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Oscar 2011 Winner Predictions: Sound Mixing

Conventional wisdom says that one film wins both sound awards only about half the time.

Inception

Conventional wisdom says that one film wins both sound awards only about half the time. Which means betting on double ups makes only a little more sense than betting on a Picture-Director split. Since nearly everyone this year is doing just that, we feel a little safer presuming that Christopher Nolan’s moody, pretentious apparatus is the frontrunner for both Best Sound Editing as well as Best Sound Mixing. Do we wish a musical had somehow found its way into the mix here to make our job easier, even one as nontraditional as, say, the fluttering Black Swan? You bet your ears, especially since it’s difficult to tell when exactly voters will clean out theirs and back superior, if less showy, mixes like those accompanying The Social Network and True Grit. They heard beyond the sound and fury last year when they awarded The Hurt Locker, but were deaf to the positively terrifying environment of No Country for Old Men. Which goes to show that the only barometer less reliable than worrying about what’s going on over in Best Sound Editing is to consider the dynamics guiding Best Picture. Not that that’s going to stop us, especially not this year when we’re looking at maybe the biggest sweep since Peter Jackson’s hobbits stormed the Kodak. When Ed and I were comparing notes the other day to see just how many awards we had The King’s Speech penciled in for wins, we realized the projected tally had ballooned to eight. We weren’t including this category in that count because, well, aside from its reasonably impressive simulations of early microphone technology, the movie’s focus is on the sounds that don’t happen than those that do. Still, Harvey Weinstein turned The English Patient’s dozen nominations into nine Oscars, and the ninth…was in this category. Consider us nervous.

Will Win: Inception

Could Win: The King’s Speech

Should Win: The Social Network

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Eric Henderson

Eric Henderson is the web content manager for WCCO-TV. His writing has also appeared in City Pages.

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