Apple’s Best Picture Winner CODA Hits Blu-Ray
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Three years ago, Apple defied all expectations when CODA handily took home the coveted Academy Award for Best Picture. Now, better late than never, it seems Apple has greenlit the film for a physical media release.
This could very well be the first Blu-ray and DVD to be published directly by Apple. While previous Apple Original Films like On the Rocks and F1 The Movie have come out on Blu-ray, those were released by the studios or distribution partners behind them: Lionsgate and Warner Bros., respectively.
What’s more, those are the only two Apple films that have made it to physical media. Apple has let a few more out for its TV shows, including Defending Jacob, Ted Lasso, Severance, See, and For All Mankind, to name just a few. However, these also still come from other partners; CODA is the first to show up as distributed by Apple TV as the studio.
That’s somewhat appropriate, as it’s arguably the crown jewel of Apple Original Films. Even if it’s not everyone’s favorite, it won over enough members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to become the first-ever film from a streaming service to take away the Best Picture Oscar — a brass ring that Apple’s rivals like Netflix and Amazon had been unable to reach even after several nominations.
Apple TV was just over two years old when CODA got nominated, and the fact that a film from such a fledgling streaming service was even in the running shocked Hollywood. Nevertheless, it made history by becoming the first streaming film to win in this category. To paraphrase what Matthew Belloni of Puck said in 2022, Apple effectively outplayed its rivals, who had spent ten years producing original content and thrown hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning for Oscars.
That also wasn’t CODA’s only achievement. It also made history for Best Supporting Actor, with Troy Kotsur becoming the first Deaf male performer ever to win an Oscar, and was the first film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival — where Apple picked it up — to ever win a Best Picture Oscar. Writer-director Siân Heder took the top honor for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Those Oscars put the crown on a substantial list of other awards from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Producers’ Guild of America (PGA), Sundance Film Festival, American Film Institute (AFI), NAACP, Writers Guild of America (WGA), British Academy Film (BAFTA), and more.
While CODA naturally continues to be available on Apple TV, Apple is finally giving fans a tangible way to own the film. It’s coming to Blu-ray and DVD for collectors and those who prefer physical media. Specifically, Apple is releasing CODA in three formats: a premium 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, a 1080p Blu-ray, and a standard DVD.
While this will also open the film up to folks who’d rather not pay for an Apple TV subscription, Apple’s free trial sets a pretty low bar of entry for anyone who is solely interested in seeing CODA, and even if you’ve exhausted that option, a single month is still less than the cost of the physical media. It’s also been available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video for some time for as little as $3.99 — likely since late 2024 — with customer reviews dating back to early 2025, suggesting it arrived well before this month’s Blu-ray announcement.
Whether this signals a broader physical-media strategy for Apple Original Films remains to be seen, but CODA’s long-awaited disc debut feels like a fitting encore for the movie that first put Apple on the Oscar stage.
