The Academy Award sound categories are always very interesting. Where many of the other Oscar categories share many films, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Design allow for other films to get some Oscar love.
This year is no different (although, the major films are still more likely to win).
Best Sound Mixing:
Will Win: La La Land
Could Win: Hacksaw Ridge
Dark Horse: Arrival
Best Sound Editing:
- Arrival
- Deepwater Horizon
- Hacksaw Ridge
- La La Land
- Sully
Will Win: Hacksaw Ridge
Could Win: La La Land
Dark Horse: Arrival
There are two frontrunners for these sound categories. La La Land, the overall Oscar favorite of 2017, and Hacksaw Ridge. Here’s where the split is: mixing the music versus editing action sound. La La Land or Hacksaw Ridge could conceivably take both categories, but I think it is more likely that one will get one and the other will get the other.
Hacksaw Ridge is a technical achievement, certainly. The way those action films are edited sonically is quite good. It is also mixed very well, but I think it will be hard for La La Land to escape these two categories without at least one win. The mix is more likely to go to La La Land than the edit, given most of the film is about mixing the music tracks as opposed to creating sound effects.
Then there is Arrival. Less bombastic in both categories, so the Academy as a whole might not think to vote for it. But it certainly is still a film to take into account.
As always, thanks for reading!
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—Alex Brannan (@TheAlexBrannan)
CineFiles Movie Reviews 