Learning ASL can be beneficial for both your career and your well-being

As millions around the world watched and celebrated CODA’s historic win on Sunday night for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, the moment hit close to home for Lisa Lopez, director of the Parent-Infant Program at Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children.

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

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.

Once again, it’s every movie lover’s favorite time of the year: The Oscars.

“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.

“West Side Story’s” Ariana DeBose, “Licorice Pizza’s” Alana Haim and “Belfast’s” Caitriona Balfe are among the actors who will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Virtuosos Award this year.

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.

After more than a year of uncertainty and ever-fluctuating release schedules, there will be a summer movie season.