SIAN HEDER

Every Oscar show has its big moments, but Will Smith’s slap heard ’round the world overshadowed them all this year.

Distributed by Apple TV+, it is also the first best picture win for a streaming service.

After a movie year often light on crowds, the Academy Awards named an unabashed crowd-pleaser, the deaf family drama “CODA,” best picture Sunday, handing Hollywood’s top award to a streaming service for the first time.

Troy Kotsur is just the second actor who’s deaf to be nominated for an Academy Award.

“CODA,” the Oscar-nominated film about a singing teenage daughter in a deaf family, is being developed as a stage musical by the Los Angeles-based Deaf West Theatre.

The Academy Awards have always loved a comeback story.

“CODA” has won the top prize at the Producers Guild Awards, giving momentum to the possibility that the small film could have a big night at next week’s Oscars.

In an upset, the deaf family drama “CODA” has won top honors at a very unpredictable 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards that also saw wins for the leads of “Squid Game,” the cast of “Ted Lasso” and Will Smith.

Kotsur was born deaf and grew up in Mesa, Arizona. In CODA, he plays a father whose teenage daughter is passionate about singing.

The American Film Institute lined up behind many of the year’s end-of-year Oscar contenders, naming Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” among the year’s 10 best films.

Sian Heder’s acclaimed indie drama on Apple TV+ will choke up even the most cynical viewer.

The coming-of-age story about the only hearing member in a deaf family “CODA” is poised to be something that’s been hard to find in a year light on crowds: a bona fide, heart-bursting, tell-everyone-about-it crowd-pleaser.

This week’s new entertainment releases include new music from Lizzo and Ben Platt and an animated series on Disney+ that features a bevy of heroes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in reimagined events called “What If.

Dramatic Competition at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The 2021 Sundance Film Festival Awards were unlike any before and had filmmakers calling in from around the world Tuesday night to cap off the festival’s first virtual edition. “Hive,” from first time filmmaker Blerta Basholli, was awarded the world cinema grand jury prize and the audience award. “Writing With Fire,” a documentary about India’s only all-female newspaper, won the world cinema documentary audience award. The 2021 Sundance Film Festival runs through Wednesday.

The film will debut at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. (Sundance Film Festival via AP)Sundance Institute programs. Organizers on Tuesday unveiled a robust and diverse slate for the festival, which will be largely virtual due to the pandemic. Yutani said that the Sesame Street documentary, “Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street” is likely to be a crowd favorite. “We all are so excited about the possibility of encountering people who’ve never been to the festival," Jackson said.