Sian Heder, Director of 'CODA' Wins At The 2022 Oscars For Best Adapted Screenplay

Sian Heder brought the Oscar audience to its feet winning her first Academy Award for adapting CODA (Child Of Deaf Adult), from the 2014 French film La famille Bélier written by Victoria Bedos. This is the first Oscar and nomination for Heder.

During her acceptance speech (accompanied by an ASL interpreter), she talks about the process of getting the film made. “This was an independent film and incredibly hard to get made so I want to thank my team, my producers and all of you for believing in me, and how I wanted to make this movie,” she said.

The director then acknowledges that the journey to getting this film where it is today, started at Sundance 2021.

“I want to thank Sundance for starting this journey. I want to thank Apple for being amazing partners on this ride. Writing and making this movie was truly life changing as an artist and a human being.”

She then went on to thank the crew, and actors involved in the project, in addition to thanking the deaf and CODA community for being an inspiration.

Heder wanted to make a film like this CODA at a very young age upon meeting her father’s assistant, who was a CODA herself (Child of Deaf Adults). Heder thought at the time that was amazing, and years later met a producer telling him the story, but adding a twist based on her own life in being an aspiring singer, and so she combined the two details when she wrote the screen adaptation for CODA.

‘CODA’: Read The Screenplay For Siân Heder’s Movie Propelled By The Cinematic Language Of ASL

She previously commented, “For me it is more a metaphor because I have the feeling that my family don’t hear me when I was little. I had the feeling to be different of my family, and that’s why I want to sing it because I thought if I sing it, they will hear me,” she said of the basis for the hearing daughter, played in CODA by Emilia Jones, who was torn by duty to family and her own musical dreams.

That is ultimately the combination that sold the distributor on the idea for a feature film. “So, it’s a very personal story because I think it’s the feeling of my adolescence, teenage years.”

This was the second Oscar of the night for CODA as actor Troy Kotsur won an award for Best Supporting Actor. It later won the marquee Best Picture award.

Check out Heder’s speech above.