Oscars: PA University Grad Wins Award For Best Picture Winner

HOLLYWOOD, CA — Sian Heder, the director and author of the screenplay of the movie "CODA," which won the Academy Awards for best movie on Sunday, crafted her skills in Pittsburgh.

Heder, a 1997 graduate Carnegie Mellon University drama graduate, won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for the film. The movie, adapted from he 2014 French-language film "La Famille Bélier," involves a young woman who is the only hearing member of her family.

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CODA is an acronym for “children of deaf adults.”

“I want to thank all of my collaborators in the deaf community and CODA community for being my teachers,” Hede said at the Oscars.

Heder also wrote and produced three seasons of the acclaimed Netflix series "Orange Is the New Black."

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