MARLEE MATLIN:
NOT ALONE ANYMORE
In 1987, at the age of just 21, Marlee Matlin shattered expectations as the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award® for her groundbreaking performance in Children of a Lesser God. Catapulted into the spotlight, she seized the moment to challenge an industry unprepared for her immense talent, emerging as a trailblazer not only as a performer but also as an author and activist.
Matlin's incredible journey continued with standout roles in acclaimed projects such as The West Wing and the Oscar®-winning CODA, all while relentlessly advocating for greater inclusion and accessibility both within Hollywood and beyond its borders.
Directed by Shoshannah Stern, the film offers an unflinching look at Matlin’s remarkable life through the lens of her primary language, American Sign Language. Matlin opens up about her personal and professional struggles - her meteoric rise to fame, the challenges of navigating a predominantly hearing industry, the pain of a tumultuous high-profile relationship, getting sober and years of being overlooked by Hollywood - alongside her many triumphs.
Reclaim The Frame is delighted to welcome audiences to join us for a virtual conversation with Marlee Matlin and director Shoshannah Stern moderated by filmmaker Pinny Grylls.
Director
Shoshannah Stern
Country
United States, United Kingdom
Distributor
Dogwoof
Year
2025
Marlee Matlin
Marlee Matlin received worldwide critical acclaim for her film debut in Paramount Pictures' Children of a Lesser God, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Actress. At 21, she became the youngest recipient of the Best Actress Oscar and only one of four actresses to receive the honor for her film debut. In addition to the Oscar, Marlee received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama. In 2021, Marlee was nominated for an Academy Award once again as Executive Producer for the Live Action Short, “Feeling Through.” And in 2022, Marlee and her castmates from the Sundance Award winning and Apple TV+ film, “CODA,” won Best Ensemble in a Feature Film from the Screen Actors Guild Awards and swept every category it was nominated in at the 2022 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. And the cast of CODA was invited to the White House to discuss the importance of continuing efforts towards greater accessibility for the millions of Americans who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Marlee currently serves as Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a three year term, working hand in hand with the Academy on increasing accessibility, particularly with closed/open captioning of films shown theatrically and the availability of sign language at all Academy events.
Shoshannah Stern
Shoshannah Stern first saw herself in someone else at the age of seven when she saw Marlee Matlin win her Oscar. Inspired, she told her mother she wanted to become an actor. She booked her very first audition and never looked back, recurring on Grey’s Anatomy as their first deaf doctor, as well as Supernatural and Weeds. She was also a series regular on the cult classic Jericho and a professor of Deaf Studies at Cal State Northridge.
Shoshannah created, wrote, executive produced and starred in the critically acclaimed Sundance Now series, This Close with Josh Feldman, the first show to ever be created and written by Deaf people. It boasted Marlee Matlin as a series recurring character and was nominated for a Peabody. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. She received the Loren Arbus Changemaker of the Year award from NYWIFT and the George Sunga Producers’ Guild award for This Close. Shoshannah also received the Writers Guild of America Evan Somers Memorial Award for her work on Marvel’s Echo. Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is her directorial debut.
Pinny Grylls
After co-founding Birds Eye View Film Festival in 2003 – which laid the foundations for Reclaim the Frame – Pinny Grylls went on to specialise in films about theatre, performance, and identity. In 2024 she won the BFI Chanel Filmmaker Award for her audacious debut feature Grand Theft Hamlet — a documentary shot entirely inside Grand Theft Auto. The film went on to win the SXSW Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary, the Grand Prize of the Frontier Competition at DMZ Docs (South Korea), two BIFAs (Raindance Maverick and Outstanding Debut Documentary Director), the Audience Award at Vancouver IFF, the Carnet Jove Jury Award for Best Documentary at Sitges Film Festival, and It longlisted for a BAFTA. It was released in UK and US cinemas before landing on MUBI in February 2025.
Pinny is now developing two new features: Hear My Voice, supported by the BFI, and Signs of Life, supported by the Uncertain Kingdom Fund. Signs of Life is a romantic comedy told in English and British Sign Language (BSL) about a failed stand-up comedian who loses her hearing later in life and, through learning sign language, discovers love, a Deaf comedy club, and a reason to live again. The story is inspired by Pinny’s own life.
Her career began with the award-winning short Peter and Ben, which premiered at IDFA and won at Aspen, LSFF, and SXSW. A proud member of the deaf community, Pinny lives in Hackney, London.