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The story
A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer93%Fresh#38 of 98 winnersIMDb7.3223K votes#79 of 98 winners
Metacritic87/ 100#33 of 93 winners
TMDB7.2/ 10
Famous lines
Makenzie: My mom says that you're homeless, is that true?
Fern: No, I'm not homeless. I'm just house-less. Not the same thing, right?
One of the things I love most about this life is that there's no final goodbye. … I always just say, "I'll see you down the road." And I do.
Just like my dad used to say, "What's remembered lives." I maybe spent too much of my life just remembering, Bob.
It's strange that you encourage people to invest their whole life savings, go into debt, just to buy a house they can't afford.
We be the bitches of the badlands.
You know, I think that what the nomads are doing is not that different than what the pioneers did. I think Fern's part of an American tradition.
You maybe seemed weird, but it was just because you were braver and more honest than everybody else.
The way I see it is that the Titanic is sinking and economic times are changing.
Then he told me before he died, just don't waste any time, girl. Don't waste any time.
That ring is a circle and it never ends. And that means that your love never ends.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- Accepting Best Picture, Frances McDormand howled loudly toward the ceiling, confusing many in the audience. She later explained it honored the film's sound mixer, Michael "Wolf" Snyder, who had died shortly before the film's release.Wikipedia · Critical response
- Real-life nomads Linda May, Swankie, and Bob Wells play fictionalized versions of themselves, and many other real nomads appear in the film alongside Frances McDormand and David Strathairn.Wikipedia · Lead
- During the four-month shoot, Frances McDormand, Chloé Zhao, and other crew members lived out of vans.Wikipedia · Production
- Chloé Zhao made Nomadland while splitting her time between the set and pre-production on Marvel's Eternals.Wikipedia · Production
- Frances McDormand became the first woman to win Oscars for both acting and producing, and the first person to win as both producer and performer for the same film.Wikipedia · Lead
- Nomadland was the first film to win the top prize at both the Venice Film Festival (the Golden Lion) and the Toronto International Film Festival (the People's Choice Award).Wikipedia · Release
- The film was pulled from Chinese release after Chloé Zhao drew scrutiny for a 2013 interview in which she called China "a place where there are lies everywhere"; Chinese media then censored the Oscars.Wikipedia · Reaction in China
- Frances McDormand and Peter Spears optioned Jessica Bruder's book in 2017, and McDormand approached Chloé Zhao after seeing Zhao's film The Rider at that year's Toronto festival.Wikipedia · Production
- Chloé Zhao became the second woman and first Asian woman to win Best Director, and the first person nominated in four categories in a single year.Wikipedia · Lead
- Not every critic was won over: WBUR's Sean Burns wrote that Zhao "has made The Grapes of Wrath without the wrath," while Tim Brayton called it "108 minutes of poverty tourism."Wikipedia · Critical response