Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki revealed that famous Hollywood director Steven Speilberg had expressed his admiration for her latest movie "Capernaum", telling her that it was one of the best films of the year.

"To have someone like Steven Spielberg say: ‘Yes, this is one of the best films this year,’ it’s something else. To have Steven Spielberg, literally, asking me ‘How did you do this? How were you able to achieve this? It’s absolutely one of the best films of the year. How were you able to do it?’ It’s just … I don’t know the words,” Labaki said in an interview with UAE's The National newspaper.

"Capernaum" was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars, but lost out to Mexico's Roma movie directed by Alfonso Cuaron.

“You feel real recognition for your work. It’s the best feeling because you’re surrounded by people from the industry – filmmakers, directors, producers, actors who are recognising your work,” Labaki said.

“We really started with nothing, created our own small production company to be able to do it. So to be there at such a big level with all these amazing filmmakers and all these production houses and money there, it was out of this world,” she added.

“This year shows things are changing for foreign films. [...] Even the US industry is changing, drifting towards something more universal and open to other languages and cultures, it’s definitely changing," she stressed.

Labaki hoped she had won the Oscar to get the chance to use her acceptance speech to bring more awareness to the predicaments inflicting street kids.

“I truly believe that cinema is one of the biggest, most efficient weapons in changing the world, and I truly believe in the human being, and that a child is a child. He has nothing to do with politics, no matter where he’s come from, what is his situation, if a child is deprived of his rights, a child is deprived of his rights," she said.