Chloe Zhao made history at the 93rd Academy Awards when she took home the trophy for best director for her film “Nomadland” which also took home the award for best picture. Zhao is the first woman of color and the second woman ever to be awarded this title. 

“Nomadland,” starring Frances McDormant, is a story about Fern, a woman in her sixties who loses everything after the closing of The U.S Gypsum facility in Empire Nevada where her deceased husband worked for decades. Unable to find permanent work and not able to live off benefits, she decides to live the life of a nomad in her van.

“Frances McDormand hits the road in Chloe Zhao’s intimate, expansive portrait of itinerant lives,” put A.O. Scott from the New York Times.

Frances McDormand, won best picture for her role. The third time she’s won the award “We give this one to our wolf,” she said after receiving the award, an apparent reference to Michael Wolf Snyder, a “Nomadland” sound mixer who took his own life in March. 

Zhao’s novel approach, casting McDormand to act as a friend and confidant to real life nomads playing themselves, has become one of the film’s most beguiling features, giving it a sense of reality unlike any other film. 

“A road movie like no other, “Nomadland” is a modest masterpiece like no other,” said Joe Morgenson from The Wall Street Journal.

In this film, the characters we meet are so real and full of life, they all have their own unique stories with marvelous character arc’s and development, the movie is best watched on the biggest screen possible to fully encapsulate the mood of this groundbreaking film.