Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentFor the first time, there are two Asian Americans in Oscar’s director race: Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”).
That’s notable, but it’s even more extraordinary considering only four Asians were ever nominated as director before this.The four predecessors were spread over the decades: Hiroshi Teshigahara (“Woman in the Dunes,” 1965); Akira Kurosawa (“Ran,” 1985; he also won a special Oscar in 1989); M.
Knight Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense,” 1999); and Ang Lee. Lee has chalked up three noms for directing, with wins for 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain” and 2012’s “The Life of Pi”; he also scored two other noms as a producer (including for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”).
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