Los Angeles (AFP)
Born in Beijing but fascinated by the American West, "Nomadland" director Chloe Zhao conquered Hollywood with a string of prestigious nominations and an ambitious Marvel superhero film nearing completion.
The 38-year-old independent filmmaker was nominated four times for the Oscars on Monday morning, notably in the categories of best film and "best director", for her intimate road movie about elderly Americans who crisscross the United States aboard motorhomes, living in sometimes very difficult conditions.
Chloe Zhao, who was already crowned at the Golden Globes at the end of February, is the first woman to obtain four Oscar nominations in the same year.
"Many thanks to my peers at the Academy (of the Oscars, editor's note) for their recognition of this film which is so dear to my heart," she reacted in a statement to the American media.
"Nomadland", which has as a backdrop the desert and wild landscapes of South Dakota and Nebraska, is yet another declaration of love by the Chinese artist for his adopted country and its wide open spaces.
Already with her first film, "The Songs That My Brothers Taught Me", the story of a teenage girl dreaming of leaving the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, she immersed herself in the life of the native people of South Dakota.
It was while studying cinema in New York that Chloé Zhao discovered photos of this land of the Lakota Sioux.
She then conceived the project "to tell a story that could make things better" for them, she explained in a recent interview with New York Magazine.
The film was successful in some festivals but it was two years later, with "The Rider", that she really stood out.
This film, set in Pine Ridge and the neighboring Badlands National Park, picks up on a central element of Zhao's films: non-professional actors who play their own character, little or no romance.
"I'm not the kind of writer-director who can create her characters on her own in a dark room," she told New York Magazine.
In "The Rider", Chloe Zhao followed a real cowboy, Brady Jandreau, who refused to leave the rodeo circuits despite a serious, life-threatening head injury.
For "Nomadland", the filmmaker managed to convince a star actress of the caliber of Frances McDormand, also seduced by the films and the vision of Zhao, to draw inspiration from her own journey to play her nomadic character, Fern.
"If that means more people are going to say hello to people who don't live in classic houses, who have an alternative lifestyle, then they'll be very happy," Chloe Zhao told AFP after her Golden Globe victory. .
"The recognition that we are getting, the attention it will generate for this traveling community, I think it's great," she added.
- Superhero and futuristic Dracula -
Born Zhao Ting in Beijing to a wealthy family, Chloe Zhao had left China when she was still a teenager to attend an English boarding school, before continuing her studies in Los Angeles, then in New York, where she notably had Spike Lee as a teacher.
The director's early successes first drew praise in her native country, where she had been described as "pride".
But remarks attributed to her in an American magazine in 2013, where she seemed to criticize her country of origin, then resurfaced, casting a shadow on the board.
She has since been the target of criticism from some nationalists who called her a "traitor," a controversy that could jeopardize the exit of "Nomadland" from China.
The filmmaker is now based in Ojai, a small rural town in California about 150 km northwest of Los Angeles, strongly steeped in hippie culture.
She lives there with her companion, a Briton who is also a filmmaker, and two dogs.
Chloe Zhao will soon enter the big Hollywood productions circuit: she directed "Eternals", a Marvel film starring stars like Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek on behalf of one of the biggest Disney franchises, which is due out at the end of the year.
And proof of the craze of the film industry for Zhao, we learned last month that Universal Studios entrusted him with a futuristic western version of "Dracula".
© 2021 AFP