Is CODA Based On A True Story?

Following the eventful Oscars ceremony in which CODA became the first streaming movie to pick up the best picture award, onlookers of the awards are now wondering whether it is in fact based on a true story. 

The Apple TV+ film is a tearjerker about a deaf family with a hearing daughter, with the film’s synopsis reading: “As a CODA (child of deaf adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her home. When she discovers a passion for singing, Ruby must choose between family obligations and her dreams.”

Is CODA based on a true story?

Sorry film fanatics, CODA is not based on a true story. 

The film’s writer and director Sian Heder has previously admitted that the film doesn’t have any basis on real people or life stories. Although, 90% of the deaf-parented population have hearing CODAs themselves, according to CODA UK & Ireland.

The Rossi family in CODA may be fictional, but each member aims to portray the real-life communities they’re a part of with accuracy in the 1 hour 55 minute film.

The fishing community in Gloucester, Massachusetts, is very much real - with the CODA cast having spent time on fishing boats and interacting with the real citizens in the area in order to incorporate jargon from the community in the film’s American Sign Language. 

Three of the film’s cast members, Daniel Durant, Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin, are deaf themselves. Furthermore, film producer Jack Jason is also a CODA himself and has spoken about how the film reflects parts of his own life.

CODA is available to stream now on Apple TV+.