SIÂN HEDER’S CODA WINS 2021 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: LONDON AWARD PRESENTED BY BIFA
Sundance Institute, Picturehouse and the British Independent Film Awards today announced that Siân Heder’s CODA, an Apple Original Film, has won the first ever Sundance Film Festival: London Award presented by BIFA.
The Award was voted on by a Jury of 40 leading professionals from the British film industry, assembled by BIFA from its pool of voters. Each Jury member was required to watch 10 out of the 15 films in contention before voting, and asked to select five films in order of preference. Viewing took place via a combination of online screeners and in-person screenings at Picturehouse Central. Votes were then calculated by dividing the total number of votes by the number of views each film received.
Aside from CODA, this film’s in contention for this year’s Award included narrative features like The Blazing World, Censor, Cryptozoo, First Date, Human Factors, The Nest, Pleasure and Together Together, alongside documentaries In the Same Breath, Misha and the Wolves, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, The Sparks Brothers and Writing with Fire.
Directed and written by Siân Heder, CODA stars Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, and Marlee Matlin, and is produced by Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger. It tells the story of Ruby who, as a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) is the only hearing person in her Deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents. The film received its World Premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A where it won Best Director U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic. Ferdia Walsh Peelo attended the London event with Siân Heder joining virtually for a Q+A. Apple Original Films’ CODA will debut in theaters and on Apple TV+ on Friday, 13 August.
The 2021 edition of Sundance London marked another successful collaboration between The Sundance Institute and Picturehouse, as Picturehouse Central played host to a diverse and exciting programme of film screenings, panel discussions, Q+As and special guest appearances. The festival opened with the UK premiere of Edgar Wright’s debut documentary, The Sparks Brothers, attended by Wright himself, alongside brothers Ron and Russell Mael, and closed with the Time Out Gala of Zola, attended by director Janicza Bravo. This year, over half of the programme of screenings and events were made accessible to D/deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences through subtitled films and live captioned Q&As and panel discussions. There was also BSL translation for Deaf audiences attending the first CODA screening.
Find out more via the Sundance Dailies at www.youtube.com/c/PicturehouseCinemas and the website at picturehouses.com/sundance.
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