Oscars 2021 Results: All The Major Winners (And Who Should Have Really Won)
4. Best Director - Chloé Zhao
Another bookie favourite, Chloé Zhao was a dead cert to pick up Best Director. As the first woman of colour and second woman to win this award, Zhao was extremely humble picking up the Oscar and thanked her cast of Nomads. She left the audience with six words that she always comes back to: "people at birth are inherently good", a phrase she would often remind herself of and has shaped her philosophy to this very day.
Predicted winner: Chloé Zhao
Predicting this in January was barely a stab in the dark as - for most of the exhausting awards circuit - Zhao was clearly the frontrunner for this category. Seeing whether the Chinese director would be able to stay in the Oscar conversation for Best Director was the biggest decider. Not only did she stay in the conversation, but Zhao became the most awarded person ever in a single awards season.
Rightful winner: Chloé Zhao
A well deserved win, it is hard to make an argument for anyone else being worthy of Best Director. Lee Isaac Chung would have been a worthy recipient for his beautiful work on Minari, but ultimately Zhao managed to capture the sheer beauty of nature and Nomad community in a way that felt reminiscent of a documentary and a sprawling Western simultaneously.