Countdown to the Oscars: Best Sound

We’re counting down the days until the Academy Awards! We’ll be here, breaking down each of the 23 categories, talking a bit of history, and trying to figure out who is going to win all those gold statues. So check back throughout the next three weeks for Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars.

Best Sound

The nominees are:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Batman

Elvis

Top Gun: Maverick

Here we are in year three of the experiment in combining the formerly two sound awards (Editing and Mixing) into a single award for Best Sound. Last year, I outlined the ways in which the Sound Editing award often favored action/war pictures while Sound Mixing had more room for musicals and movies about music. I also suggested the future of the award would look a lot more like the old Sound Editing Oscar than Sound Mixing. The predicted triumph of Dune last year lent credence to this theory. The five nominees in the category this year point even further in that direction.

What we have are four action/war films and one quasi-musical. Unless the action films split the vote, I don’t see the musical winning. As this trend develops in the coming years, one would hope the takeaway will be that we need to split these categories once more and recognize the fact that Editing and Mixing are, in fact, two distinct disciplines. Alas, that seems unlikely, so get used to the slate of nominees looking quite similar to this year after year.

Top Gun: Maverick – In 1986, Top Gun was nominated for both sound awards (Sound, which meant mixing, and Sound Effects Editing, which meant Editing). It lost Sound to Platoon and Sound Effects Editing to James Cameron’s very own Aliens. The difference then: That Top Gun movie was not a Best Picture nominee that saved movie theaters. This one is. The sound, of course, is awesome, tailor-made for the big screen and the booming speakers of an IMAX or Dolby theater. I bought my dad a surround sound system for Christmas this year, and the first movie he wanted to watch: Top Gun: Maverick. Can’t say I blame him.

All Quiet on the Western Front – The other half of the action/war picture dominance: a great war movie. Just in the past decade alone, 1917, Dunkirk, Hacksaw Ridge, and American Sniper have won sound awards at the Oscars. The movie this most closely resembles is probably Saving Private Ryan, which won both sound awards in 1998. Appropriately, the sound here is entirely immersive. The bullets fly by, the bombs explode as if right next to you, and the score blares over it all in a disturbing, perfectly painful way. It’s great stuff.

Elvis – This is the musical in the bunch, and as mentioned up top, it is more a feat of mixing than editing, but the feat is truly admirable. The way the diegetic sound comes in and out, alternately highlighting and underplaying the emotions on the screen is pitch perfect. I have written a lot in this series about how overblown a lot of this movie’s crafts are – and laid most of the blame at the feet of the director – but the sound is one area that feels carefully attuned to the picture that is being made.

Avatar: The Way of Water – Leaving aside anything else, this film has some of the most impressive foley work – that’s the creation of the sound effects – of any film in recent memory. There is little as difficult as getting accurate-to-life water effects in film, both visually and sonically, and this movie covers both in spades, each aided by the other. Interestingly, the original film lost both sound awards in 2009 to eventual Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker (another recent war film winning in this category for those keeping score at home).

The Batman – Sound engineer Andy Nelson is a double nominee this year for Elvis and The Batman, bringing his lifetime nomination total to 24 and putting him in a tie with Woody Allen for 10th most nominations of all time. He has been Steven Spielgerg’s go-to re-recording mixer since Hook in 1991, winning an Oscar for Saving Private Ryan. He also won a statue for Les Miserables, and in addition to working on Elvis and The Batman this year, he also did The Fabelmans (of course) and Babylon. Just a cool dude all around.

The final analysis

For me, this is a toss-up. It all depends on whether this Academy is as enamored of All Quiet on the Western Front as the British Academy was. Considering the Brits gave All Quiet their best film award, I’m guessing not. I’m also guessing the Americans will want to reward all that money Top Gun: Maverick made with something, and this is the most likely place for it. So, flip a coin if you like and you’ll probably have just as good a shot at predicting this as I do, but I’m going with Maverick.

Will win: Top Gun: Maverick

Should win: All Quiet on the Western Front

Should have been here: TÁR

A note about my favorite snub: Every nominee in the category this year, in one way or another, is big and loud and bombastic, and that’s par for the course. But, TÁR is so much about sound that it surprises me the Sound Branch didn’t go for it. All the subtle little touches that went into Todd Field’s film create a truly haunting sonic landscape.

Next time: Original Score

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Production Design

We’re counting down the days until the Academy Awards! We’ll be here, breaking down each of the 23 categories, talking a bit of history, and trying to figure out who is going to win all those gold statues. So check back throughout the next three weeks for Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars.

Best Production Design

The nominees are:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

Babylon

Elvis

The Fabelmans

Production design is about creating worlds, whether those are worlds with which we are familiar or worlds we never imagined. The production designer and set decorator and their teams are tasked with making the world of a film’s story feel real and lived in. Sometimes, that means turning back the clock on real buildings and real streets to a time decades before. Sometimes, it’s crafting whole new spaces on soundstages and backlots. And sometimes, they must take you to a place that has never existed and make you believe that it has always been.

The five nominees for Production Design this year cover all of those spaces and more. What will be fascinating to see is what direction the Academy voters choose to take this award as computer-generated imagery becomes ever more integral to the process of building worlds. Will they embrace change as they have a couple times in the past, or will they cling to the brick-and-mortar worlds of old? This year will offer as good a litmus test as any.

Elvis – I think my favorite set in the film is the set within the set – the television studio where Elvis is filming his Christmas special. It is a fun bit of meta-commentary on the cardboard and duct tape on which even very elaborate looking productions are built. Elvis is nothing if not elaborate, and it has the massive, design-intensive sets to prove it, from the carnival at the movie’s opening to the many concert halls and backroom bars to the Las Vegas showroom that serves as the primary setting of the third act.

We mentioned production designer Catherine Martin before in this series. She is also nominated for Costume Design. Here, she shares her nomination with fellow production designer Karen Murphy and set decorator Beverley Dunn. Dunn previously won this award alongside Martin for The Great Gatsby in 2013.

Babylon – As in Elvis, it is imperative that the sets of Babylon highlight the artifice of its world. The point of the film is that the glitz and glamor is only on the surface, and beneath that surface is a bottomless sea of dirt and grime. The sequence that will likely appeal to Academy voters – or truly anyone who has worked on movies in their career – is the scene when we see 30 different movies being shot at once on a single grand stage. That’s moviemaking. It’s just convincing enough that you never question it. Babylon wants you to ask questions.

This is director Damien Chazelle’s first time working with production designer Florencia Martin and set decorator Anthony Carlino. Both previously worked on Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, among a host of other features, but this is the first nomination for each of them.

Avatar: The Way of Water – In 2009, Avatar won this award, getting a lot of credit for bringing a wholly imagined world to life, the production design taking place almost entirely within a computer. The next year, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland pulled the same trick. Before that and since that, the Academy has rewarded almost exclusively films that present a tactile universe, filled with wood and steel sets crafted by union hands.

So, it will be interesting to see how voters regard the work of production designers Dylan Cole and Ben Procter and set decorator Vanessa Cole. All are first-time nominees, though they all worked in the art department on the first Avatar film. The world of this film is as stunning as, if not more so than, the first in the franchise. It will simply come down to whether voters feel they have already been there and done that by previously rewarding the creation of Pandora.

All Quiet on the Western Front – Let’s be honest. It’s the trenches. There are tremendous accomplishments all through this film, including the rail cars of the officers negotiating peace and the castle of the mad general who will sacrifice his men to satisfy his pride. But, it’s the trenches. They are hell on earth. Muddy, dank, broken, claustrophobic. They are no place for any living being, and this film makes that clear from the very start.

These are the first nominations for production designer Christian M. Goldbeck and set decorator Ernestine Hipper. Interestingly, Hipper also did the magnificent set decoration for the German-set TÁR this year, as well, a helluva one-two punch on the resumé. War films are very good at getting nominations from a branch that understands the work, but they rarely win this award. Perhaps they are too dark and dreary for voters who prefer big, colorful productions in this category. But, make no mistake, this is a tremendous accomplishment.

The Fabelmans – This is a fascinating nomination to me. By the standards of a Steven Spielberg film, the production design here is relatively subdued, with much of the film taking place in the title family’s home. Compared to recent Spielberg films such as West Side Story, Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, or War Horse (all nominees in this category), there is something that feels a little more minor here, despite wonderful work.

Production designer Rick Carter is a longtime Spielberg collaborator and was previously nominated for his work on Lincoln and War Horse, as well as Forrest Gump and Avatar. He won this award for Avatar and Lincoln. Set decorator Karen O’Hara is on her first collaboration with Spielberg, but she is a previous winner in this category for the aforementioned Alice in Wonderland. She also received nominations for The Color of Money and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

The final analysis

Ten times in 22 years this century, the awards for Production Design and Costume Design have gone to the same film. Two of those 10 times, Catherine Martin was involved, when she won both awards for Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby. There’s a fair enough chance she wins both again this year, although I am currently predicting Babylon for Costume Design. This one, though, this one feels like Elvis’ to lose.

Two things potentially standing in its way: the Babylon voting bloc and the possibility for the similar accomplishments of Elvis and Babylon to split the vote and pave the way for the computer-generated world of Avatar: The Way of Water to reclaim the crown. Something to think about, though, when considering Elvis vs. Babylon in this category: The last movie to win Best Production Design without a Best Picture nomination was, you may have guessed, The Great Gatsby. Of course, Babylon is the only non-Best Picture nominee in this group.

Will win: Elvis

Should win: Babylon

Should have been here: Athena

A note about my favorite snub: The cinematography of Athena has been rightly lauded, and I myself highlighted it here in my previous piece. However, just as important to the success of this masterpiece of a film is the work of production designer Arnaud Roth and set decorator Jacques Oursin in creating a real, lived-in world, teetering on the brink of chaos. Down every dark hallway and around every corner, there is something to be discovered.

Next time: Editing

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Visual Effects

We’re counting down the days until the Academy Awards! We’ll be here, breaking down each of the 23 categories, talking a bit of history, and trying to figure out who is going to win all those gold statues. So check back throughout the next three weeks for Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars.

Best Visual Effects

The nominees are:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Batman

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Top Gun: Maverick

Every year, we start this countdown with this category. At this point, it’s a tradition. I suppose the craven reason is because this is the category with the most films a majority of people will recognize. That becomes less and less the case as we get deeper and deeper into the Oscars race. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the Dolby this year: The Academy Awards got popular again. Best Picture this year includes four unequivocal hits, including two of the biggest movies of all time. The producers of the show, as well as executives at ABC, must be ecstatic.

For us, this means we will be discussing a lot of movies people have heard of, and it means the often blockbuster-heavy Visual Effects lineup is also unusually Best Picture heavy. Three of the five films nominated for Visual Effects are in the Best Picture race, something that has only happened two other times in Academy history. The first was in 1940, when there were 14 nominees and the category meant something very different. The other is a year we always talk about: 2015, when sci-fi indie Ex-Machina shocked the room and beat out the epics.

That was one of the more shocking moments in recent Oscars history – a wholly deserved win for an excellent film, but shocking nonetheless. The most likely scenario is that the three Best Picture nominees that year (The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Martian) all split the vote, allowing the smaller-scale film to sneak up the middle and take the award. 

This year, there is no such “small” film in the race. These are all massive epics of the sort the Academy usually rewards. In addition, the reason we talk about 2015 so much is because it is such a baffling outlier in this category. Apart from that one time, going back to 1977, when the modern history of this category really took shape, if there is a Best Picture nominee in the lineup, it wins. If there are multiple Best Picture nominees, one of them wins. I would not expect this year to break that tradition, particularly not with the king of effects-based filmmaking in the hunt.

Avatar: The Way of Water – In the 13 years between the original Avatar and its sequel, visual effects have taken a tremendous leap as an artform. Much of that leap can be attributed to the work James Cameron and his Oscar-winning effects team pioneered on that first film. Now, they are back with the next great innovation in computer effects. The film is a visual extravaganza, and while I cannot say the high frame rate or 3D effects are always effective, both look better than any other film that has ever tried the medium.

Top Gun: Maverick – The effects in Joseph Kosinski’s high-flying action picture are very good, but more than anything, this film’s appearance among these nominees is just the latest, almost undeniable argument that the Academy needs a stunt performance Oscar. These days, Tom Cruise films are sold on the fact that he does all of his own stunts, each more death-defying than the last. One of the huge selling points of this film specifically is that the jets are really in the air – real pilots, real speed. Yes, the visual effects make a massive contribution to Maverick’s success, but what the Academy truly wants to reward are the stunts. Maybe someday.

All Quiet on the Western Front – Though the only film in this quintet that would not be considered a huge blockbuster, Edward Berger’s film is still a massive war epic, made all the more impressive by the fact that it was accomplished on a mere $20 million budget. Unfortunately, most of the world did not get to see this Netflix release on the big screen, where its size and scope would be most intensely felt. However, whether in the theater or at home, Berger and his effects team lay the cold reality of war right at your feet in ways we have rarely seen.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – This is one of the more curious nominees in recent years. This is not because it is not deserving but because its Best Picture-nominated predecessor was not cited in this category. Perhaps, Ryan Coogler and his team’s accomplishment in bringing the underwater nation of Talokan to life was too great to ignore. From an effects standpoint, those sequences certainly stand out as some of the most gorgeously rendered in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the nomination is well earned.

The Batman – After years of dreariness and grime, Matt Reeves’ The Batman was a breath of fresh air in the chronicles of the Caped Crusader, a return to the visual inventiveness of the Christopher Nolan or Tim Burton series. Despite being rendered primarily in computers, Gotham City feels real again in a way it has not since The Dark Knight in 2008. There is a visceral quality to the film’s action sequences that gives them more punch than anything in the recent Justice League films.

The final analysis

It’s Avatar: The Way of Water. We can hem and haw and come up with reasons for other winners in this category, but it would be disingenuous. It’s Avatar. Apart from its hamfisted but good-hearted environmental message, this franchise’s entire raison d’être is to push the medium forward into uncharted territory, to show us what brilliant effects properly deployed by a master of the form can truly do. The Academy knows this and will reward it accordingly.

Once again going back to 1977, when Star Wars ushered in the era of the modern special effects film, no filmmaker has directed more movies to the Visual Effects Academy Award than James Cameron. He has five on his resumé: Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic, and Avatar. A sixth will put him two ahead of the next two directors on the list, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, who each have four. Cameron is the undisputed king of the box office, but as his track record proves, he is also the king of visual effects.

Will win: Avatar: The Way of Water

Should win: Avatar: The Way of Water

Should have been here: Bardo

A word on my favorite snub: Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo exists in the dream state between the real and the imagined. It presents heightened reality that is at once familiar and unsettlingly foreign. Like the nominees here, Bardo is an epic, but it is an epic of emotion rather than whiz-bang action. It would be nice to see more of these movies in the category on a regular basis.

Next time: Makeup and Hairstyling