Chicago Film Critics love ‘Nomadland,’ Paul Raci and Maria Bakalova

The Chicago Film Critics Association bestowed Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland with five wins today, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Frances McDormand and two for Zhao, in Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film had led the nominations with five.

Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) was named Best Actor, while Paul Raci and Maria Bakalova picked up more hardware in the supporting races for Sound of Metal and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, respectively. Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always won her Original Screenplay and star Sidney Flanigan the Most Promising Performer. Emerald Fennell was named Promising Filmmaker for Promising Young Woman.

Da 5 Bloods and First Cow were the only top nomination getters to go home empty-handed.

Here is the complete list of winners from the 2020 Chicago Film Critics Association awards.

BEST PICTURE
Nomadland

BEST DIRECTOR
Chloé Zhao – Nomadland

BEST ACTOR
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

BEST ACTRESS
Frances McDormand – Nomadland

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Paul Raci – Sound of Metal

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Never Rarely Sometimes Always – Eliza Hittman

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Wolfwalkers

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Dick Johnson is Dead

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Another Round

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Nomadland – Joshua James Richards

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Soul – Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste

BEST ART DIRECTION
Mank

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Emma.

BEST USE OF VISUAL EFFECTS
The Invisible Man

BEST EDITING
I’m Thinking of Ending Things – Robert Frazen

MILOS STEHLIK AWARD FOR PROMISING FILMMAKER
Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman

MOST PROMISING PERFORMER
Sidney Flanigan – Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Image of Maria Bakalova in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm courtesy of Amazon Studios

• Author
• Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2026 Cannes Film Festival Winners: Cristian Mingiu’s ‘Fjord’ Takes the Palme, Seventh Win in a Row for NEON - May 23, 2026
• Cannes 2026: Sandra Wollner’s ‘Everytime’ Wins Un Certain Regard Grand Prize - May 22, 2026
• ‘Coward’ Review: Belgian Soldiers Find Love in Lukas Dhont’s Hidden Romance Masterpiece [A] Cannes - May 21, 2026