Apple TV+ on Sunday became the first streaming service to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, taking home the film industry’s highest accolade for Sian Heder’s upcoming influential drama “CODA.”
Apple’s victory over Hollywood’s biggest theater is a key moment for the movie industry, which has changed dramatically due to the rise of direct-to-consumer platforms and the growing popularity of home entertainment.
“CODA” stars Emilia Jones as a Massachusetts teen named Robbie, an aspiring singer and the only audiophile member of a deaf family torn between her artistic ambitions and loyalty to her parents (Troy Cotsur and Marley Matlin) and her older brother (Daniel Durant).
The film won two more awards Sunday: Best Adapted Screenplay for Heider and Best Supporting Actor for Kotsur, which won equivalent awards at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, British Academy Film Awards, and Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.
The Best Picture award was accepted by “CODA” producers Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger.
The event was also attended by Apple CEO, Tim Cook.
CODA’s big win is a milestone in the representation of deaf people in the entertainment industry, as well as a potential watershed for Apple TV+, a relatively new service trying to position itself as a destination for originality. Movies in a crowded digital market.
In the days leading up to the Oscars broadcast, the best picture race had come to be seen as a proxy battle between Apple and Netflix, the streaming giant that had been seeking the preeminent Hollywood award for at least the past half-decade, spending heavily on skinny merchandising. . campaigns.
Netflix was the best picture double contender this year, recognized for Jane Campion’s haunting western “dog power” and Adam McKay’s doomsday satire “Not Looking For.”
CODA has followed a magical path to the Oscars. The film was an international co-production independently produced by the United States, France and Canada, with script adapted from the 2014 French drama, “La Famille Bélier”.
Header premiered at the Virtual Sundance Film Festival last year and garnered rave reviews, with particular praise for her touching supporting role as Kotsur. Apple acquired the rights to broadcast worldwide for $25 million – a record for Sundance.
At the start of the early rush of Academy Award campaigns, “CODA” overshadowed “The Power of the Dog” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast.” But it gained momentum after winning Best Picture at the SAG Awards on February 27 and the Producers Guild of America Awards on March 19.
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