I am so excited when I heard that Apple purchased CODA at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. I absolutely adored this film and balled my eyes out for probably 30 minutes, even after the end credits began to roll. I love how Apple is becoming a streaming platform that seems to be open to making and purchasing content that makes the viewer feel good. While I love drama in my tv shows and movies, I am a HUGE fan of feeling alive when I watch a television show and movie. To me, CODA is the film equivalent to Ted Lasso. It is a film that made me smile consistently throughout, and even though it made me cry, the tears weren’t tears of sadness by rather tears of joy. This film is one of those special films that you don’t see too many of nowadays. Not only does the film make you feel great, but it also celebrates an underrepresented community. I love this film, and I cannot wait for the world to see it on Friday, August 13th. Please take a moment to read the press release below that talks a little more about the film and its impact on audiences at Sundance earlier this year.
CODA was the first in Sundance Film Festival history to win all top prizes in the US Dramatic Competition category.
Apple Original Films announced today that the critically acclaimed, award-winning film “CODA” would debut in theaters and on Apple TV+ on Friday, August 13.
Written and directed by Siân Heder (“Tallulah,” “Little America”), “CODA” was presented in the US Dramatic Competition category at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and went on to be honored with an unprecedented four awards at the festival: the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast, the Directing Award, the Audience Award, and the Grand Jury Prize.
“CODA” stars Emilia Jones (“Locke & Key”), Eugenio Derbez (“The Casagrandes”), Troy Kotsur (“The Number 23”), Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (“Vikings’), Daniel Durant (“Switched at Birth”), Amy Forsyth (“Beautiful Boy”), Kevin Chapman (“City on a Hill”), and Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin (“Children of a Lesser God”), who will be serving as a presenter at the upcoming 93rd Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, April 25.
“CODA” is produced by Vendome Pictures and Pathé, with Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger and Jérôme Seydoux serving as producers, and Ardavan Safaee and Sarah Borch-Jacobsen as executive producers.
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 an 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.
