93rd Academy Awards: on Best Sound and trips to other worlds

by Eurocheese

More than most years, I felt strongly about which films deserved to be in the conversation for Sound this year. This is the first year since the 1980 Oscars that only one team will receive a Sound prize, and even before 1980, Sound Effects would often receive a special separate prize (sometimes competitively, sometimes as the sole choice). Many Oscar fans learned to explain the difference between Oscar wins for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, a separation we’ve had since 2003. The Academy has rewarded the Sound Department in every year since the third Oscar ceremony back in 1930, which means the honor has been around even longer than our supporting acting categories.

The nominees this year brought us a wide range of stories – a high seas chase, a Hollywood throwback, a western, an animated film and an immersive film focused on hearing loss. And did you know this year’s Sound category brought us two double nominees?

Click to read more ...

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...

Click to read more ...

FYC: Soundscapes and Music

by Nathaniel R

The Film Bitch Awards continue with ballots for Best Score, Best Sound, Best Original Song, and in the non-Oscar parallel category Best Adapted, Combined, or Song Score (since so many films opt to have scores that lean into "soundtracks" as opposed to "scores" if you know what we mean)...

Click to read more ...

Showbiz History: "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "The Wilhelm Scream"

8 random things that happened on this day, December 29th, in showbiz history

1933 Ernst Lubitsch's pre-Code threesome romantic comedy Design for Living starring Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, and Gary Cooper opens for the last weekend of the year as does the musical romantic comedy Flying Down to Rio starring Dolores del Rio. The latter film is best remembered for being the first onscreen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in (gasp) supporting roles. 

1939 'Hollywood's Greatest Year' concludes with opening weekend for the Jimmy Stewart/Marlene Dietrich western Destry Rides Again, the classic period romantic drama The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2 Oscar nominations), and the musical Swanee River (1 Oscar nomination)...

Click to read more ...

AFI: Riz Ahmed in "Sound of Metal"

by Eurocheese

When putting together my list of films to catch at the festival, I threw this film in because I’d heard that it had an incredible sound design. Nobody told me that Riz Ahmed gives one of the best leading male performances that we’ve seen in years. Nobody told me that this passion project would have me emotionally on edge from start to finish, or that I’d leave feeling that it was unlike any film I’d seen before. The fact that the sound design buzz on the sound design proved true was the delicious cherry on top.

Ahmed plays Ruben, a drummer in a rock band, and the movie kicks off immersing us in one of his performances...

Click to read more ...