10:08 PM PST 2/22/2021
by
Patrick Brzeski
The filmmaker’s Chinese origins and the film’s Oscar buzz have sparked interest among the country’s arthouse community.
Chloé Zhao’s Oscars favorite Nomadland has been given the green light for a limited theatrical release in China.
The pace and themes of the neo-western would normally challenge the commercially-driven film market in China, but the director’s Chinese heritage – and the appreciation her work has already received – has caused excitement among some Chinese film buffs.
Nomadland will be released by the National Alliance of Arthouse Cinemas (NAAC), a government-sponsored organization that releases independent films in China with the support of major local exhibitors.
A source with one of the exhibitors who supports the NAAC said The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday that the film received official permission for a limited release, but an exact date has not been set.
In recent years, the NAAC has made it a practice to import and release major Oscars contenders just before or after the Academy Awards ceremony. Previous releases from the organization are included Three billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri ($ 10.3 million), Manchester by the sea ($ 1.2 million) and Bohemian Rhapsody ($ 14 million), as well as numerous Chinese and European art house movies.
Based on Jessica Bruder’s 2017 non-fiction book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century Nomadland is Zhao’s third feature, after the critically acclaimed one Songs my brothers taught me and The riderBorn in Beijing, Zhao attended New York University Film School and now lives in the US. She recently directed the upcoming Marvel movie The Eternals.
Nomadland follows Fern (Frances McDormand), a widow who leaves her town to explore life outside of conventional society. THRCritic David Rooney called the film “a powerful character study of a different kind of freedom fighter.”