2024 Oscars: Best Audio Predictions

By | January 18, 2024


Nomination voting will take place between January 11-16, 2024, and official Oscar nominations will be announced on January 23, 2024. The final vote will be held on February 22-27, 2024. Finally, the 96th Oscar ceremony will be broadcast on Sunday, March 10. It will air live on ABC at 8pm ET/5pm PT. We’re updating predictions throughout awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks.

Race Status

“Oppenheimer,” the explosive sound Oscar favorite, received major support from The Motion Picture Sound Editors and The Cinema Audio Society guilds. MPSE awarded all three nominations for Christopher Nolan’s historical thriller about the “father of the atomic bomb”: ADR, Effects/Foley and Music Editing; CAS sound mixers nominated “Oppenheimer” for the Best Motion Picture – Live Action award. The 71st MPSE Golden Reel Awards will be held on March 3 at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, and the 60th CAS Awards will be held on March 2 at the Beverly Hilton.

More from IndieWire

“Oppenheimer It was one of 10 films to make the Oscar shortlist for Best Sound before the nominations announcement on January 23. Other shortlisted contestants include “Barbie (ADR, Music Editing) “Maestro (ADR, Music Editing) and “Napoleon” (ADR, Effects/Foley) received two MPSE nominations, while “Ferrari” (Effects/Foley), “Killer (Effects/Foley), “The Killers of the Flower Moon (ADR) and “The Zone of Interest” (foreign language) received one each.

Other candidates for CAS are “Barbie”, “Ferrari”, “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Maestro”.

For “Oppenheimer” (Universal), Nolan once again turned to Oscar-winning sound editor/sound designer Richard King (“Dunkirk,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight,” “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”) applied. ) pioneering comprehensive sound design. This included the Trinity test explosion, which sounded like a cosmic door slamming, as well as subatomic particles, waves, and a cosmic black hole, all manipulated with natural sound effects. The team also included Oscar-winning music and sound effects mixer Kevin O’Connell (“Hacksaw Ridge”) and dialogue mixer Gary Rizzo (“Dunkirk,” “Inception”).

A unique synthetic sound for Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar blockbuster “Barbie” (Warner Bros.), plastic Barbie Land led by Oscar-nominated supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Ai-Ling Lee (“First Man,” “La) got it. La Land”), sound designer/supervising sound editor Dan Kenyon, and O’Connell. A sense of simulated reality was achieved using vocal sounds, toys, and musical instruments. Audio-wise, it was like classic Disney animation meets a ’50s Hollywood musical.

On “Maestro” (Netflix), Bradley Cooper tapped sound designer/supervising sound editor King and Oscar-nominated production sound mixer Steve Morrow (who worked with him to create a vibrant Dolby Atmos mix for “A Star Is Born”). The soundscape of this complex love story spanning more than four decades (the first half in black and white, the second half in color) between legendary conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and his actress wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). It was about the sound of Bernstein’s musical orbit, and the challenge was to do all of this live, as if we were in the middle of the orchestra or among the people at a party. It’s an immersive feat that doesn’t feel staged, and the Dolby Atmos is strong. Bernstein’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1” at Ely Cathedral in London. His passionate conducting of 2 (“Resurrection”) is an emotional highlight.

David Fincher’s passion project “The Killer” (Netflix), based on Alex Nolent’s graphic novel, follows Michael Fassbender’s stoic and meticulous assassin as he makes a rare mistake and then has to step out of his comfort zone to clean up the mess. Nine-time Oscar-nominated sound designer/supervising sound editor/sound mixer Ren Klyce (including “Fight Club”) takes us inside the Killer’s mind over six episodes set in Paris, the Dominican Republic, New Orleans, Florida. New York and Chicago. Each has its own unique soundscape, employing mantra voicing, a personal game mix (The Smiths), a score by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor covering the upper and lower registers, and a signature voice-over in this journey from nihilism to compassion. It’s an impressive sound mix, like attaching a microphone to the camera so you can hear everything around it.

AREA OF INTEREST, 2023. © A24 / Courtesy of the Everett CollectionAREA OF INTEREST, 2023. © A24 / Courtesy of the Everett Collection

“Area of ​​Interest”Courtesy of the Everett Collection

“The Zone of Interest” (A24), Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed Holocaust drama about the banality of evil, features an appropriately unsettling soundscape by sound designer/re-recording mixer Johnnie Burn. Loosely adapted from Martin Amis’ novel, the film follows real-life Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife (Sandra Hüller), an avid gardener, as they try to build a dream life with their family in the neighboring countryside. Camp. Burn (which meticulously researched Auschwitz) treated it as a horror movie soundscape, drawing pictures in our heads by putting sound into our ears, and it was the most violent film he had ever worked on. The result was a contrast in nature and mechanical surroundings, punctuated by the sounds and screams of brutality in the camp.

From producer star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie, “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount) delivers a more intimate, visceral take on Ethan Hunt (Cruise)’s high-octane adventure to thwart a global artificial intelligence threat. It involved a sonic approach. Directed by supervising sound editor James Mather and re-recording mixers Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor (Oscar winner for “Top Gun: Maverick”), this film’s highlights include the brutal street fight in Venice between Hunt and Hunt. Pom Klementieff French assassin Paris, the wild car chase in Rome where Ethan and Grace (Haley Atwell) face off against a giant Hummer in a tiny Fiat, and the kitchen scene during the final train crash where the Orient Express falls off a broken bridge, one carriage at a time. . Each sound was isolated and experienced.

Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple TV+/Paramount), which tells the story of the systematic murders of Osage tribe members after oil was discovered in their lands in Oklahoma in the 1920s, reflects the culture of the indigenous people. It’s part of the soundscape’s strategy of contrasting beauty and evil, led by Oscar-winning supervising sound editor Philip Stocktock (“Hugo”), Oscar-winning production sound mixer Mark Ulano (“Titanic”), and Oscar-winning re-recording. mixer Tom Fleishman (“Hugo”). Tribal music is present throughout, particularly the repetitive drum beat that creates tension, as well as traditional dance and spoken language, and the soundscape had to be accurate and proportionate in tone.

For the biopic of Michael Mann, “Ferrari” (Neon), the lead sound team includes Adam Driver, sound designer/re-recording mixer Tony Lamberti, sound designer Bernard Weiser, Oscar-winning sound mixer Lee Orloff, and Oscar-winning re-recording mixer. Andy Nelson has recreated ’50s Ferrari car sounds and their unique sounds, from induction to transmission to exhaust. They used real Italian cars to re-record engine sounds and captured the sound of cars on racetracks in the middle of nowhere in the UK to eliminate environmental sounds.

Directed by Ridley Scott (Apple TV+/Sony Pictures), “Napoleon” (Apple TV+/Sony Pictures) chronicles Napoleon Bonaparte’s (Joaquin Phoenix) rapid rise to power from military leader to Emperor, fueled by his obsessive love for his wife, Empress Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby). Emphasis on soundscapes led by Oscar-nominated sound designers/supervising sound editors Oliver Tarney and James Harrison (“No Time to Die”), production sound mixer Stephane Bucher (Oscar-nominated “The Last Duel”), and recording mixers Massey and William Miller ( Oscar-nominated “News of the World”) features six legendary battles (each with distinctive geometric designs).

Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi action movie “The Creator” about a war between humanity and artificial intelligence (20. Erik Aadahl (Oscar nominee “A Quiet Place”) and Ethan Van Der Ryn (Oscar winner “King Kong” and “Lord of the Rings” : The Two Towers”).

pioneers

“Barbie”
“Ferrari”
“Maestro”
“Oppenheimer”
“Area of ​​Interest”

Contestants

“Creative”
“Join”
“Killers of the Flower Moon”
“Mission: Impossible – Deadly Reckoning Part One”
“Napoleon”

Best of IndieWire

Sign up for Indiewire’s Newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest news.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *