Streaming movies win big at Oscars, CODA on Apple TV+ becomes the first to win Best Picture

Peter, 28 March 2022

The Academy has traditionally looked down on streaming movies, but that changed yesterday – CODA won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. The film had a short theatrical run, but its true home is Apple TV+.

Writer/director Sian Heder also picked up a statuette for Best Adapted Screenplay (CODA is based on the French La Famille Bélier). Troy Kotsur won the Best Supporting Actor award, the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar (Kotsur previously won a BAFTA award and several other awards for his role in the film).

CODA wins the Academy Award for Best Picture • Troy Kostur won the Best Supporting Actor award

Netflix has been trying to win Best Picture for years now and came quite close with Roma in 2019. In fact, this year’s The Power of the Dog was considered a favorite to win. Dog was nominated in several categories and Jane Campion did win Best Director (only the third woman to receive this award). Even though that was a historic moment, it was also Netflix’s only win yesterday, despite a record 27 nominations (12 of which for Dog alone).

Jane Campion won Best Director for The Power of the Dog

Netflix also had Don’t Look Up in the running for Best Picture, Best Actor nominations for Benedict Cumberbatch (Dog) and Adrew Garfield (tick, tick… BOOM!), Best Actress for Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter), no less than four nominations for Best Supporting Actor/Actress and others. Best Director is the only one it won, however.

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, which was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, won six awards – Cinematography, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Music (Original Score), Sound and Production Design. King Richard was also released on Max the same day as in theaters and won Will Smith his first ever Oscar (for Lead Actor).

Dune won 6 Oscars • Will Smith picked up his first-ever Academy Award