Nomadland Wins Best Picture Drama at 2021 Golden Globes

After a tumultuous 2020 to say the least, the 2021 film awards season has finally kicked off with [...]

After a tumultuous 2020 to say the least, the 2021 film awards season has finally kicked off with this year's Golden Globes presentation, hosted by comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Winning the first big award of the season is Chloe Zhao's Nomadland, which walked away with Best Picture Drama, courtesy of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The five nominees for the award this year included The Father, Mank, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Moments prior to the Best Picture announcement, Zhao also won Best Director for the movie, which features Frances McDormand as a 60-something woman who loses everything in the Great Recession, forcing to live throughout America as a nomad.

On the press tour for the feature, Zhao had to touched on Eternals several times,her upcoming feature from Marvel Studios. According to the filmmaker, it's the riskiest project Kevin Feige and his team have ever tackled at the studio.

"This is so boring you are going to roll your eyes, but I think Marvel...I think they took a big risk with this one," Zhao told SiriusXM's Jess Cagle (via Digital Spy) about the project, adding, "I think they're going to surprise you. I hope so."

Though Matthew and Ryan Firpo were originally hired to pen the script for the series, Zhao said in a separate interview that she'll get writing credits for the project as well.

"I am the writer on the Eternals, the credits just aren't updated yet," Zhao recently said while promoting Nomadland. "I don't know what it would be like if I don't write the films [I direct]... In the writing process is where I bring in my sensibility, that's a huge part of it. I'm creating situations that will allow certain cinematic language to come in that I've learned on my last three films."

Last year, Zhao told Variety she'd been a fan of the MCU since its inception. Now, largely thanks to her work on small-budget indie movies, she's landed the biggest job of her career.

"I have been a fan of the MCU for the last decade. So, I put the word out there I wanted to make a Marvel movie and the right project came to me," Zhao said while speaking with director Barry Jenkins in a discussion for Variety. "I just wanted to work with that team. Again, back to world-building. It is my favorite thing. That's why I love 'Star Wars.' There is a world that is so rich. I wanted to enter it and see what I can do. It's the same as what you're saying. Can I put a spin on it while still being true to the essence of it? That's exciting to me. It's not that different than me going to the world of rodeo cowboys and saying, 'My spin on that is going to be this,' and it's a collaboration. The chemistry of that, when it's right, it could be very exciting."

Cover photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

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