Nomadland Trivia
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49 free Nomadland trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Nomadland trivia quiz covers Chloé Zhao's 2020 Best Picture winner and Jessica Bruder's book behind it. It follows Fern from the shuttered US Gypsum plant in Empire, Nevada, into her van and across the West: the Amazon warehouse, Bob Wells's desert rendezvous, Swankie's cancer and the stones in the fire, the Badlands campground, Wall Drug, Dave's family in Point Arena and the final walk through the empty town. Behind the scenes it covers Frances McDormand optioning the book, discovering Zhao through The Rider, the four-month shoot with the crew living in vans, the real nomads playing themselves, the Ludovico Einaudi music, the Golden Lion and Toronto double, the Hulu release and the film's disappearance from Chinese screens. It ends with the 93rd Academy Awards at Union Station, where Zhao became the second woman to win Best Director, McDormand won for both acting and producing, and the Best Picture speech ended in a howl. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Fern tells a girl she once tutored that she isn't homeless, just what?
Houseless
Houseless is the word Fern chooses, and she lives by it: offered a roof more than once in the film, she goes back to her van each time.
Q 02What nickname does Fern give the vehicle she lives in?
Vanguard
Vanguard is the white Ford van Fern buys after selling most of what she owns, and she sleeps, cooks and washes up in it for the rest of the film.
Q 03Nomadland is based on a nonfiction book by which journalist?
Jessica Bruder
Jessica Bruder grew the book out of her 2014 Harper's cover story, 'The End of Retirement', then spent about three years following nomads around the country to report it.
Q 04In which Nevada town does Fern lose her job when the plant closes?
Empire
Empire is a real company town: its ZIP code was scrapped within months of the plant closing, but a new mining firm bought the site and began moving workers back in 2016.
Q 05What did the plant in Fern's company town produce?
Gypsum for sheetrock
Gypsum for sheetrock: when demand fell, the plant shut in January 2011, and by that summer the company town around it had been emptied.
Q 06Where does Fern take a seasonal job through the winter?
An Amazon fulfillment center
An Amazon fulfillment center opened its doors to the crew after McDormand wrote to a senior executive, so the scenes were shot inside a working warehouse.
Q 07Who organises the desert rendezvous in Arizona that Fern attends?
Bob Wells
Bob Wells plays himself: the real van-dwelling guru founded the gathering, and his talks to the newcomers in the film were largely improvised.
Q 08Which nomad chastises Fern for being unprepared when her tyre blows?
Swankie
Swankie scolds her for travelling without a spare, then teaches her how to look after herself on the road, and the two become friends.
Q 09What does the nomad with a cancer diagnosis plan instead of a hospital stay?
Make good memories on the road
Make good memories on the road: she tells Fern that kayak trips past moose, pelicans and a cliff full of nesting swallows have already given her a good life.
Q 10At which national park does Fern work as a camp host?
Badlands
Badlands National Park in South Dakota let the crew film a working campground, where McDormand took reservations and cleaned the toilets as Fern.
Q 11Which South Dakota tourist stop do Fern and Dave take restaurant jobs at?
Wall Drug
Wall Drug stayed open while the crew filmed, so McDormand worked among real customers who often did not recognise her.
Q 12What illness lands Dave in hospital?
Diverticulitis
Diverticulitis, an inflamed intestine, means emergency surgery for Dave; Fern goes to the hospital to see him, and soon afterwards the two take jobs together.
Q 13Which actor plays Fern's suitor in Nomadland?
David Strathairn
David Strathairn was almost the only professional actor around McDormand: nearly everyone else on screen is a real nomad playing a version of themselves.
Q 21Which Marvel film was Zhao preparing while making Nomadland?
Eternals
Eternals overlapped the shoot: Marvel's Kevin Feige recalled Zhao leaving costume and creature-design meetings to drive her van out to the Dakotas.
Q 22Which festival gave Nomadland its world premiere and its Golden Lion?
Venice
Venice went ahead in person during the pandemic, but Zhao and McDormand could not travel, so they accepted the prize remotely from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
Q 23Nomadland was the first film to win the top prize at both the Golden Lion festival and which other?
Toronto
Toronto's top honour is the audience-voted People's Choice Award, which Zhao accepted in a video message of thanks to filmgoers.
Q 14Where does Fern go to borrow money when her van breaks down?
Her sister's home in California
Her sister's home in California brings Fern both the loan and an invitation to stay, which she turns down; her sister still calls her brave for living as she does.
Q 15Where does Dave settle when he leaves the road in Nomadland?
Point Arena, California
Point Arena, California sits on the Pacific coast, and after only a few days there Fern slips away and drives on to the ocean.
Q 16In Nomadland, what do the nomads say instead of a final goodbye, as Bob tells Fern?
See you down the road
See you down the road: Bob says he has never had to say a final goodbye in his years as a nomad, because sooner or later he meets people again.
Q 17What does Fern clear out when she returns to her abandoned town in Nomadland?
Her storage unit
Her storage unit holds what she kept from her married life; she lets it go, then walks through the empty plant and the house she shared with her husband before driving off.
Q 18Which earlier Zhao film convinced McDormand to approach her?
The Rider
The Rider stunned McDormand at a 2017 festival screening; as the credits rolled she asked aloud who Chloé Zhao was, and the two met six months later.
Q 19What kind of off-grid home does Linda May dream of building in Nomadland?
An Earthship
An Earthship is the dream she is saving for: the real Linda May, the central figure of the book, took low-wage seasonal jobs to pay for land to build one.
Q 20The author of the Nomadland book named her research camper after which rock band?
Van Halen
Van Halen: she called the secondhand van Halen and lived in it for months so that she could report alongside the people she was writing about.
Q 24On which streaming service did Nomadland debut in the US the same day it reached theatres?
Hulu
Hulu is owned by Disney, as is the film's distributor, and the pandemic turned a planned December 2020 cinema release into a same-day launch on 19 February 2021.
Q 25Which studio distributed Nomadland?
Searchlight Pictures
Searchlight Pictures was still called Fox Searchlight when it signed the film; new owner Disney then dropped 'Fox' from the name to avoid confusion with the Fox Corporation it had not bought.
Q 26Why did Nomadland lose its planned cinema release in China?
Zhao's old remarks about China
Zhao's old remarks about China, including a 2013 interview calling it a place 'where there are lies everywhere', resurfaced online soon after state media had hailed her Golden Globe win.
Q 27Which composer's existing music was used as Nomadland's score?
Ludovico Einaudi
Ludovico Einaudi was Zhao's find from an online search for classical music inspired by nature; she chose pieces he had written about his walks in the Alps.
Q 28Fern's old company town sits beside the desert that hosts which annual festival?
Burning Man
Burning Man is held each year in the neighbouring Black Rock Desert, a place the book's author already knew: her first book was a visual history of the festival.
Q 29Zhao's fourth Nomadland Oscar nomination was for which craft?
Editing
Editing joined her nominations for producing, directing and writing: she cut Nomadland herself, working on it at the same time as her Marvel film.
Q 30Zhao was the second woman to win the Best Director Oscar; who was the first?
Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow won at the 2010 ceremony for The Hurt Locker, beating a field that included her former husband James Cameron, nominated for Avatar.