Bryan Singer, the credited director of Queen and Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody who was conspicuously not thanked by the film’s award winners at the Golden Globes, has posted a thank-you note on social media.

Singer posted an image himself on Instagram in the director’s chair working on a scene that recreates Queen’s celebrated I Want to Break Free music video, and wrote: “What an honor. Thank you #HollywoodForeignPress.”

In a surprise result, Bohemian Rhapsody won two Golden Globes at Sunday’s ceremony, taking best film (drama) and best actor (drama) for Rami Malek. However, Singer, who was fired from the production before the shoot was finished, did not attend the ceremony, and was entirely ignored in both acceptance speeches. Singer was replaced by Eddie the Eagle director Dexter Fletcher, but union rules meant only Singer received credit.

While Singer’s departure from the film was rumoured to be due to a series of unexplained absences and clashes with Malek, Singer said in a statement that producers 20th Century Fox had refused to give him enough time off to deal with “pressing health matters”.

Singer has also been dogged with allegations of sexual assault for a number of years. In 2014, a Los Angeles court dropped a sex abuse case against Singer by an anonymous actor on the the grounds there was no legal basis for it. In a separate lawsuit, actor Michael Egan III alleged Singer had sexually abused him as a 17-year-old. Egan dropped the suit in August 2014, while Egan’s lawyer subsequently apologised to other accused figures who had brought a legal complaint against Egan for the “untrue and provably false allegations”. In December 2017, Singer denied accusations by Cesar Sanchez-Guzman who alleged that, as a 17-year-old in 2003, he was sexually assaulted by Singer on a yacht.

Singer has consistently denied wrongdoing, and was recently reported to have secured a high-profile job directing a remake of 80s action flick Red Sonja.