As Hollywood anticipates this year’s Oscar nominations announcement on Jan. 24, many of the societies and guilds have already revealed their favorites. That includes those in sound, for which the Academy had narrowed its field to a diverse slate of 10 movies, among them Edward Berger’s World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, Matt Reeves’ The Batman and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The shortlist is rounded out by Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once, the stop-motion Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Brett Morgen’s David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream and Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick.
How have these movies fared so far with their peers?
MPSE Golden Reel Awards
Everything Everywhere leads the feature competition of the Motion Picture Sound Editors’ (MPSE) Golden Reel Awards, which announced its noms Jan. 9. A24’s genre-bending title is nominated in the categories of outstanding dialogue and ADR, effects/Foley and music editing in a feature film.
The Batman and Maverick are each nominated for dialogue/ADR and effects/Foley editing. Elvis is nominated for dialogue/ADR and music editing; Pinocchio also earned a nod for music editing, as well as for sound editing in an animated movie. Moonage Daydream received two noms in the documentary categories, for sound editing and music editing. All Quiet and The Way of Water picked up a single Golden Reel nomination each.
Cinema Audio Society Awards
While Everything Everywhere leads the sound editing feature nominations, it was snubbed by the sound mixers. The Cinema Audio Society Awards, which recognizes sound mixing, instead nominated All Quiet, The Way of Water, The Batman, Elvis and Maverick in its live-action feature competition. It also nominated Pinocchio in its animated feature category and Moonage Daydream in its feature doc category.
All in all, the field is a competitive one with a diverse range of work that could yield some surprises when the Oscar nominations are revealed. But the Golden Reel and CAS Award noms do seem to signal an uphill battle for Babylon and Wakanda Forever, the two shortlisted movies that failed to earn nods from either society.
It’s been only two years since the Academy merged the sound editing and mixing categories, so it’s somewhat tricky to talk about precedents. In 2021, the recipient of the sound Oscar, Sound of Metal, won the CAS award for a live-action feature, but, despite three nominations (effects/Foley, dialogue/ADR, music), it failed to win a Golden Reel Award for its sound editing. In 2022, Dune won the CAS Award in the live-action feature category and one MPSE Award, for effects/Foley, en route to its Oscar win for best sound.
This story first appeared in the Jan. 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
