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Leading actress Frances McDormand and director Chloé Zhao during the filming of »Nomadland«
Photo: AP
After its success at the Golden Globes, the film drama »Nomadland« was also named best film at the US Critics' Choice Awards.
News from China now raises the question of whether director Chloé Zhao's film will even be shown in her native country.
How exactly this came about is difficult to understand in every detail.
Last week, Chinese internet users questioned whether Zhao, who trained in the UK and the US, is still a Chinese citizen and whether she could be counted as a Chinese, given comments she had made about the country in the past .
While some celebrated their victory, others presented interviews in which Zhao made statements that they consider an "insult to China."
Government agencies have now removed advertisements for "Nomadland" from social media, and at least two hashtags associated with the film have been disabled.
On Douban, a network in which many users discuss books, films and television programs, the official Chinese poster for the film and a release date in China were deleted on Friday, according to Variety.
At the center of the controversy are screenshots of two quotes from Zhao from the past.
Zhao apparently told Filmmaker magazine in 2013: "It goes back to when I was a teenager in China, in a place where there are lies everywhere." In December 2020, Zhao told the Australian website news.com .au: "The US is now my country." The news site announced last week that Zhao had been misquoted, but the sentence had long since spread.
Oscar nominee
In the semi-fictional road movie »Nomadland«, Zhao shows the USA as a country that can no longer care for its residents.
Two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand ("Fargo", "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri") plays a woman who drives through the country as a nomad, but there are also people who live on the streets and make a living doing odd jobs .
At the Golden Globes just over a week ago, "Nomadland" received the award for best drama, and Zhao was only the second woman after Barbra Streisand to receive the award for best director for "Yentl".
»Nomadland«, which also received the awards for the best camera and the best adapted screenplay at the Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday, is also a contender for the Academy Awards.
The Academy Awards, originally planned for February 28, have been postponed to April 25 due to the corona pandemic; the nominations will be announced on March 15.
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