French-born composer Alexandre Desplat won his first Academy Award after eight nominations on Sunday evening in Hollywood.

with Oscar tightly held in his hand, he gave a shout to his Greek mother from the stage. The composer’s mother and French father met while attending school at UC Berkeley though Desplat grew up in France.

Desplat won the gold statuette for Best Original Score for the Grand Budapest Hotel, though ironically, he was up against himself in the same category for his score of The Imitation Game.

It was a well-deserved long overdue win.

Desplat credits his music to the influences of his mother and the music she played while he was growing up.

“My mother is Greek, and ever since I was a baby, I heard Greek and Middle Eastern music. In fact, I wrote this type of music in the first film I scored. But I have a long relationship also with gypsy music and Balkan music,” Desplat told Deadline. His love for Greek/Balkan/Gypsy music continued when he met his wife, violinist Dominique Lemonnier.

“I met a violinist when I was young. She took me to these gypsy and Russian clubs. And that woman became my wife. So I’ve been living with the violin, Balkans, all these instruments for many years. It’s in my DNA.”