Why Chloe Zhao’s Best Director Oscar Win Needs To Happen

You can argue that women, to date, have received less opportunities than men to direct feature films in Hollywood, and you would be correct. But those tides have been turning, with the Academy slowly catching up with the times. Since 2004, when Sofia Coppola became the third woman to be nominated in the Best Director field, the Academy has been steadily improving its recognition of strong female filmmakers including Bigelow (2010) and Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird in 2018 — though she also deserved, but didn’t receive, a nod for the magnificent Little Women in 2020.