Frances McDormand let out a wolf howl as Nomadland won best picture at the Oscars in one of the most bizarre moments of Sunday night's ceremony - and now director Chloe Zhao has revealed why.
Zhao, who won best director, said the wolf howl was intended as a tribute to the film's sound engineer Michael Snyder, who went by his middle name Wolf to friends and died by suicide in March this year at the age of 35.
'We give this one to our Wolf,' McDormand said before throwing her head back and imitating a wolf's cry.
Speaking after the ceremony, Zhao elaborated: 'The howling is for our production sound mixer who you saw in the memorial.
'We unfortunately lost him recently... He's part of the family.'