In 2018, Zhao directed her third feature film, "Nomadland", starring Frances McDormand. The adaptation from "Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century" was shot over four months traveling the American West in an RV with many actual nomadic workers. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim and won the Golden Lion award, and subsequently played at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award. The film was released on February 19, 2021, by Searchlight Pictures. Zhao won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director for "Nomadland", making her the first woman of Asian descent honored, and only the second woman to win a Golden Globe for directing since Barbra Streisand in 1984. In April 2021, Zhao won the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming the second woman to do so (Kathryn Bigelow being the first).