Final Oscars Predictions – Best Sound

With its ingenious sound design that gives its audience an intimate and harrowing experience with hearing loss, Sound of Metal has been the stable frontrunner for Best Sound from the very beginning of awards season. With key wins at the BAFTAs, Satellite Awards, and the CAS Awards, it feels like one of the most solid locks at this year’s Oscars, especially given the film itself peaked at just the right time this season.

If there is any slight cause for concern for Sound of Metal, it’s the fact it failed to secure a single win from the Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild’s Golden Reel Awards where it was up for three awards. That may suggest MPSE winners Soul and Greyhound are waiting in the wings to steal this one. An animated film hasn’t won an Oscar for sound since The Incredibles in 2004 and Soul would prove a worthy winner. We know the Academy loves to give this prize to war films (1917, Dunkirk, Hacksaw Ridge, American Sniper), so Greyhound certainly fits that bill this year.

But I’m really clutching at straws to make this more of a contest than it really is. At the end of the day, the MPSE snub will likely just be a minor blip in Sound of Metal‘s campaign and it will deservedly sail to victory at the Oscars.