Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell are both poised to make history this year after being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director.
Directors Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell are the two female directors nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, adding them to a list now only seven nominees long. However, they are also part of Academy history, as they are the reason the category of Best Director include more than one female nominee for the first time in history.
Both women have already made history as individuals. Zhao is the most nominated woman in a single year in Oscar history, and Fennell is the first British woman to be in the running for Best Director, as well as the first to be nominated for a debut film. Fans have been ecstatic all day about these two women, and what the outcome will be.
Zhao and Fennell directed the films Nomadland and Promising Young Woman, respectively. Both films have multiple Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. However, Zhao has been this year's Oscar favorite, with fans and critics all saying that she will likely take home the award.
If Zhao wins the award tonight for Nomadland, she will be the second woman, and first woman of color, to win the Academy Award for Best Director. The first was Katheryn Bigelow in 2010 with the film The Hurt Locker.
Nomadland tells the story of a woman (Frances McDormand) who leaves her hometown of Empire, Nevada after her husband dies, to be "houseless" and travel around the United States. It is based on the 2017 novel Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder.
Zhao's Nomadland is nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress (McDormand). It has already won two Golden Globes, for Best Director and Best Motion Picture - Drama.
Although Fennell is not the favorite, Promising Young Woman has been a close second in the Best Director winner predictions. Her film tells the story of a woman who seeks to avenge the death of her best friend, who was a victim of rape. This film was both written and directed by Fennell, and is nominated for five Academy Awards.
If Fennell were to win, she would be the first British woman, second woman ever, and the first woman to win the award for her directorial debut. Promising Young Woman is nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress (Carrie Mulligan).
Even though Fennell may not win Best Director, many people are predicting that she will be the one to win Best Original Screenplay, and many are also hoping for Mulligan to win Best Actress.
The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony will be virtual, and will air on Apr. 25 at 8:00 PM ET on ABC. The show is set to take place at the Dolby Theatre and Union Station in Los Angeles.