Following last month’s news that the Apple Original film CODA received Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations, Apple announced via press release the film took home two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards at last weekend’s 28th annual ceremony.
CODA won for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, while Troy Kotsur—who plays fisherman Frank Rossi—won for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.
The wins are big in terms of furthering disability representation in Hollywood. Apple noted in the announcement CODA is the first film with a prominently Deaf cast to receive a SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast, with Kotsur being the first Deaf actor to win for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.
According to a report by Hilton Dresden of The Hollywood Reporter, Kotsur used part of his Outstanding Performance acceptance speech to thank Apple for their support of him and everyone who made CODA. He expressed gratitude towards the Cupertino tech titan for “all of their support and access, like burned-in closed captioning, providing ASL interpreting services, and believing in us deaf actors and casting us authentically as actors who happen to be deaf.”
The SAG wins are the latest in a long list of accolades for CODA. Besides the aforementioned Academy Award nominations, it has received an NAACP Image Award, AFI Award, a BAFTA Award, and the Special Jury Award at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
Ted Lasso was also recognized at this year’s SAG awards, with the series winning for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Jason Sudeikis won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his role playing Ted.
CODA is available to stream on Apple TV+ now.
