CODA's Best Picture Oscar Win Is A Bigger Deal Than You Realize
Apple TV+'s CODA emerged as the big winner of the 2022 Oscars, achieving several major milestones for the Deaf community, women directors, and streaming services alike. Sian Heder's CODA had a perfect night at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, going three-for-three winning not only the coveted Best Picture award but Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor as well. A remake of the 2014 French comedy-drama The Bélier Family, CODA tells the coming-of-age story of Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of her Deaf family, as she grapples between her passion for music and her devotion to her parents and brother. Defined by its heartfelt themes and the superb chemistry of its cast, CODA represents a monumental and long-overdue accomplishment in filmmaking, which its 2022 Oscars Best Picture win accentuates.
Despite the existence of more than 70 million Deaf individuals around the world as of 2021, mainstream Hollywood has a longstanding trend of excluding people with deafness from its storytelling and from its highest honors. Prior to 2022, CODA star Marlee Matlin was the only deaf person to earn an acting Oscar, as she won Best Actress in 1987 for Children of a Lesser God. Thirty-five years later, Troy Kotsur's Best Supporting Actor victory for his performance as Ruby's father, Frank Rossi, marks the first triumph for a deaf person in the category.
Related: How To Watch Every 2022 Oscar Winning Movie
CODA's trio of Oscar wins resembles a major breakthrough in an industry that has seldomly recognized the lived experiences of a significant percentage of our society. The movie's status as only the third woman-directed Best Picture winner also highlights the Academy's long-overdue acknowledgment of female
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