The streaming service purchased CODA for a
record $25 million following its debut
at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and it has gathered momentum throughout the
awards season, winning top honours from the Producers Guild, Screen Actors
Guild, and Writers Guild awards.
CODA faced intense competition from
Netflix's critically acclaimed western, The Power of the Dog, which collected a
dozen nominations. The film's director, Jane Campion, received an Academy
Award.
The best picture Oscar signals how far the
industry has come since 2017, when the Cannes Film Festival prohibited movies
that were not released on the big screen from competing for its most
prestigious prize, the Palme d'Or. It was a deliberate snub to streaming
services like Netflix.
As the global pandemic forced theatres to
close in 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences modified its
Oscar eligibility rules to temporarily change the requirement that a movie
screen for seven days in theatres to qualify. That represented a watershed
moment for movies that debut via streaming services in the home.
The best picture Oscar also marks a
milestone for Apple TV+, which launched in November 2019 with a handful of
original series and no library of movies and TV shows.
Apple TV+ saw a breakthrough in September
2021, when its fish-out-of-water comedy, Ted Lasso, about an American football
coach who takes a job with an English soccer club, received the Emmy Award for
outstanding comedy series.
With the Oscar wins — CODA won three
awards, including Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, in
addition to Best Picture — Apple will now naturally attract more A+ Hollywood
talent to its streaming service. © Reuters