It’s still very early, but it’s impossible not to take notice of what Chloe Zhao’s film Nomadland is doing right now. The fall film festival season has launched other movies, like Regina King’s One Night in Miami…, but none like Nomadland. Today, the flick added a pretty big feather in its cap, taking the prestigious Audience Award from the Toronto International Film Festival (with the aforementioned One Night in Miami… as runner up). Taking this prize from TIFF is a huge deal, even in an unusual awards season like this one. What does it mean for its Oscar aspirations? Read on to find out… So, what exactly does this mean for Nomadland? Looking specifically at the Audience Award and thinking in terms of its history, this is a somewhat reliable indicator of prestige, especially with the Academy. Nomadland now joins a group that has seen a half dozen prior Best Picture winners, along with a whole host of nominees since the prize was introduced in the late 1970’s. Last year, Jojo Rabbit took the prize, the year before that, Green Book won the whole shebang, while previously La La Land became an absolute nomination behemoth, not to mention how Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri did quite well for itself too. There are outliers, but it’s undeniably a good thing to be in this company. Buzz alone is worth a ton to those who are pushing this one for awards (Searchlight Pictures, specifically), in terms of getting anticipation out there for the film. Searchlight especially knows the value of this prize, having won it multiple times in the past. Just look here at the list of what has won since the Audience Award was originally instituted: 1978 – Girlfriends 1979 – Best Boy 1980 – Bad Timing 1981 – Chariots of Fire 1982 – Tempest 1983 – The Big Chill 1984 – Places in the Heart 1985 – The Official Story 1986 – The Decline of the American Empire 1987 – The Princess Bride 1988 – Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown 1989 – Roger & Me 1990 – Cyrano de Bergerac 1991 – The Fisher King 1992 – Strictly Ballroom 1993 – The Snapper 1994 – Priest 1995 – Antonia 1996 – Shine 1997 – The Hanging Garden 1998 – Life Is Beautiful 1999 – American Beauty 2000 – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2001 – Amélie 2002 – […]