CODA

The story

As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.

What critics & audiences say

Tomatometer94%Fresh#30 of 98 winners

IMDb8.0233K votes#37 of 98 winners

Metacritic72/ 100#78 of 93 winners

TMDB7.9/ 10

Fun facts

1. The financiers resisted casting deaf actors as the deaf family members, but Marlee Matlin, the first actor cast, threatened to drop out unless they did. The financiers relented.Wikipedia · Casting
2. CODA became the first film from a streaming service and the first Sundance premiere to win Best Picture. Apple had bought it at Sundance for a festival-record $25 million.Wikipedia · Accolades
3. Apple's $25 million purchase enraged international distributors that Pathé had pre-sold the film to in order to fund its $10 million budget. Some refused buyback offers and released it in theaters anyway.Wikipedia · Screening
4. The film was first rated R for the profanity shown in subtitles of the deaf characters' signing. Troy Kotsur said it took several fights with the MPA to get a PG-13.Wikipedia · Streaming
5. Troy Kotsur became the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar, and his BAFTA win made him the first deaf person ever to win a BAFTA.Wikipedia · Accolades
6. CODA won Best Picture with just three nominations, the fewest for a Best Picture winner since Grand Hotel in 1932, and it won all three.Wikipedia · Accolades
7. Sian Heder learned American Sign Language while writing the script, and about 40% of the screenplay ended up in ASL.Wikipedia · Development and writing
8. Emilia Jones took voice lessons and learned ASL for nine months before filming, and was chosen after Heder auditioned hundreds of teenage girls.Wikipedia · Casting
9. CODA is a remake of the French film La Famille Bélier, but Sian Heder moved the story from a rural French dairy farm to the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, which she knew from childhood summers.Wikipedia · Development and writing
10. Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, and Daniel Durant already knew one another from Deaf West Theatre's production of Spring Awakening, and Heder found Kotsur by seeing him in a Deaf West show.Wikipedia · Casting