Oscar winner “CODA” is finally ready for its close up.
Apple will release the Sian Heder film to 600 theaters, with closed captions. “CODA” is the winner of Best Picture, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.
It’s a gingerly release, a little small, but it’s something. We’ll see what the response is. Few people have seen “CODA” on a big screen, making it a first in Oscar history. It was released last summer briefly and made just $1 million. But theaters weren’t really open, the pandemic was still a very big issue, and so on.
When “CODA” first started playing on Apple TV, and through the fall as the Oscar season began, I wrote here several times that there was no campaign for it, no one knew what was going on, and that this lovely little movie that we had all enjoyed at virtual Sundance in 2021 wasn’t in competition with other Oscar movies.
Indeed, there was little attention paid to it through the winter. If the Oscars had been given on February 27th and not March 27th— the way things were before the pandemic — I think “Belfast” might have won Best Picture. But with the extra month, idol minds are the devil’s workshop. The voters become bored with the frontrunners and start looking around for something new. “CODA” was perfect because everyone who saw it loved it, and there hadn’t been too much emphasis on it other than Troy Kotsur for supporting actor. That it won is kind of serendipity and magic.
