Screen Actors Guild Awards: Coda boosts Oscar hopes with two wins

Indie coming-of-age drama Coda boosted its Oscar hopes with two wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.

Troy Kotsur, who plays the deaf parent of a hearing teen in the film, won best supporting actor, making him the first deaf winner of an individual SAG Award.

Coda also won the main prize for best ensemble cast in a film. It is up for three awards at next month's Oscars.

Will Smith won best film actor for King Richard, and Jessica Chastain took best actress for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

In his acceptance speech, which he also signed, Kotsur thanked Apple TV for their "authentic" casting of the film.

He joked that he had been a member of SAG since 2001 and "now I feel like I'm finally part of the family".

His co-star Marlee Matlin, who is the only deaf performer to have won an Academy Award, said she was "stunned" by Coda's ensemble success and thanked director and writer Siân Heder.

"Thank you for including deaf culture, we love you. We deaf actors have come a long way," she said.

"This validates the fact that we deaf actors can work just like anyone else. We look forward to more opportunities for deaf actors."

Coda centres on teenager Ruby - played by Emilia Jones, star of Netflix's Locke & Key and daughter of British TV presenter Aled - who is the only hearing person in her family.

In the TV categories at Sunday's ceremony, South Korean Netflix hit Squid Game made history by becoming the first non-English language series to win any SAG awards.

Lee Jung-Jae and Jung Ho-Yeon took home the male and female awards for outstanding performance in a drama series.

The show also won outstanding action performance by a stunt ensemble in a comedy or drama series.