Chloé Zhao

Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland" won this year's top Hollywood directing award on April 10 - the final major guild ceremony before the Oscars, and an important late bellwether in Tinseltown's pandemic-delayed and mainly virtual award season.

After a pandemic year that shuttered movie theaters and upended the movie business, Academy Awards nominations on March 15 went to two female filmmakers for the first time, to a historically diverse slate of actors and to David Fincher's lead-nominee "Mank," a traditional kind of Oscar contender, an old Hollywood homage, in very untraditional year.

A year after omitting women entirely, Hollywood's directors on March 9 nominated two female filmmakers for their top prize for the first time in the awards' seven-decade history.

"Nomadland" director Chloe Zhao and "Promising Young Woman" helmer Emerald Fennell become the ninth and tenth women nominated for the Directors Guild of America's outstanding feature film category.

Nomadland won best drama

With homebound nominees appearing by remote video and hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on different sides of the country, a very socially distanced 78th Golden Globe Awards trudged on in the midst of the pandemic and amid a storm of criticism for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, with top awards going to "Nomadland," "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm," "The Crown" and "Schitt's Creek."