“CODA,” the heartwarming indie drama about a teenage girl struggling to support her deaf family, scooped the Sundance film festival’s top prize Tuesday, while musician Questlove won documentary honors with his debut.
Taking its title from an acronym for a child of a deaf adult, “CODA” follows a high-school student (Emilia Jones) who is torn between pursuing her passion for music, and staying home to help her deaf parents and brother.
Apple purchased the film early in the US festival after a rapturous online response and an intense bidding war between distributors — reportedly shelling out a Sundance record of $25 million.
Both Heder and Jones learned to use sign language for the film, which features several prominent deaf actors in lead roles including Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin (“Children of a Lesser God.”)
The film also won the top Sundance audience award, and prizes for directing and the ensemble cast.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.