‘CODA’ won the Best Picture award at the Oscars on Sunday, ensuring the project had all the awards it was nominated for.

Sian Heder’s ‘CODA’, which first premiered at a virtual Sundance Film Festival in winter 2021, started out as an underdog but gradually emerged as the Oscars’ feel-good favorite. It also had one very deep-pocketed backer in Apple TV+, which scored its first best picture Academy Award on Sunday, less than three years after launching the service.  

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It also handed another near-miss defeat to Netflix, the veteran streamer that for years has tried vainly to score best picture. Its best chance, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” came in with a leading 12 nominations.

But “CODA” rode a wave of goodwill driven by its cast including Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant. It is the first film with a largely deaf cast to win best picture. ‘CODA’ managed that despite being one of the least-nominated films with only three coming into Sunday. Not since 1932’s ‘Grand Hotel’ has a movie won best picture with fewer than four nods.

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Other movies that were nominated for the award at the Oscars were: Belfast, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, The Power of the Dog, Nightmare Alley and West Side Story.

West Side Story, Dune and The Power of the dog were considered to be top contenders for the award. It is generally expected that the Best Director winner will also win the Best Picture. 

With CODA’s win, The Power of the Dog becomes the first movie since 1967’s The Graduate to win nothing apart from best director.  

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The Best Picture 2021, nominations and winner

Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)

The Trial of Chicago 7 (Netflix)

Minari (A24)

Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)

Judas and Black Messiah (Warner Bros)

Mank (Netflix)

Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)

The Father (Sony Pictures Classic)

Winner- Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)