Countdown to the Oscars: Best Sound Editing

Deepwater Horizon is among the five nominees for Best Sound Editing at this year's Academy Awards.

Welcome to Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars, our daily look at this year’s Academy Awards race. Be sure to check back every day leading up to the ceremony for analysis of each of the Academy’s 24 categories and more.

Best Sound Editing

The nominees are:

Arrival

Deepwater Horizon

Hacksaw Ridge

La La Land

Sully

The two sound categories can be difficult for those unfamiliar with the nuts and bolts of filmmaking. I have covered the differences between sound editing and sound mixing in depth before. For that explanation, click here. Today, we are discussing Sound Editing, so briefly, when you here “sound editing,” think “sound effects.” This is the gunshots, the explosions, the footsteps, and the heartbeats. If you hear a noise other than an actor speaking dialogue, there is a good chance someone on the sound editing team was involved.

Since the category expanded to five nominees 10 years ago, there have been 11 winners, including a tie in 2012, and only one of those films could be classified as anything other than an action movie. On top of that, four of the winners have been war films. The Academy likes its sound effects big and booming, the more, the better. The last seven years, the award has gone to a Best Picture nominee, although in 2012, Best Picture-nominated Zero Dark Thirty tied with Skyfall.

So, this is easy then, right? We are looking for a critically acclaimed, Best Picture-nominated action-war film, and wouldn’t you know it, Hacksaw Ridge fits those criteria to a T. But wait, there is a monkey wrench in the works this year. We have discussed at length the overall popularity of La La Land within the Academy, but try this on for size: Before La La Land, no musical had ever been nominated – nominated! – in the Sound Editing category. This new wrinkle could create some suspense in a category that rarely features any.

Hacksaw Ridge – All those things mentioned above that make war films so attractive to the Academy in this category are true of director Mel Gibson’s bloody, brutal anti-war epic. But it is not just the gunfire and explosions, of which this film features many. It is the subtle change in the way the battlefield sounds underfoot before and after the bloodshed. It is odd to be too enthused about the reproduction of carnage, but the blood spatter and bullet wounds come alive through the sound process, which in turn makes Gibson’s anti-war message all the clearer.

Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright pulled double duty on this film as supervising sound editors and re-recording mixers, and both are nominated in both sound categories this year. It is an uncommon feat but not unheard of, and the double nominations represent both men’s first recognition by the Academy. Not being as well versed in Australian cinema as I perhaps should be, much of their career work has escaped me, but Hacksaw Ridge is a virtuosic achievement of sound editing.

La La Land – What to make of this nomination, then? It would be unfair to supervising sound editors Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou to dismiss this recognition as merely the love for the film carrying it places it otherwise would not be. After all, nominations are determined by peers within the branch, people who know what they are looking for (or listening to) and presumably are not easily impressed. I admit to being a little baffled by the nomination – though I did predict it – because sound editing did not immediately jump out to me as I watched the film. But then, my ear is not trained to listen for it.

Iatrou is a first-time nominee, while Lee, who also served as a re-recording mixer, is a first-timer joining Mackenzie and Wright as a double nominee in both sound categories. I have no standing or basis for suggesting their work on this film is anything less than awards worthy, but for a film that is essentially wall-to-wall music, I just don’t know how anyone can tell one way or the other. In any event, good on Lee and Iatrou for breaking through that musical barrier.

Arrival – Returning to a more traditional nominee in this category, Arrival is a big, science-fiction adventure movie that remembers to tell a human story in its quieter moments. Those are not the moments for which it is being recognized, most likely. It features a ton of army goings-on with the trucks and machinery scattered about, but its best moments are in the alien space ship, a completely new environment that must be constructed on the fly. The ship has the feel more of a living entity itself than of a cold transport vessel, and the sound is integral to that impression.

Supervising sound editor Sylvain Bellemare, a first-time nominee, is absolutely prolific. A quick glance at his IMDB page reveals more than 100 credits and more than 20 over just the past two years alone. I do not know Mr. Bellemare, but he does not seem to like having free time on his hands. In any event, his work on Arrival is admirable, but it is probably the least likely to win of the three Best Picture nominees cited here.

Deepwater Horizon – Director Pete Berg’s retelling of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster is by no means a complete film, but it is a good film, and its crafts are beyond reproach. From the recreation of the rig itself – an immense feat of production design and special effects – to the destruction of that rig, Deepwater Horizon is a masterclass in creating an environment for the screen. The sound design is, of course, part and parcel of that effort and one of the film’s many standout elements.

Supervising sound editor Wylie Stateman has been around forever. His first credit goes back to 1980, and he has picked up eight Oscar nominations along the way, his most recent coming for another Berg picture, Lone Survivor. Stateman has also been Quentin Tarantino’s sound editor of choice since the Kill Bill saga and picked up nominations for Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. This is co-nominee Renee Tondelli’s first recognition from the Academy, though she was the supervising dialogue and ADR editor on both Lone Survivor and Django Unchained.

Sully – Given Clint Eastwood’s track record with the Academy, it is surprising this film did not catch on more with voters. It is a classic meat-and-potatoes movie based on the true story of Sully Sullenberger and the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Sully is inspiring and well told and features a wonderful central performance from star Tom Hanks. It made a fair amount of money and is the kind of movie the Academy usually flocks to, but it got lost amid the end-of-year glut of awards prospects.

The crafts are solid all around, and the sound editing is right at the head of the class, particularly during the film’s imagining of the infamous plane crash in the Hudson River. Supervising sound editors Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman have 15 nominations and four Oscars between them. They shared Academy Award wins for their work on two previous Eastwood projects, Letters from Iwo Jima and American Sniper. The nomination will probably have to be the win here, but at least someone is carrying the flag for Sully at the ceremony.

The final analysis

The clear, abiding popularity of La La Land notwithstanding, I won’t bet against the war film here. Even eventual Best Picture winner Birdman lost this category to American Sniper. The big Hollywood musical will take home many awards on Oscar night, including probably the Sound Mixing award, but it will not get this one. First, even in the years since the expansion of the top category, few Best Picture nominees have gone home empty-handed, and this is the most logical and likely place to reward Hacksaw Ridge. Second, historic as its Oscar presence is, I just do not see La La Land ending 50-plus years of musical futility here.

Will win: Hacksaw Ridge

Should win: Hacksaw Ridge

Should have been here: Moana

Tomorrow: Best Sound Mixing

Legends of the fall: 10 Most Anticipated Movies

Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in Jeff Nichols' Loving.

There you have it. Three years in a row makes it a tradition here at Last Cinema Standing. We put the depths of the summer movie season behind and look ahead to a bright future in our darkened theaters. That’s right. It is time for Last Cinema Standing’s 10 Most Anticipated Movies of the Fall – with a couple cheats thrown in for early September movies that look too interesting not to include.

Some of this list will court controversy, which will be addressed below, but for the most part, some big-name directors are taking on some fascinating projects and some young gunslingers look ready to break out in arresting fashion. Your mileage will vary on how much these films appeal to you as a group, but with everything from horror-fantasy to documentary to historical drama to surreal comedy, nearly everyone should be able to find something on this list for which to be excited.

Before moving forward, let’s take a quick look at the past and consider how last year’s list held up. The Revenant lived up to its billing as the most anticipated movie of last year and delivered a spectacle unrivaled in ambition and achievement. It was also the only movie to make both the most anticipated and end-of-year 10 best lists.

That said, Macbeth (No. 3) and Suffragette (No. 7) were both magnificent films that earned an honorable mention on the year-end countdown, and the only true clunker on the list was Jobs, at worst an intriguing failure. Meanwhile, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ English-language The Lobster (No. 5) has a strong shot to end up on this year’s best list, its release having been delayed to this spring.

Among the following 10, one or more of the year’s best films could reside. Only time will tell. For now, they represent promise and potential. Presenting Last Cinema Standing’s 10 Most Anticipated Movies of the Fall:

10. Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood

Release date: Sept. 9

There was a period from about 2003-2008 when Eastwood was appointment viewing. Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling, all magnificent in distinctly different ways. They are all recognizably Eastwood films, but each brings something new to the table. Since then, the results have been less than magical, and I have never agreed with the populist opinion on American Sniper. Sully, on the other hand, has the feel of something that could be special. How special will depend on two things: the director’s handling of the plane landing and Tom Hanks’ central performance. I have no doubts in my mind about either.

9. Toni Erdmann, directed by Maren Ade

Release date: Dec. 25

Of these 10, Toni Erdmann is the film about which I know least. Ade has directed sporadically over the years – just three features since 2003 – but she has been a producer on several of Portuguese master Miguel Gomes’ works, and the buzz around this film has been deafening. Since debuting at Cannes, critics have billed this as the frontrunner for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. To the best of my knowledge, it is a surreal comedic drama about a father and daughter. The last time I went solely on buzz out of Cannes, the film was Leviathan, and if you follow the site, you know how that worked out.

8. The 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay

Release date: Oct. 7

Selected to be the first documentary to open the New York Film Festival in the event’s 54-year history, DuVernay’s latest film chronicles the history of racial inequality in the U.S. prison and judicial system. It is an expansive topic and difficult subject matter, but if anyone can bring to the film the necessary investigation and investment, it is DuVernay, whose Martin Luther King Jr. film Selma already stands as a modern masterpiece.

*Note: I could not find a trailer for The 13th, so here are DuVernay and others talking about the wonderful work she does.

7. Kicks, directed by Justin Tipping

Release date: Sept. 9

Many words have been written in this space about Creed director Ryan Coogler – I cannot say this enough: the best young filmmaker working today – who burst onto the scene in 2013 with Fruitvale Station. Tipping’s directorial debut has all the markings of a similar breakout, tackling the everyday struggles of an inner-city kid who wants a new pair of sneakers. Like Coogler, Tipping is from Oakland, Calif., where Kicks is set, and I will admit to a little personal bias here. The Bay Area is rarely on screen unless San Francisco is being destroyed by a monster or natural disaster, and certainly, the East Bay, where I grew up, never appears. If Tipping can capture the rhythms and feel of life on the other side of the Bay, that is more than enough for me.

6. A Monster Calls, directed by J.A. Bayona

Release date: Dec. 23

Originally slated for an October release closer to Halloween, the studio shuffled this one back to a Christmastime slot, which tells us two things. First, it will be more family-oriented fantasy than horror, which it always seemed anyway. Second, the studio believes in its awards prospects. Bayona, from Barcelona, has made just two previous features, the excellent Spanish horror The Orphanage and the problematic but enthralling The Impossible. If Bayona can find the right balance between the family drama of the latter and the thrills and storytelling of the former, A Monster Calls will be a can’t-miss prospect.

5. Voyage of Time, directed by Terrence Malick

Release date: Oct. 7

Though I was a fan, Malick rubbed many of even his most ardent supporters the wrong way with his Knight of Cups earlier this year. With Tree of Life, To the Wonder, and Knight of Cups, Malick seems to be drifting further from straight narrative filmmaking, which is fine by me. However, for those who wish Malick would again tackle subjects with more well defined substance, it does not get any more substantive than this. A documentary about the entire history and future of the universe that clearly evokes the best sequence in Tree of Life – or any recent film for that matter – sign me up.

4. The Light Between Oceans, directed by Derek Cianfrance

Release date: Sept. 2

We will not have to wait long for this one. It opens Friday. However, anticipation for Cianfrance’s follow-up to The Place Beyond the Pines has been high since the cast list was announced, headlined by Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Rachel Weisz. Early reviews are in, and they are decidedly mixed. I also was not over the moon for either The Place Beyond the Pines or Blue Valentine, Cianfrance’s two most recent features, which both received glowing critical praise. However, with a cast like that, it would take more than an ocean to keep me away.

3. Loving, directed by Jeff Nichols

Release date: Nov. 4

Nichols’ Midnight Special was a tremendous work of science fiction, unfairly forgotten toward the beginning of this year. The same fate is unlikely to befall his forthcoming feature, which tells the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple sentenced to prison in 1950s Virginia for the crime of getting married. The story alone would be enough to get me in the theater, but Nichols’ best work – Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud – has a deeply humanist streak that should be perfect for this material.

2. The Birth of a Nation, directed by Nate Parker

Release date: Oct. 7

The controversy surrounding the accusation of rape against Nate Parker cannot be ignored, and it would be irresponsible to do so. The facts of the case are widely available, and I will not recount them here. This is not the forum for that discussion. If after reviewing the details of the case, however, you choose not to see this film on moral or ethical grounds, that is a decision I respect but with which I do not agree. If Parker is in fact a rapist, he belongs in prison, but the movie has been made. Should this telling of the Nat Turner slave revolt live up to its subject, its press out of Sundance, and the promise of its early trailers, The Birth of a Nation has all the makings of truly great art.

1. Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese

Release date: TBA

Scorsese is the greatest living filmmaker. That needs no qualifier. He simply is. As such, any film of his is an event. Add to that he reportedly has been trying since 1991 to bring to the screen Shûsaku Endô’s 1966 novel about two Jesuit missionaries in 17th century Japan, and it becomes clear this is a passion project. Scorsese brings care and thoughtfulness to everything he makes, but the 25-year struggle to make this film means he sees something remarkable in this story that he feels he can bring to life. Of course, this project has attracted actors and craftspeople who are the best in the business, so the film will be gorgeously rendered and wonderfully acted. The star, though, is Scorsese, and that is a star on which we can all wish.