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Nomadland hit the road for Telluride from Los Angeles
Featurette courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
Nomadfest • #NMDLND
The Open Canvas
Nomadland is an arthouse movie that ran the field on the film festival circuit, now culminating with an IMAX theatrical release day-and-date with its premiere on Hulu. At first blush, it might seem like an odd movie for the high-tech IMAX format (while the film was not shot using IMAX cameras, it did get the “enhanced for IMAX” treatment).
As Fern’s journey takes her through some of the country’s beautiful landscapes, the IMAX effect takes hold. It’s great stuff — not at the level of a MacGillivray nature documentary filmed in IMAX, but it’s yet another layer to explore in Zhao’s tale.
Regardless, COVID-19 has ravaged the theatrical exhibition business. On 23 February, merely five days into the theatrical run, the 18:40 IMAX screening at AMC’s Arapahoe Crossing had an attendance of only four people.
Regardless of the box office tally — a business consideration further clouded by the movie’s day-and-date simultaneous debut on Hulu — there is the future to think about. For Zhao, that includes finishing work on Eternals, a new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, expected to hit theatres in November 2021. Watching the union of Zhao’s artistic and narrative sensibilities merged into the mighty Marvel machinery is something to get excited about.
The Closed Festival
Along the unsettled path to theatrical distribution, Nomadland’s garnered loads of accolades, including Poland’s Camerimage Golden Frog and Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion, as the buzz builds for Oscar nominations.
It’s so oddly emblematic of the year that was. The movie’s original theatrical trailer noted the film was an official selection of the Telluride Film Festival, a festival which never happened because of the pandemic. It also noted a December 2020 theatrical release. That was pushed to February 2021.
In the thick of the pandemic, movies, filmmakers and cinema chains have all struggled. It was previously inconceivable theatres in California and New York — hubs of the “cinematic elite” that weigh heavily on Oscar ballots — would be closed for an entire year. Old school marketing techniques had select prestige movies land in those cities exclusively in order to stimulate the box office and nurture Oscar buzz ahead of a national rollout in January.
Instead of the Telluride Film Festival nestled in the mountains, Nomadland so appropriately hit the road and was featured at “Telluride from Los Angeles.” The venue? A makeshift drive-in staged in a parking lot at the Rose Bowl. With theatres closed, drive-ins were reborn — both traditional drive-ins and other movie experiences were reimagined for the COVID world.
As Denver Film’s traditional summer series Movies on the Rocks turned into a drive-in format in a Red Rocks parking lot, the Denver Film Festival also leveraged the format for three red carpet premieres. Nomadland, recipient of the 43rd Denver Film Festival’s Rare Pearl Award, opened the festival as a drive-in feature at Red Rocks.
Frances McDormand, Swankie and Linda May attend Searchlight’s Nomadland
Telluride from Los Angeles Drive-In Premiere at the Rose Bowl.
Photo: Todd Williamson / January Images
Nomadland
Nomadland takes a seemingly very simple idea and turns it into something much more complex and rewarding.
Nomadfest
Instead of the Telluride Film Festival nestled in the mountains, Nomadland so appropriately hit the road and was featured at “Telluride from Los Angeles.”
Nomadtech
The pandemic has altered the work landscape and most of the changes are likely a permanent shift in work habits for many.
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