‘Nomadland’ wins best picture at social distanced Oscars ‘Nomadland’ wins best picture at social distanced Oscars It was perhaps the most diverse Academy Awards ever, with more women and more actors of color nominated than ever before. Chloe Zhao arrives at the Oscars on Sunday. Zhao's "Nomadland" won best picture.(Chris Pizzello) Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, a wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West, won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao also became just the second woman to win best director, and the first woman of color. The Nomadland victory, while widely expected, nevertheless capped the extraordinary rise of Zhao, a lyrical filmmaker whose winning film is just her third, and which — with a budget less than $5 million and featuring a cast populated by non-professional actors — ranks as one of the most modest-sized movies to win Hollywood’s top honor. Zhao’s next film, Marvel’s