Nomadland becomes the Oscars' 1st Best Picture winner directed by a woman of color

Nomadland just swept its way through awards season to a historic win at the Oscars.

The film from Chloé Zhao on Sunday won the Oscar for Best Picture, becoming the first movie directed by a woman of color ever to do so.

Prior to Sunday's Oscars, the only other film directed by a woman to win Best Picture was Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Zhao on Sunday also became only the second woman to win Best Director after Bigelow, as well as the first woman of color to win. Previously, Nomadland became the first movie directed by a woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama.

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Nomadland was considered the Best Picture frontrunner going into Sunday's Oscars after previous wins at the Golden Globes, the British Academy Film Awards, the Directors Guild of America Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the Producers Guild of America Awards. Given that numerous recent Oscars ceremonies including last year's ended in shocking upsets, though, pundits were bracing for the possibility of another big surprise win, possibly by Netflix's The Trial of the Chicago 7. But as it turned out, Nomadland remained unstoppable to the very end.