Steven Spielberg heaped praise on "exceptional" director Chloe Zhao as they took to the stage to accept the Best Motion Picture - Drama prize for Hamnet at the Golden Globes on Sunday.
The Jurassic Park director, who produced the movie alongside fellow filmmaker Sam Mendes, went up to the microphone first after Hamnet was named this year's best drama at the end of the Los Angeles ceremony.
In his acceptance speech, he said, "Sam Mendes, who sent me the book by Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet, and I love the book, but I felt there was really only one filmmaker on the face of the planet who could tell the story of Agnes and Will (Shakespeare) and the spirits of the earth and the forest, and that was the exceptional, exceptional, exceptional Chloe Zhao."
The Nomadland director then gave a speech in which she shared an anecdote that her star, Paul Mescal, had recently told her.
"He said that making Hamnet made him realise that the most important thing of being an artist is learning to be vulnerable enough to allow ourselves to be seen for who we are now, who we ought to be, and to give ourselves wholly to the world, even the parts of ourselves that we're ashamed of, that we're afraid of, that are imperfect, so the people that we speak to, they can also learn to see themselves and fully accept themselves," Zhao stated.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker then saluted her fellow nominees for their "bravery" and "dedication", and added, "Let's keep our hearts open, and let's keep seeing each other, and let's keep allowing ourselves to be seen."
Zhao was also nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay, but Paul Thomas Anderson won those categories for One Battle After Another.
Hamnet won one other prize during the ceremony; this year's Oscars frontrunner Jessie Buckley was crowned Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama.
During her speech, the Irish actress thanked Zhao, her co-stars and the "400 extras" who filled up their recreation of London's Globe Theatre. She also remarked about the diversity of the team, adding, "It was such an extraordinary set to be part of because we were telling the story of probably the most famous Brit that ever lived, and we had a Chinese director, a lot of Irish and mostly Polish crew."
