Cinema Audio Society likes Sound of Metal, Trolls World Tour, My Octopus Teacher and more...

by Nathaniel R

Trolls World Tour snagged a CAS nomination

The 57th annual CAS awards, aka Hollywood's sound guild, have announced their nominations for this year's April 17th virtual event. George Clooney will be honored with their annual non-competitive Filmmaker Award and William B Kaplan will receive their Career Achievement Honor at that ceremony.  Their nominations for the 2020 film year are after the jump...

MOTION PICTURE LIVE ACTION

If Sound of Metal isn't nominated for the Oscars for Sound, we riot.

• Greyhound
• Mank
• News of the World
• Sound of Metal
• Trial of Chicago 7

Last year their nominees went 3/5 for the Oscar nominations though sometimes its 4/5. We don't recall ever seeing a perfect 5/5 transfer to Oscar's sound mixing nominations but perhaps there has been one at some point. Given the (presumed) strength of four of these in the Best Picture race, Greyhound looks the most vulnerable but it's a war film so maybe it's not? We'll see. Other Oscar spoilers in the sound race could be Tenet, Da 5 Bloods, Midnight Sky, Nomadland, Invisible Man, Soul, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, United States vs Billie Holiday ... though their absence here doesn't help. (If you're curious about my own preferred ballot, it matches this one 3/5 with Shirley and Ema thrown in)

That there's no sound editing category this year at the Oscars adds another wrinkle to the predictions game as every once in awhile a CAS nominee (which technically honors "mixing") would snag a Sound Editing nomination with Oscar instead of a Mixing nod. 

MOTION PICTURE ANIMATED

• Croods: A New Age
• Onward
• Shaun the Sheep Farmageddon
• Soul
• Trolls World Tour

Toy Story 3 was the last animated film to score an Oscar nod for Sound Mixing but it used to happen a bit more frequently. Soul feels like an outside possibility for this finally happening again, given its music focus. 

MOTION PICTURE DOCUMENTARY

• The Bee Gees: How Can You Men a Broken Heart
• David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
• My Octopus Teacher
• The Social Dilemma
• Zappa

I don't think we've talked about My Octopus Teacher at TFE but it's great, isn't it?

NON-THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURE OR LIMITED SERIES

• American Horror Story: 1984 Ep. 9 Final Girl
• Fargo Ep 7 East/West
• Lovecraft Country: Ep 1 Sundown
• The Queen's Gambit: Ep 4 Middle Game
• Watchmen: Ep 6 This Extraordinary Being

We're a bit confused as to their eligibility parametrs as Watchmen began and ended in 2019. But here it is. 

TELEVISION SERIES - 1 HOUR

• Better Call Saul - Ep 8 Bagman
• Ozark - Ep 10 All In
• The Crown - S4, Ep 1 Gold Stick
• Marvelous Mrs Maisel - S3, Ep 8 A Jewish Girl Walks Into the Apollo
• Westworld - S3, Ep  Mother of Exiles

TELEVISION SERIES -1/2 HOUR

• Dead To Me - Ep 201 You Know What You Did
• The Mandalorian - Ep 102 Chapter 2: The Child
• The Mandalorian - Ep 205 Chapter 13: The Jedi
• Modern Family - Ep 1118 Finale Pt 1
• Ted Lasso - Ep 110 The Hope That Kills You

TELEVISION -NONFICTION VARIETY OR MUSIC, SERIES OR SPECIALS

• Beastie Boys Story
• Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You
• Hamilton
• Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time, Ep 1
• NASA & SpaceX: Journey to the Future

OUTSTANDING PRODUCT PRODUCTION

• DPA Microphones, Inc.: DPA 4097 CORE Micro Shotgun Mic
• Lectrosonics, Inc.: DCR822 Dual Channel Digital Audio receiver
• Shure Incorporated: Axient AD3
• Sound Devices, LLC: CL-16 Linear Fader Control Surface for 8-Series
• Sound Devices, LLC: Sound Devices Noise Assist

OUTSTANDING PRODUCT POST PRODUCTION

• Evercast, LLC.: Evercast
• Focusrite PLC: RedNet R1
• iZotope, Inc.: RX8
• The Cargo Cult: Matchbox
• Todd-AO: Actors Mobile ADR

Comments

[Antônio]

Yes, Nathaniel. You need to talk more about My Octopus Teacher. Easily on my top 5 of 2020 (overall).

[Cash]

My Octopus Teacher has perhaps the best title of the year (though I know nothing about the actual movie).

[DMF]

Cash — It’s about a college professor with superpowers who can grow tentacles.

[Cash]

And it's a documentary?!?

[NATHANIEL R]

Cash -- lol. DMF is joking. It's about the filmmaker having a life crisis and his healing during this year where he began filming an octopus on the regular -- they have short life spans. It's so fascinating and cathartic (and even suspenseful) and the phtoography is just beautiful.

[N8]

Toy Story 3's nomination was for Sound Editing, not Sound Mixing.

[Feline Justice]

Hillbilly Elegy and My Octopus Teacher are the best movie titles of the year. Is there an award for that?