Oscars 2021: Chloé Zhao Is First Asian-American Woman To Win Best Director Award

On Sunday, the Academy Awards witnessed a historic first of sorts—Chloé Zhao became the first woman of Asian descent to have cliched the best director award at the Oscars! Quite like most winners, Zhao attributed her success to the belief in herself.

“This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold out to the goodness in themselves and to hold out to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that,” said Zhao in her acceptance speech. “You inspire me to keep going,” added the “Nomadland” director, as cited on CNN Entertainment.

This year also witnessed another first of sorts—two women on the nomination list for best director. Emerald Fennell, the director of "Promising Young Woman" was a nominee too. This year was also the first time two Asian directors were nominated in the same year, the other being "Minari's" Lee Isaac Chung.

A volley of congratulatory messages came flooding in, honoring Zhao’s mammoth feat.

Prior to this, Kathryn Bigelow had brought the Oscar home for best director for "Hurt Locker." The win was reflective of the changing times—the Oscars has barely had a significant representation over the years. In its illustrious history spanning 93 years, only seven women have been nominated so far—Zhao and Fennell. The others were Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties), Jane Campion (The Piano), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) and Bigelow.

In other news from the 93rd Annual Academy Awards, Riz Ahmed made headlines for an interesting reason—fixing his wife’s hair at the awards ceremony. He further quipped that he was the “official groomer." The actor made hearts flutter, as evidenced on Twitter.

Ahmed was nominated for his role in the film "Sound of Metal," and made an appearance in an all-black ensemble with wife Fatima Farheen Mirza.

The pandemic led to a slight detour from the original schedule. The Oscars 2021 was initially going to take place on Feb. 28, 2021. But, things got rolling roughly eight weeks later at two locations—the Union Station and Dolby Theater.