What Does ‘Coda’ Winning Best Picture Mean for Physical Media?

One of the most important films of the year is exclusively available on Apple TV+, with no physical media release in sight.

Sam Lenz
4 min readMar 29, 2022
Photo by Delaney Van on Unsplash

For the very first time, a streaming service has won Best Picture. Sunday night, Apple TV+ walked away from the ceremony with the coveted top prize in hand for Coda, a remake of a French film. While it’s worth noting (and celebrating) the historical significance of a film with a primarily deaf cast winning big at the Oscars, there’s something worrisome about Coda’s big win — and it has nothing to do with the film itself.

To start, I love being able to stream movies from the comfort and safety of my couch, especially given the pandemic we’ve been in for the last two years. Every time I go out to the theater, some mouth-breather with a hacky cough inevitably buys a seat in my direct vicinity. There’s almost always a parent with a crying infant that seems to think no one else can hear their baby crying (news flash: we can). That’s not even mentioning that going out to a movie theater also takes a lot of time and money. Time and money that feels wasted when a crowd ruins the experience.

All of that is to say, streaming has made movies more accessible than ever — in some ways. There are…

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Sam Lenz

A film critic with a taste for genre fare, living in Sioux Falls, SD. If you love movies, we’ll get along just fine.