learned so much from you. i will always love you. you are my hero. reporter: now, troy kotsur is a hero at his alma mater, galludet university. a school for deaf and hard of hearing students his costar daniel durant went there, too. why was coda s win so important translator: it was amazing to watch and we as members of the community could watch and experience it, and viewers who may not know america sign language also could witness the natural beauty being expressed through language reporter: the hope now is that when it comes to telling stories about the deaf community, coda is just the beginning joe fryer, nbc news. that s nightly news for this monday. thank you for watching, everyone i m lester holt. please take care of yourself and each other. good night
finally, beyond the controversy the oscars did shine a light on the deaf community with an historic win and an up lifting coda that is inspiring america. here s joe fryer reporter: one word, four letters coda. reporter: suddenly a tumultuous oscar ceremony offerin a reason for celebration with the applause delivered in sign language. the movie s title coda stands for child of deaf adults it s a feel-good film tells the story of one family and their hearing daughter who s chasing her music dreams i can t stay with you for the rest of my life reporter: coda s now the first movi with a predominantly deaf cast to win best picture. coda. reporter: one of its stars was the first deaf man to win an acting oscar, thank his late father calling him the best signer in the family translator: dad, i
of color, an afro-latina, who found her strength in life through art. reporter: and coda s became the first to win an oscar. dad, i learned so much from you, i ll always love you. you are my hero. thank you. and joining us now to discuss is vincent cunningham, staff writer and theater critic for the new yorker. thank you for being with us, vincent. now that you ve had time to process what you saw last night, what did you take away from it? thanks so much, jose. it s wonderful to be here. it s hard, unfortunately, as you kind of laid out, to take much from it, because the noise of that slap is still reverberating around the country, it seems. there are so many wonderful things in terms of the diversity of the proceedings, i thought a
the red carpet is back. and, of course, so are the stars. best bets this year include will smith in king richard for best actor as the father of venus and serena williams. we re hard on these kids. you know why? because we are. the consensus is that this is the performance that the academy wants to honor him for. it s sort of a shock he does not have an oscar. for supporting actress, arianna debose has all the momentum for west side story. i don t know if it s it s a year and it s special. expect the stars to support ukraine. the colors of the ukrainian flag have been a staple on other red carpets. the fact that mila kunis, who is ukrainian is going to be presenting. there s going to be a nice moment with her doing a tribute to the country. diversity includes deaf actors with coda up for best picture. i never thought i would get to this moment. coda s troy kotsur is a