Oscars Predictions 2017: Best Sound Editing

We are often asked what is the difference between sound editing and sound mixing. Well, sound editing refers to the creation of the recorded sounds for a film – excluding the music – while sound mixing brings them all together. For this post we look at the films which with blew us away with the sounds that were depicted on screen, and here are our picks for the winner for Best Sound Editing.

Nominees:

Caryn

Arrival

Watching Arrival feels like a treat for one’s ears and the work by the sound editor is so excellently executed, especially in the flashback and flashforward scenes, everything flows fluidly into each other and still sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Dean

Hacksaw Ridge

Before you jump down my throat and say La la land should win this one, because musical, hear me out for a second. Hacksaw Ridge does quite a few things right and one of them is most certainly the sound editing. Gun shots, agonising screams, explosions and dialogue is just at the surface level. There is so much more that goes into this perfectly crafted sound edit that makes me think Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright will take this.

Jeslyn

Deepwater Horizon

Initially I was going to vote for Hacksaw Ridge because the war scenes were impressive, but then I read that Kevin O’ Connell is the only sound team member who has any Oscar nominations (20 in total) and hasn’t won any! This may be unnecessarily superstitious but there’s no such thing as lucky number 21.

Instead I’m choosing dark horse Deepwater Horizon, which would have been nominated for many more awards in a ‘normal’ award season, but there are just too many heavy hitters this year. A bonus is that my crush Gina Rodriguez plays the only female working on the oil rig, but beside that bias: the movie has underwater scenes, a huge fire and must have been really hard work in general, and especially for the sound team.

Stephen

La la land

Chazelle’s team already won one Oscar for best sound mixing with Whiplash a couple of years ago, so, once again I wouldn’t be surprised if La La Land takes this. It mixes the musical numbers into the environment in a dreamlike fashion.

Tendai

La la land

Because, you know… musical.

Vernon

Arrival

Arrival for me feels like 4 years’ ago when Gravity was up for the highest category wins but didn’t get anything really – but I thought that film was stellar. Arrival minus the brute force Gravity had on me – I still feel is the best choice for sound editing.

What is your prediction for Best Sound Editing?

For more film ramblings, you can follow us on Twitter:

Caryn @carrieanne07

Dean @deeno15

Jeslyn @jeslynczee

Stephen @thesnagel

Tendai @TendaiSibindi

Vernon @VernonKallis

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