Pittsburgh Review

The movie “CODA” has had an incredible amount of success, and much of it is due to the work of writer and director Sian Heder, who is a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) graduate.

The most recent accolades are the highest watermark, "CODA" winning an Oscar for Best Picture and Heder taking home the Best Adapted Screenplay award at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27.

"CODA" had already garnered plenty of recognition since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021, according to the CMU website. The film won both the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. Heder also won Best Director in the U.S. Dramatic section of the festival. It was then purchased by Apple for a festival record amount of $25 million, but the brightest of accolades have arrived for Heder with this recent victory. 

"Writing and making this movie was truly life-changing as an artist and as a human being," Heder said in her acceptance speech.

CODA stands for “Child of Deaf Adults” and is an adaptation of the 2014 French film called “La Famille Belier.” It is about the a teenage girl named Ruby, played by Emilia Jones, who is the hearing child of deaf parents. Her family owns a fishing company, which has fallen on hard times, but she also dreams of having a singing career.

Heder worked with several deaf actors and actresses in the film. Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin, who plays the mother in the film, is probably the best-known deaf actress, along with Troy Kotsur, who won Best Actor in a Supporting Role at this year’s Academy Awards. Kotsur is the second deaf actor to win an Oscar; Matlin is the first, back in 1987 for “Children of a Lesser God.”

Their son in the film is played by Daniel Durant, who is also deaf. Heder also worked with deaf actors Alexandria Wailes and Anne Tomasetti, who served as American Sign Language (ASL) consultants.

Kotsur accepted his award with comments about Heder in an acceptance speech using ASL. He compared her to Steven Spielberg, saying that the best directors are skilled communicators. He said that she was the best communicator for bringing the deaf and hearing world together, saying Heder was "the bridge."

Heder recently told CMU acting professor, Ingrid Sonnichsen, that she was understanding of the sensitivity in the deaf community, and felt responsible to do the story justice, especially as she was not deaf herself. She surrounded herself with people who have lived this lifestyle and were fully involved in the process of creating the film.