With the Academy’s nominations announcement drawing closer by the day, it’s time to lay it all on the line with my final Oscar nomination predictions. As the first year of the newly combined Best Sound category (previously, the Academy had split the award between Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing), it’s anyone’s guess what will make the final five. We appear to have three solid locks for nominations with Sound of Metal, News of the World, and Greyhound, given all three secured nominations from BAFTA, the Cinema Audio Society, and the Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild.
Typically, we see a loud, bombastic blockbuster in this category, which would suggest a nomination for Tenet. But it was snubbed by both BAFTA and CAS and you’d think the Academy will follow suit. The purposely vintage mono sound stylings of Mank should be right up the Academy’s alley and it did manage to score nominations at both CAS and MPSE. And I think the overall love for Nomadland will be enough to sweep along a nomination for its sound designers including the late Mike Wolf Snyder. But films like Soul, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom are firmly in the race as well.
BEST SOUND PREDICTIONS:
1. Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)
2. Greyhound (Apple TV+)
3. News of the World (Universal Pictures)
4. Mank (Netflix)
5. Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
Alternate: The Midnight Sky (Netflix)