Lady Gaga and Liza Minnelli presented the award to the film, which follows teenage Ruby – who can hear – as she juggles pursuing her musical ambitions with her family’s dependence on her to communicate. Deaf actors feature in several lead roles.
It beat a crowded field that included “Belfast,” “The Power of the Dog” and “Dune” to take home the coveted prize from the 94th Academy Awards.
“Thank you to the Academy for letting our ‘CODA’ make history tonight,” producer Philippe Rousselet said in his acceptance speech.
The film by director Sian Heder (“Orange is the New Black”), which industry insiders suggest had a budget of just US$10 million (RM42 million), shuns big names and expensive locations to concentrate on its crowd-pleasing story of high schooler Ruby Rossi.
Ruby, played by breakout young actress Emilia Jones, has to navigate the usual teenage trials of meeting a boy and falling in love, but with the added challenge of being the only hearing member of her deaf family.
She provides the much-needed link to the hearing world for her family’s struggling fishing business in a small seaside town near Boston, but desperately wants to follow her own dreams and go off to college to sing.
Apple of their eye
The win also marked a momentous occasion for the Apple+ streaming service, which was the first to win a best picture Oscar. The streaming service purchased “CODA” for a record US$25 million following its debut in 2021 at the Sundance Film Festival.
It has gathered momentum throughout the awards season, winning top honours from the Producers Guild, Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild awards.
Earlier, Troy Kotsur made history as the first deaf man to win an Oscar, earning best supporting actor for his “CODA” role. He played Frank Rossi, the father of a teenager who struggles to help her family’s fishing business while pursuing her own aspirations in music.
“This is dedicated to the deaf community, the ‘CODA’ community, and the disabled community. This is our moment,” Kotsur said in a heartfelt speech delivered in sign language as he accepted the supporting actor honour.
The best picture Oscar signals how far the industry has come since 2017, when the Cannes film festival prohibited movies that were not released on the big screen from competing for its most prestigious prize, the Palme d’Or. It was a deliberate snub to streaming services like Netflix.
As the pandemic forced movie theatres to close in 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences modified its Oscar eligibility rules to temporarily change the requirement that a movie screen for seven days in theatres to qualify. That represented a watershed moment for films that debut via streaming services at home.
The best picture Oscar also marks a milestone for Apple TV+, which launched in November 2019 with a handful of original series and no library of movies and TV shows.