Chloe Zhao
Chinese American director Chloé Zhao has won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival for her film “Nomadland,” a documentary-influenced road movie starring Frances McDormand about a group of down-on-their-luck van dwellers roaming America.
Zhao is the first woman to win the prize in a decade. Sofia Coppola won it in 2010 for her film “Somewhere.”
The win is seen as a boost to the film’s prospects in the upcoming, postponed Academy Awards season, where hopes are high for Zhao to become the first woman of color to land a best director nomination.