Top prize at Venice film festival given to Nomadland, as Chinese-born Chloe Zhao becomes first woman director to get Golden Lion since Sofia Coppola in 2010
- Zhao is the first woman to win the prize in a decade; Sofia Coppola won it in 2010 for her film Somewhere
- Nomadland is about a group of down-on-their-luck van dwellers roaming America; many see it as an allegory for US decline
Nomadland by director Chloe Zhao won top prize at the Venice film festival on Saturday, the first woman to win the prize in a decade.
The film, an ode to American wanderlust and the highs and lows of the open road, won the Golden Lion in a competition billed as a relaunch of global cinema bruised by the coronavirus crisis.
Starring Frances McDormand, it is set among the new tribe of ageing van dwellers, down on their luck and roaming the West. The double-Oscar winner plays a widow who takes to the road when she loses her home.
Its Chinese-born director Chloe Zhao picked up the coveted award 10 years after Sofia Coppola’s 2010 win for her film Somewhere.
The 77th edition of the “Mostra” festival took place in a year when theatres have been closed, film sets shut down and film-goers forced to embrace streaming video at home instead, during months of coronavirus-imposed lockdown.
