It Might Be A While Until You Can Stream Nomadland

With the Academy Awards looming just over the horizon, it's a great time to start planning your Oscars watch night. Nomadland, which actually made an early, one-week limited premiere on December 4, is one of the strong favorites to take home the Best Picture prize, and could likely be one of the top entries on your watch list. With so much buzz swarming around the Frances McDormand-led film, it bears asking: when and where can we stream Nomadland?

Nomadland is based on a book by Jessica Bruder, which tells the story of Fern (McDormand), a woman who loses her job amidst the Great Recession. Now experiencing homelessness, she sets out to travel in her van in search of a new job. Along the way, she learns from her fellow real-life nomads, and through her journey, she learns what it means to be a modern day nomad. It's a fascinating look into economic hardship and the impact of the Great Recession on real life Americans.

But unfortunately you can't stream Nomadland, at least not just yet. The only chance to have virtually watched Nomadland came at the beginning of December, when it ran for six days as part of the Film at Lincoln Center Virtual Cinema program. It was a "ticketed" event with limited attendance, and was more or less a film rental that was only allowed to play during a certain timed window. It's no longer available through Virtual Cinema.

As of right now, Nomadland is slated to make a theatrical release on February 19, 2021. There's no news yet as to whether Nomadland will adhere to the traditional 90-day theatrical release window that bars it from being streamed anywhere, which would place possible streaming availability for Nomadland well into May 2021.

However, times being what they are, and with the Academy Awards themselves fast approaching in April 2021, it's possible there could be a compromise to get the film in audiences' hands sooner rather than later.