Responding to new reporting finding only nine of the directors behind 2025’s 100 top-grossing US films were women, Hamnet film-maker questions industry’s capacity for inclusivity

Chloé Zhao, the Oscar-winning director of Nomadland, has said that the US film industry is not set up to foster gender diversity.

Speaking at a Women in Motion talk at the Palm Springs film festival on Monday, Zhao was asked for her response to a recent study that found just nine of the 111 directors behind last year’s 100 top grossing films in the US were women.