Oscar predictions: Can anything beat ‘Nomadland’?

A contemplative character study made for $5 million and populated by non-professional actors, Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’ is not your typical Oscar heavyweight, yet it’s overwhelming the favorite, a roundly acclaimed movie from an exciting auteur that has already ruled at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and, most crucially, the producers and directors’ guilds