movieminis

“Sound editing” is a term not widely understood by the general public. Basically, it is the creation of sounds for a film. The noise of a blaster or a tie fighter in a Star Wars film? That’s sound editing. The explosions of bombs in war films? That’s sound editing.

There aren’t a whole lot of precursors for this award, as BAFTA’s Best Sound category points more toward Best Sound Mixing than it does toward this one.

There is the award handed out by the Motion Picture Sound Editors group. The group opted for Blade Runner 2049, so a pick there would have a decent amount of reason to back it up.

But Dunkirk does seem to still have a lead here regardless. War films are popular in this category, with American Sniper, Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker all winning here in the last decade. In addition, BAFTA has ended up predicting this category and not Best Sound Mixing before; in fact, that happened just last year when Arrival took home the BAFTA and went on to win here. So Dunkirk‘s BAFTA win certainly does hold weight.

Finally, one of the biggest aspects of Dunkirk that audience’s unanimously rave about is its sound, it being more intense and overwhelming than most films in the genre. The film will likely take the other sound category, and if any film were to take both — the sounds are split a decent amount of the time — it would be Nolan’s.

The Nominees
Richard King, Alex Gibson — Dunkirk
Mark Mangini, Theo Green — Blade Runner 2049
Ren Klyce, Matthew Wood — Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Julian Slater — Baby Driver
Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira — The Shape of Water 

Will win: Dunkirk
Could win: Blade Runner 2049
Should win: Dunkirk
Should’ve been nominated: War for the Planet of the Apes

Featured image via Warner Bros.