After Nomadland won the Best Picture award at the Oscars last night, viewers were stunned when actress Frances McDormand took the stage and began howling like a wolf. Now, the reason behind this has been revealed, and it’s more touching than you may be thinking.

“We give this one to our wolf,” McDormand, who also won Best Actress last night, said before letting out a big howl.

Page Six reported that what many viewers didn’t know was that McDormand was actually paying tribute to the film’s sound designer, production sound mixer Michael Wolf Snyder, who tragically committed suicide earlier this year. Wolf had a long history of depression, and he was found dead by his father at his apartment in New York City on March 1.

“Michael took his own life sometime in the last week, and it wasn’t discovered until I went to check on him Monday after he dropped out of contact for several days,” his father David Snyder wrote on Facebook, according to Deadline. “He has suffered from Major Depression for many years. For most people, this is an illness that waxes and wanes over the years. I’m sure it was difficult for Michael that he spent most of the last year alone in his small, Queens apartment, being responsible about dealing with the coronavirus.”

“We all believed he was doing well, and for most of this past year I think he was,” the grieving father added. “He seemed especially joyful and invigorated in these last few months since he was able to return to work on several different film projects. He was certainly thrilled about all of the accolades for ‘Nomadland’ and told us many happy stories about his work on the film and the amazing people he got to spend time with.”

McDormand paid tribute to him at the time by saying, “Wolf recorded our heart beats. Our every breath. For me, he is Nomadland.”

Chloé Zhao, the director of Nomadland who won Best Director last night, honored him as well.

“On The Rider and Nomadland, I always looked at Wolf after each take,” she told Variety. “I didn’t wear headphones on set and so I heavily relied on Wolf to be my ears. He would nod at me with a happy grin, or tears in his eyes, or sometimes he would discreetly signal ‘one more.’ During The Rider, Wolf suggested an idea we later took onto Nomadland — recording room tones longer than we need as a chance to experience silence.”

“After hustling on each location, we sat together, in silence, tuned in, listened and honored the world around us and each other,” she continued. “I will always miss him. He would always be with me on set, after each take, and in the silence of every room tone. See you down the road, my friend.”