Chloé Zhao is taking awards season by storm. Already named Best Director by the Boston Society of Film Critics, Zhao just picked up the same honor from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) and The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) for “Nomadland.” Written by Zhao, the Oscar frontrunner tells the story of Fern (Frances McDormand), a woman from a Nevada mining town destroyed by the Great Recession. The 60-something begins traveling across the American West in her camping van, picking up odd jobs along the way.
LAFCA named “Nomadland” as runner-up for Best Picture. Other big winners include Carey Mulligan, who won Best Actress for revenge drama “Promising Young Woman,” for which writer-director Emerland Fennell also scored Best Screenplay, and Garrett Bradley’s “Time,” a portrait of a modern-day abolitionist’s decades-long fight to secure her husband’s release from prison that was awarded Best Documentary.
“Time” took home NYFCC’s Best Nonfiction Film honor as well. A woman-directed title was also named as NYFCC’s Best Film: Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow,” a drama set in the early 19th century in Oregon Territory. Eliza Hittman received the Best Screenplay award for “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” her coming of-age drama about 17-year-old girl who crosses state lines with the hopes of terminating her pregnancy. The film’s star, Sidney Flanigan, was named Best Actress.
Both LAFCA and NYFCC celebrated Radha Blank’s “The 40-Year-Old Version,” a comedy about a struggling playwright who decides to reinvent herself as a rapper. The former recognized the Sundance award winner with the New Generation Award, and the latter named it as Best First Film.
Head over to Deadline to check out all this year’s winners from LAFCA and NYFCC.