Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” a wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West, won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards. The “Nomadland” victory capped the extraordinary rise of Zhao, a lyrical filmmaker whose winning film is just her third, and which—with a budget less than $5 million and featuring a cast populated…

Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” a wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West, won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao became the first woman of color to win best director and a historically diverse group of winners took home awards. In the biggest surprise of a socially distanced…