Chlo Zhao, our guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter podcast, is a Chinese writer, director, producer and film editor who has just five features films to her name 2015s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, 2017s The Rider, 2020s Nomadland, 2021s Eternals and 2025s Hamnet but has, through them, become one of the most admired filmmakers of her generation.

Only the second woman and first woman of color to win the best director Oscar for Nomadland, which also brought her the best picture Oscar she is now nominated for the best director and best adapted screenplay Oscars for Hamnet, which is also nominated for best picture, actress (Jessie Buckley), casting, costume design, original score and production design. Over the course of a conversation at the LA offices of The Hollywood Reporter, the 43-year-old reflected on her path to America and to filmmaking, and her particular attraction to the American west; why, early in her career, she so frequently cast in her films people who had never acted before, and how she worked with them versus with established stars like those she has cast more in more recent films; and what happened after she made Nomadland, a $5 million indie, and Eternals, a $236 million Marvel movie, back-to-back, that prompted her to step away from filmmaking for four years, and almost to pass on Hamnet.

She also discussed why she ultimately took a leap of faith and agreed to make Hamnet; the unconventional directing techniques that she employed on the films set; and what she has made of responses to the film,from rave reviews to winning the Toronto International Film Festivals audience award to a potentially game-changing endorsement from film legend Jane Fonda at the recent Palm Springs International Film Festivals awards gala.

Chlo Zhao on the set of Hamnet Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features