Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s oeuvre defies simple categorization. She’s made documentaries about acid attack victims and child refugees. She’s focused her lens on the extraordinary life of designer Diane von Furstenberg.
She’s spearheaded animated films for and about Pakistani children. She’s directed episodes of “Ms. Marvel” and is developing a "Star Wars" film.
And she’s won two Oscars along the way. It’s not a conventional resume or trajectory — nothing that anyone would teach or even think to advise in a film school or a masterclass about making it in Hollywood. But for Obaid-Chinoy , it’s working.
And it’s made her one of the most interesting storytellers in the business. “I’ve been able to follow my own yellow brick road to Hollywood,” Obaid-Chinoy said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Having Academy Awards has helped that, but most importantly so many young filmmakers around the world write to me and tell me how my unconventional choices .
.. make them believe that that yellow brick road can be walked on by many people.
” Her newest film is “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge," which is streaming on Hulu. With a co-directing credit shared with Trish Dalton, it’s an intimate portrait of the fashion tycoon, who is raw and honest about everything: death, dalliances, ambitions, love, failures and everything in between. “I hope it’s inspiring to a lot of girls and women to know that they can be the women they.
