Could ‘CODA’ Win Best Picture? Yes, and Here’s Why (Column)
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThe Oscar campaign for “CODA” has touted the film as “history-making.” If you wanted to be a literal-minded curmudgeon about it, you could say that the history it’s talking about was already made — when Marlee Matlin, in 1986, became the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award for best actress, for her great, ardent, wounded performance in “Children of a Lesser God.” Matlin deserved to win (the other nominated actresses that year were Jane Fonda for “The Morning After,” Sissy Spacek for “Crimes of the Heart,” Kathleen Turner for “Peggy Sue Got Married,” and Sigourney Weaver for “Aliens,” which is the only one I’d put in Matlin’s league).Nevertheless, history works in waves.
Sidney Poitier made history by becoming the first Black actor to be a Hollywood star, as well as the first to win an Academy Award for best actor (in 1963, for “Lilies of the Field”).
But in 2001, there were three Black actors nominated for lead performance at the Oscars: Halle Berry for “Monster’s Ball,” Denzel Washington for “Training Day,” and Will Smith for “Ali” (Berry and Washington both won, of course).
And that was history-making too: a recognition of the leap from the world of Poitier, who for too many years was Hollywood’s one and only Black movie star, to an era when Black actors achieving that level of success and recognition could be the new normal.
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