Frances McDormand rarely gives long speeches, but she always makes impactful ones. The Nomadland star picked up her third Best Actress Oscar last night for her performance in Nomadland, but also made a profound impression when accepting the gong for Nomadland's Best Film win.
'I have no words,' she explained when named Best Actress. 'My voice is in my sword. We know the sword is our work and I like work. Thank you for knowing that and thanks for this.' When the time came to return to the stage when the film - directed by Chloé Zhao - won Best Film, she surprised viewers by howling like a wolf.
'We give this one to our wolf,' she said, before howling. It was a bittersweet shout out to the film’s sound designer, Michael Wolf Snyder, who sadly died by suicide last year.
This is not the first time she has addressed Michael' death. 'After hustling on each location, we sat together, in silence, tuned in, listened and honoured the world around us and each other,' she told Variety last year. 'I will always miss him. For me, he is Nomadland.'
The last time Frances accepted an Oscar was in 2018, when she won for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. She was surprised then, too.
'So I’m hyperventilating a little bit, so if I fall over, pick me up because I’ve got some things to say,’ she said. 'If I may be so honoured to have all the female nominees in all the categories stand with me tonight,' she continued, before joking that if Meryl Streep stood up, the rest of the room would immediately follow.
Indeed, every woman in the room followed suit - Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig and, of course, Meryl - and Frances then urged the men in the room to collaborate with them on their next films: ‘we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed.’ She ended with two words, ‘inclusion rider,’ a contract between talent and a studio that a film includes diverse staff in front of and behind the scenes.
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