'Fargo' Star's Groundbreaking Epic Officially Leaves Netflix

One of the true gems of the past twelve months, the Chloé Zhao-directed Hamnet broke hearts and soothed souls on its way to Academy Awards success. Called "one of the year's best movies" in Ross Bonaime's official review for Collider, the film was nominated for an impressive eight awards earlier this year, but only came away with one prize, which was the most obvious triumph of the night. Jessie Buckley's starring turn as Agnes, for which she won Best Actress gold, is sure to prove her career-defining role.

Despite being the sort of devastating drama that is usually overlooked in theaters, such glowing word-of-mouth for Hamnet helped it become a surprise box office hit. Against a reported production budget of $30 million, the film surged past the $100 million mark worldwide, thanks mostly to international recognition. In the UK and Ireland, the film became Zhao's highest-grossing directorial effort to date, which is both a signal of just how great Hamnet was and another reminder that her big-budget superhero effort Eternals was a huge disappointment.

But the best of Zhao can be found in the quiet, contemplative, and often heartbreaking stories, with Eternals a strange outlier in a pretty flawless filmography to date. Six years before Zhao guided Buckley to Oscars glory, she was winning the Academy's top prize for the film that broke her into the mainstream, Nomadland. This grounded, documentary-esque tale follows Frances McDormand's Fern, who becomes a drifter and journeys through the country in her van after becoming a widow. In the film, several real-life nomads deliver fictionalized performances based on themselves, which helped the story feel even more immersive. If this sounds like your cup of tea, then you'll have to hurry, as Nomadland is leaving Netflix on October 1, 2026, ready to venture off to other streaming lands.

Was 'Nomadland' a Box Office Hit?

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The COVID-19 pandemic forced plenty of distributors to become inventive with their release schedules. Nomadland was no different, finding itself released initially in select IMAX screenings, before moving simultaneously to streaming and theaters. Despite this, it still managed to prove a success, scoring a global haul of almost $40 million against a production budget of just $5 million.