NOMADLAND Becomes an Early Awards Season Contender

Frances McDormand in NOMADLAND. Source: IMDb

As a new year looms on the horizon, the 2020-2021 awards season is starting to pick up steam. This past weekend, both the New York Film Critics Circle and LA Film Critics Association announced their annual award winners, with two films from this year’s Woodstock Film Festival among the honorees.

First were the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, where Chloé Zhao won Best Director for her film NOMADLAND starring Frances McDormand, which was the official Closing Night Film for the 2020 Woodstock Film Festival. Last year’s winner in this category was Korean auteur Bong Joon Ho, whose film PARASITE was the Spotlight Screening for 20th Annual Woodstock Film Festival before going to make history at the 2020 Oscars by becoming the first foreign language film to win Best Picture. You can read the full list of NYFCC award winners here.

Oliva Coleman (left) with Anthony Hopkins (right) in THE FATHER. Source: IMDb

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards were held virtually on Sunday, with NOMADLAND picking up another Best Director win for Zhao, echoing Bong Joon Ho’s win from the previous year. The film was a runner-up in several other categories, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography, which both went to Steve McQueen’s anthology series SMALL AXE on Amazon Prime Video. Another notable winner was Florian Zeller’s THE FATHER, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman, which won Best Editing. The full list of LAFCA award winners is available here.

Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees!