure of the industry we're working in, we're just saying that we need to be exactly like men to have value. I don't think that’s where our power lies:- Chloé Zhao"
