Chloé Zhao Defends Comic-Book Movies at Venice Masterclass — SkimNews
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- Chloé Zhao argued at a Venice Film Festival masterclass on Friday that 'it's important to not write off stories because we don't consider them high art,' directly countering Martin Scorsese's comparison of Marvel movies to 'theme parks.'
- Zhao said she originally wanted to become a manga artist but 'wasn't up to standard' at drawing, eventually channeling her storytelling instincts into cinema.
- "Eternals" (2021), Zhao's Marvel adaptation starring Gemma Chan, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, and Richard Madden, earned roughly $400 million globally against a $200M-plus budget and fell short of box-office expectations.
- Zhao drew an explicit parallel between "Eternals" and "Nomadland," calling both stories about 'people in nature… with animals… who have complicated relationships with them.'
- "Nomadland" premiered at Venice in 2020, won the Golden Lion, and made Zhao only the second woman ever to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
- "Hamnet" (2025), Zhao's Shakespearean drama fictionalizing the Shakespeare family's life, earned eight Oscar nominations and one win for Jessie Buckley as Agnes.
- Zhao said she is now wrestling with an existential filmmaker's question: 'My life is occupied by screens. Am I missing life because I was always there trying to capture it?'
Why it matters: Zhao is one of the few directors with both a Marvel credit and a best-picture Oscar, making her defense of genre filmmaking unusually credentialed within prestige circles. Her split with Scorsese's stance comes as the source notes superhero films have cooled since the pandemic, and a Venice masterclass gives the argument a rare high-art platform at a moment when the genre needs defending.
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