Jessica Bruder: Last News

Just as the holiday season was going into full-blown commercial overdrive last month, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters launched a nationwide strike against Amazon, primarily among its delivery drivers, that ended on Christmas Eve. Arguably, the roots of this labor dispute against the multi-trillion-dollar goliath can be traced back to 2021, when workers at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Staten Island, New York, waged a union campaign. Led by Chris Smalls, who had been fired earlier for protesting working conditions amid the COVID pandemic, the movement faced considerable headwinds – from Amazon, of course, which, through its anti-organizing efforts, had thwarted a similar effort in Alabama, but also from the national unions, including the Teamsters, who were slow to throw their support behind the nascent Amazon Workers Union (AWU).

Chloé Zhao won top honors Saturday night at the 33rd annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards for Nomadland, her adaptation of Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. “This is so beautiful,” Zhao said, holding up the trophy, and thanking Bruder for her book and for her “love of the road and the American people.” Then she said, “I feel so lucky to be able to tell stories for a living.”

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentTop prizes at the USC Scripter event Saturday went to screenwriter Chloé Zhao and author Jessica Bruder for “Nomadland” as well as scripter Scott Frank and novelist Walter Tevis for Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit.”As in past years, the award goes to both the scriptwriter(s) as well as the writer(s) of the original material.Searchlight Pictures’ “Nomadland” is based on the nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.” Zhao thanked Bruder, the cast and crew of the film and Searchlight, concluding, “I feel so lucky to be able to tell stories for a living.” Bruder added that she had been reporting in 2014 for a magazine article that turned into the book and “It has been one hell of a

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorFrances McDormand says she’s always dreamt of hitting the road.She told her husband when she was 45 that she had plans to change her name to Fern when she turns 65 and “start smoking Lucky Strikes, drinking Wild Turkey and I’d hit the road in my RV.”Her dreams sort of came true with “Nomadland.” The 63-year-old Oscar winner stars in the new Searchlight Pictures as Fern, a woman who lives in her van and joins a community of drifters.

Marta Balaga Joining the press conference of “Nomadland” via Zoom on Friday, presented in Venice in the main competition before its Toronto bow, director Chloé Zhao and Frances McDormand – “It’s McDormand, not McDonald. M-C-D-O-R-M-A-N-D.