A Night to Remember – An evening with Chloé Zhao
Posted by Larry Gleeson
Ojai beboer Chloe Zhao wrote and directed Nomadeland, recipients of Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director at the 2020 Academy Awards. 
Zhao will make a special appearance at the Ojai Film Festival in 2021 Saturday, November 13 at. A screening of her 2017 film The rider precedes a Q&A with Director Zhao, followed by a reception, all at the Ojai Art Center.
Growing up in Beijing, Zhao felt attracted to influences from Western pop culture. She attended a boarding school in London before moving to Los Angeles to finish high school. She worked at small jobs as a party organizer, in real estate and as a bartender before studying film production at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
In 2010, Zhao’s short film, Daughters, premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and won Best Student Live Action Short at the 2010 Palm Springs International ShortFest and the Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Cinequest Film Festival.
Zhao directed his first feature film in 2015, Songs my brothers taught me, which premiered as part of the US Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. It later starred at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Director’s Fortnight selection.
Next, Zhao wrote, produced and directed The rider, an American modern western drama filmed in the Badlands of South Dakota. The film won the Art Cinema Award at the Cannes Film Festival and received Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Rotten Tomatoes wrote: “[The film’s] hard-hitting drama only becomes more effective through writer-director Chloé Zhao’s use of untrained actors to tell the film’s fact-based narrative. “
The rider follows a young cowboy’s journey of self-discovery after an almost fatal accident ending his professional bronze riding career. Zhao engaged a cast of non-actors who lived on the ranch where she recorded the film. Her inspiration came from a cowboy, she became friends with the reserve where she was filming Songs my brothers taught me.
There is a limited number of seats for this special screening of The rider with Oscar-winning author, director Chloé Zhao present. Tickets cost $ 30 and can be purchased here!
(Source: Ojai Film Fest News)
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