Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sound Oscar Nominations

16366962_5be9ee21ff_b

Today the 81st Academy Awards (Oscars) nominations were announced.
The sound categories are as follow:

Achievement in sound editing
  • The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Richard King
  • Iron Man” (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
  • Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Tom Sayers
  • WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
  • Wanted” (Universal),Wylie Stateman
Achievement in sound mixing
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
  • The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
  • Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
  • WALL-E” (Walt Disney),Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
  • Wanted” (Universal), Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

The nominated films which had it’s sound post production services provided by Skywalker Sound are:

curious_case_of_benjamin_button_xlg wall_e iron_man_ver4

Which means big congratulations are in order for Frank Eulner (Supervising sound editor on Iron Man), Christopher Boyes (Sound designer on Iron Man), Ben Burtt (Sound designer, re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor on Wall-E), Matthew Wood (Supervising sound editor on Wall-E), David Parker (Re-recording mixer on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Michael Semanick (Re-recording mixer on both Wall-E and Benjamin Button), Ren Klyce (Re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor on Benjamin Button), Mark Weingarten (Sound mixer on Benjamin Button) and Tom Myers (Re-recording mixer on Wall-E).

Also, while the film itself wasn’t post-produced at Skywalker Sound, The Dark Knight does have great mixing by two usual suspects from the Technical Building. So, congratulations as well to Lora Hirschberg (Re-recording mixer on The Dark Knight) and Gary Rizzo (Re-recording mixer on The Dark Knight).

I personally love this about the Oscars, that this sound awards are part of the main show. And if you are sound film lover as me, you get to see your sound heroes live and kicking (if they win, that is).
Let’s cross our fingers for the talented folks of (and from) Skywalker Sound which always manage to deliver great work on their films.

The Oscars will be on this February 22nd.

4 comments:

Ron Linker said...

Crossing my fingers for Wall-E and Iron Man. If Dark Knight snatches one here, it probably means Heath Ledger wont get one for best supporting actor... What do you think?

Sam said...

I think Wall-E is undoubtedly going to take the Sound Editing Oscar and it might as well win on Sound Mixing, despite the good competition.

Each of those categories (supporting actor and sound mixing & editing) are voted by people from each field (actors and sound guys respectively), so there is no reason for one to affect the other. And its quite possible Ledger gets it.

Ron Linker said...

Hey Sam,

Are you disappointed Wall-E didnt win the sound Oscars, or happy it won the best animation feature?
I did not agree with the sound awards. As much as I liked Slumdog, I think Wall-E should have picked those up. I guess the Oscar jury's move in mysterious ways...
Ron

Sam said...

I was sad for every Oscar Wall-E didn't won, not only sound (but specially sound). I'm kind of disappointed in general with this year's Oscars.
I'll be posting about it soon.