Chloé Zhao and Frances McDormand's Oscar contender Nomandland gets a new trailer

Following its Golden Lion win at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year, we posited that Nomadland, the latest film from The Rider’s Chloé Zhao, might be the “American movie of the season.” Our official review was no less effusive, and it’s looking more and more likely that the drama, a stirring blend of fiction and documentary, will be a favorite at the 2021 Oscars. Today, Zhao’s innovative film received a new trailer from Searchlight Pictures.

Frances McDormand stars as Fern, an aging woman who embraces an itinerant lifestyle after the deaths of both her husband and her Nevada hometown, which collapsed following the closure of its gypsum mine. Now, she travels throughout the country in a van, working in Amazon warehouses and fast food joints while mingling with others who make their living on the road, many of whom are non-professional actors playing themselves.

“In different hands, Fern’s story might be tragic,” we wrote in our review. “But while Nomadland director (and writer and editor and co-producer) Chloé Zhao is interested in the material realities of a sixtysomething widow living an itinerant lifestyle, she also brings a dignity to the film that verges on sublime.”

Watch the trailer below:

Nomandland will premiere in February of 2021.