“Nomadland” is a film written, directed and produced by Chloe Zhao. It seems to be the frontrunner for the Oscars 2021.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the film.
- Nomadland is a 2020 American neo-Western drama film
- The film is directed, written, edited, and produced by Chloé Zhao
- It is based on the 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
- It stars Frances McDormand as a woman who leaves home to travel around the American West
- McDormand also produced the film
- It also features David Strathairn in a supporting role
- As well as real-life nomads Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells, as fictionalized versions of themselves
- Nomadland premiered on September 11, 2020, at the Venice Film Festival
- There it won the Golden Lion
- It also won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival
- Making it the first film ever to win the top prize at both Venice and Toronto
- It had a one-week streaming release on December 4, 2020
- It was released by Searchlight Pictures in selected IMAX theaters in the United States on January 29, 2021
- It was released simultaneously in theaters and digitally on Hulu on February 19, 2021
- The film garnered acclaim, becoming the third-highest rated of 2020 on Metacritic
- Metacritic found it to be the most frequently ranked by critics and publications as one of the best films of 2020
- It was named one of the ten best films of 2020 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute
- It received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama at the 78th Golden Globe Awards
- Frances McDormand and producer Peter Spears optioned the film rights to the book in 2017
- After seeing Chloé Zhao’s film The Rider at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, McDormand decided to approach Zhao about the project
- She and Spears met with Zhao at the 33rd Independent Spirit Awards in March 2018
- Zhao agreed to write and direct the film
- Filming for Nomadland took place over four months in fall 2018, with writer-director Zhao splitting time between set and pre-production for Eternals (2021)
- McDormand, Zhao, and other crew members lived out of vans over the course of production
- David Strathairn, and real-life nomads Linda May, Swankie, and Bob Wells, also star
- McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, and Zhao produced the film
- Searchlight Pictures acquired the world wide distribution rights for Nomadland in February 2019
- The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 11, 2020
- It screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on the same day
- At Venice, the film won several awards, including the festival’s top honor, the Golden Lion
- At Toronto, the film won the People’s Choice Award
- It was the first film ever to win the top prize at both Venice and Toronto
- The film has also been screened at several international film festivals
- In association with Searchlight, Film at Lincoln Center held exclusive virtual screenings of the film for one week only beginning on December 4, 2020
- The film’s initial release date before Searchlight delayed it to February 19, 2021, due to concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic
- It was released in IMAX theaters on January 29, 2021
- With a plan for theatrical and drive-in release in the United States on February 19, and on Hulu the same day
- A two-week preview season in certain regions of Australia and New Zealand began on December 26, 2020
- Before a wider release planned for March 4, 2021
- Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 95% of 295 critics gave the film a positive review
- With an average rating of 8.9/10
- The website’s critics consensus reads: “A poetic character study on the forgotten and downtrodden, Nomadland beautifully captures the restlessness left in the wake of the Great Recession”
- According to Metacritic, which assigned it a weighted average score of 94 out of 100
- Based on 45 critics
- The film received “universal acclaim”
- The film was ranked the best of 2020 by critics more often than any other film, according to Metacritic
