Every Best Picture Oscar Movie Winner Of 21st Century Ranked Worst To Best

What should have won: Sound of Metal. 

Guiding Chloé Zhoa's minimalist drama Nomadland is Frances McDormand in the greatest performance of her illustrious career, portraying a grieving widow who drops everything to travel across the United States and connect with the country's nomadic community. 

What follows is a film of precious delicacy and humanism, as Fern finds solace in stories and lives far removed from her own, and comes to understand the stripped-down beauty of living life on the road, free but never alone. It's empathetic in the way it approaches the people Fern encounters (most of whom are played by real nomads), and never talks down to its audience. 

With luscious cinematography and great, naturalistic dialogue, Nomadland is the kind of quiet, introspective character study that settles into your bones with its melodic rhythm, allowing you to contend with an existence far outside your own world. And somehow, despite this, it never succumbs to melodrama or manipulative storytelling.

Truth be told, it probably shouldn't have beaten Sound of Metal, but Nomadland - beautiful, life-affirming, insightful - was still more than deserving of the award.