Marlee Matlin has revealed why she was left disappointed after CODA won an Oscar in 2022.
The film, written and directed by Sian Heder, starring Matline, Troy Kotsur, Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Daniel Durant, made history as the first film with a predominantly deaf cast to win Best Picture.
Matlin, whose new documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore premiered at Sundance Film Festival this week, admitted she was saddened to not be given a moment to speak when receiving the award.
Speaking in the documentary, the CODA star – who has been deaf since she was 18 months old – said: “I was very upset when it went down,” per Entertainment Weekly.
“I wanted to say thank you for supporting my community and my culture,” she added.
In a clip from the ceremony included in the documentary, CODA producers Philippe Rousselet and Patrick Wachsberger can be seen accepting the Oscar.
Matline then makes her way to the microphone as Wachsberger concludes his speech, however, she wasn’t given time to make her remarks.
In backstage footage from the night of the ceremony, the CODA star spoke to a reporter and revealed she had hoped to say “I’m not alone anymore.”
Matlin – who won an Oscar in 1987 for Children of a Lesser God – had been known as the only deaf actor to win an Oscar. But when CODA won Best Picture and Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor she was no longer singled out.
The Walking Dead star Lauren Ridloff, who also appears in the documentary explains that the words for “only” and “alone” are similar in American Sign Language, making Matlin’s identifier all the more solitary.
It comes after Matlin and fellow Sundance Film Festival jurors Jeremy O Harris and Eliza Hittman walked out of the premiere of Magazine Dreams on Friday (20 January) after subtitles failed to appear on screen.
Joana Vicente, the CEO of the Sundance Institute, said in a statement that the closed captioning device, which relies on Wi-Fi, had been checked before the screening and was working, but malfunctioned nonetheless.
Representatives for Matlin declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.
Accessibility at film festivals has been a major topic for years, and the incident once again spotlighted how organisers are trying to make changes to accommodate all fans.
Vicente said her team has been working hard in that area, but acknowledged there is more to be learned.
“We are committed to improving experiences & belonging for all festival attendees,” the statement read. “We consider accessibility as one of the primary drivers of institutional excellence and this work is done in partnership with film teams.”
