Chinese director Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' scores 4 nominations for 78th Golden Globe Awards

Chinese female director Chloe Zhao's feature film "Nomadland" scored four nominations including Best Motion Picture-Drama on Wednesday for the 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

The road-trip drama, starring Frances McDormand, will compete against "The Father," "Mank," "Promising Young Woman" and "The Trial of the Chicago 7" for the top prize in the motion picture drama category.

Zhao, a favorite among critics in the lead-up to the Oscars this year, received two individual nominations, namely Best director and Best Screenplay, while two-time Oscar winner McDormand was nominated for best performance by an actress in a motion picture-drama.

Based on Jessica Bruder's 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, the film stars McDormand as an out-of-work woman who packs her van and sets off from her small town to travel around the vast landscape of the American West, exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.

Zhao, born in Beijing in 1982, made history to be the first Chinese woman and woman of Asian descent recognized in the Golden Globe's directing category.

It's unprecedented that more than one female director was nominated in the category. Zhao, alongside fellow female directors Emerald Fennell ("Promising Young Woman") and Regina King ("One Night in Miami"), will compete against two male directors, David Fincher ("Mank") and Aaron Sorkin ("Trial of the Chicago 7").

Zhao will compete for Best Screenplay with Emerald Fennell, Aaron Sorkin, Jack Fincher ("Mank"), Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller ("The Father").

Netflix's "Mank" led the pack with six film nominations for Golden Globes this year, including Best Picture Drama, Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Score.

McDormand will compete against Viola Davis ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"), Andra Day ("The United States vs. Billie Holiday"), Vanessa Kirby ("Pieces of a Woman") and Carey Mulligan ("Promising Young Woman") for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama.

Riz Ahmed ("Sound of Metal"), Chadwick Boseman ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"), Anthony Hopkins ("The Father"), Gary Oldman ("Mank") and Tahar Rahim ("The Mauritanian") were nominated for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama.

"Borat Subsequent Moviefilm," "Hamilton," "Music," "Palm Springs," and "The Prom" will compete for Best Comedy or Musical award.

Maria Bakalova ("Borat Subsequent Moviefilm"), Kate Hudson ("Music"), Michelle Pfeiffer ("French Exit"), Rosamund Pike ("I Care A Lot") and Anya Taylor-Joy ("Emma.") are nominees for the Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical award while Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat Subsequent Moviefilm"), James Corden ("The Prom"), Lin-Manuel Miranda ("Hamilton"), Dev Patel ("The Personal History of David Copperfield") and Andy Samberg ("Palm Springs") were nominated for the Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical award.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture are Glenn Close ("Hillbilly Elegy"), Olivia Colman ("The Father"), Jodie Foster ("The Mauritanian"), Amanda Seyfried ("Mank") and Helena Zengel ("News of the World").

Sacha Baron Cohen ("The Trial of the Chicago 7"), Daniel Kaluuya ("Judas and the Black Messiah"), Jared Leto ("The Little Thing"), Bill Murray ("On The Rocks") and Leslie Odom Jr. ("One Night in Miami") are shortlisted for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture.

"The Croods: A New Age," "Onward," "Soul," "Wolfwalkers" and "Over the Moon," a Chinese-American co-production between Netflix Animation and the Shanghai-based Pearl Studio, got nods for Best Animated Picture.

"Another Round," "La Llorona," "The Life Ahead," "Minari" and "Two of Us" were nominated for Best Foreign Language Picture.

On the television side, Netflix also turned out to be a big winner as its "The Crown" led with six nominations. "Schitt's Creek" is the second-most nominated TV series with five nods.

"The Crown," "Lovecraft Country," "The Mandalorian," "Ozark" and "Ratched" will compete for Best Drama Series while "Emily in Paris," "The Flight Attendant," "The Great," "Schitt's Creek" and "Ted Lasso" won the nods for Best Musical or Comedy Series.

"Normal People," "The Queen's Gambit," "Small Axe," "The Undoing" and "Unorthodox" were nominated for Best Television Motion Picture.

Netflix dominated the Golden Globe race this year with a total of 42 nominations, 22 for its films and 20 for its TV shows. Amazon came in second with ten film and TV nods.

It's the first time in the history of the Golden Globes that the nominations were announced virtually, following the safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Postponed from the customary January date due to the ongoing pandemic, the 78th Golden Globe Awards will take place on Feb. 28.

Hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes herald the quasi-official kick-off of the famed Hollywood award season and are often key indicators of who will be nominated for the upcoming Academy Awards, or the Oscars, scheduled for April 25.