CODA on Sunday made history, as it became the first streaming film to win a Best Picture Oscar. The feel-good drama, which debuted on Apple TV+ in August last year, won in each of its three nominated categories at the 94th Academy Awards, held in Los Angeles. In addition to the Best Picture win, Troy Kotsur won the Best Supporting Actor award, and director Siân Heder won for Best Adapted Screenplay.
CODA also became the first film with a predominantly Deaf cast to win Best Picture, and Kotsur is the first Deaf male actor to win an Oscar. His co-star Marlee Matlin—who wasn’t nominated—holds the honor of being the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award, for her performance in Children of a Lesser God.
The Best Picture Oscar was presented by previous winners Lady Gaga and Liza Minnelli. CODA beat out fellow nominees Belfast, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog and West Side Story.
In his acceptance speech, producer Philippe Rousselet thanked Heder for steering the ship in troubled waters. He said:
“Thank you to the Academy for letting our CODA make history tonight. On our first day, our cast and crew were supposed to be at 4 a.m. at sea fishing when we were told a giant storm was about to hit us. It was only the beginning of our problems. But Siân, you’ve kept the boat afloat and you’ve been the best captain a producer can ever dream of, really.”
Zack Van Amburg, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video, celebrated the victory in an official statement. In his own words:
“On behalf of everyone at Apple, we are so grateful to the Academy for the honors bestowed on CODA this evening. We join our teams all over the world in celebrating Siân, Troy, the producers, and the entire cast and crew for bringing such a powerful representation of the Deaf community to audiences, and breaking so many barriers in the process. It has been so rewarding to share this life-affirming, vibrant story, which reminds us of the power of film to bring the world together.”
The streamer edged out Netflix, which had been knocking at Oscars’ doors for years. CODA was a late-bloomer during the awards race, slowly overtaking Netflix’s The Power of the Dog to become a hot favorite as it picked up key precursor honors at the SAGs, the WGAs and the PGAs.
CODA is a remake of the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier. It premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast, the Directing Award, the Audience Award, and the Grand Jury Prize. It was acquired by Apple for a record $25 million. The film also stars Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez and Daniel Durant. It tells the story of a teenage girl who wants nothing more than to find her own voice, as she grows up as the only hearing member of a Deaf family.
You can watch the Best Picture acceptance speech here, and read the film’s official synopsis down below:
Seventeen-year-old Ruby (Emilia Jones) is the sole hearing member of a Deaf family — a CODA, or “child of Deaf adults.” Her life revolves around acting as an interpreter for her parents (Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur) and working on the family’s struggling fishing boat every day before school with her father and older brother (Daniel Durant). But when Ruby joins her high school’s choir club, she discovers a gift for singing and soon finds herself drawn to her duet partner, Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). Encouraged by her enthusiastic, tough-love choirmaster (Eugenio Derbez) to apply to a prestigious music school, Ruby finds herself torn between the obligations she feels to her family and the pursuit of her own dreams.