CODA Movie: Where to Watch Best Picture Frontrunner

The 94th Academy Awards will take place tomorrow night and the temperature around Hollywood seems to be that Apple TV+'s CODA is the frontrunner for the top prize, Best Picture, potentially beating out Netflix's The Power of the Dog. The film, whose title is an anagram for child of deaf adults, was released back in August and can be watched with a subscription to the home of Ted Lasso, Apple TV+. CODA's rise to becoming the favorite for Best Picture is rooted in a few things, it began as an indie darling with a record-setting Sundance sale last year, but also checks two major boxes for Academy voters: It's a feel-good movie and a coming-of-age story. It also has inclusion baked into its premise as its cast is composed largely of actual actors that are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

After premiering at Sundance last year, CODA won top prizes at the film festival including the U.S. Grand Jury Prize in Dramatic section and  Audience Award in Dramatic section among others. Apple TV+ acquired the film for $25 million at the festival, a record for an acquisition at Sundance. From there the film would go on to win multiple critics group awards, two BAFTAs, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, Best Adapted Screenplay at the Writer's Guild Awards, and the top prize at the Producer's Guild, all of which have put the film in the prime position to make Oscar history tomorrow night with a Best Picture win.

Written for the screen and directed by Sian Heder, CODA stars Emilia Jones (Locke & Key), Daniel Durant (Switched at Birth), Troy Kotsur (The Mandalorian), and Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin. Should CODA win the top award it would become the first film that premiered at Sundance to win Best Picture but also the first movie in ninety years to win the award with four or fewer total nominations. Most notably however, if CODA wins it will become the first film from a streaming service to win Best Picture. That's right, despite nominations from Netflix every year since 2019, no movie from a streamer has ever won the big award.

For those unaware of the film's plot, Apple TV+ describes it as follows: "Seventeen-year-old Ruby (Emilia Jones) is the sole hearing member of a deaf family – a CODA, child of deaf adults. Her life revolves around acting as interpreter for her parents (Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur) and working on the family's struggling fishing boat every day before school with her father and older brother (Daniel Durant). But when Ruby joins her high school's choir club, she discovers a gift for singing and soon finds herself drawn to her duet partner Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). Encouraged by her enthusiastic, tough-love choirmaster (Eugenio Derbez) to apply to a prestigious music school, Ruby finds herself torn between the obligations she feels to her family and the pursuit of her own dreams."