How The ‘CODA’ Family Delivered The Year’s Most Meaningful Best Picture Contender
deadline.comWinning the Academy Award for Best Picture often demands so much more than simply making a great film. Sometimes, it comes down to peaking in the minds of awards voters in the final weeks of the season, capturing late awards and having the cast and story to charm the voters.The film that finds itself in that enviable position of having the last-minute momentum this year is surely CODA.In addition to its Best Picture nomination, the film’s director Siân Heder is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the deaf fishing family patriarch played by Troy Kotsur is a favorite for Best Supporting Actor after several wins including a SAG Award.
Fellow cast members Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant haven’t made the nominations list, but they have been as united in awards promotion as they were when they shot the film in Gloucester, Massachusetts, reassembling in high spirits for Deadline’s cover shoot on the evening after the Oscar Nominees’ Luncheon in Los Angeles.The late surge is uncharacteristic because CODA’s awards road began way back in January 2021, when it swept the major awards at the Sundance Film Festival and set a festival record $25 million deal from Apple.
But the cast camaraderie remained a well-kept secret; instead of a thundering audience reaction at an Eccles Theater premiere that would have created awareness, the film’s debut came at a virtual version of the festival, necessitated by the Covid pandemic.CODA premiered last August on Apple TV+, before most of its Best Picture competitors.
The performances, charm and struggles of deaf cast members Kotsur, Matlin and Durant, feel fresh. Having Matlin along for the ride is helpful.
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