Chloé Zhao becomes the 1st Asian woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Director

After nearly 80 years, an Asian woman has finally won the Best Director Golden Globe.

Chloé Zhao on Sunday took home the award for directing Nomadland, becoming the first Asian woman to do so in Golden Globes history. In fact, Zhao was the first Asian woman to even be nominated for the award.

Zhao is also just the second woman to ever win the Golden Globe for Best Director, and the first in nearly 40 years, after Barbra Streisand won in 1984 for Yentl.

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Three women were nominated for the best directing Golden Globe at Sunday's show, the most ever in one year. But prior to 2021, only five female directors had been nominated in Golden Globes history, a fact that has drawn widespread criticism. In 2018, for instance, Natalie Portman famously introduced the best director category's "all-male nominees."

Zhao is considered the frontrunner to win Best Director at the upcoming Academy Awards as well, where she would also become the first Asian woman to ever win and the second woman after The Hurt Locker's Kathryn Bigelow.