The Indie Spirit Awards won’t take place until March 3, but Chloé Zhao has just scored a major honor from Film Independent. The writer, director, and producer of “The Rider” was named recipient of the organization’s inaugural Bonnie Award at the Spirit Awards brunch, Variety confirms. The event took place over the weekend. “The Rider” is still up for four categories at the upcoming Spirit Awards: best feature, director, editing, and cinematography.

Named in honor of Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo, who made history as the first female pilot to fly for a major U.S airline, the award recognizes a mid-career female director with a $50,000 grant. The other nominees were So Yong Kim (“Lovesong”) and Lynn Shelton (“Laggies”).

“The Rider” follows a cowboy coping with the aftermath of a near-fatal rodeo accident. “I was drawn to a way of life in the heartlands of America that seems to be rapidly disappearing, and I feel very compassionate towards people who refuse to move on and who try to hold on to their way of life and their identity,” Zhao told us. The drama screened in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight last year and took home the Art Cinema Award.

Zhao previously wrote and directed “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” a portrait of a brother and sister living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.