Now that we’ve had a few months for more films to come out, we can start to see the (incredibly) early beginnings of the Best Sound race. The year has given us both letdowns and surprises across the board, but a couple of contenders have risen to the top of the list. As it stands today, two films seem to stand out when you consider the sound category: Dune: Part Two and Civil War.
Dune: Part Two is the easiest case to make, so let’s start there. The love for the sound design in this film is already apparent, given the first installment took home the prize at the 94th Academy Awards just a few years ago, beating out Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, among other worthy options. The sound in Part Two is equally impressive, adding different elements to the world alongside familiar sounds from the first film. The full inclusion of the shai hulud (giant sandworms) introduces a whole new aspect of sound design that was teased in Part One. Voters may find it difficult to look at the star power behind Dune: Part Two and the franchise’s prior awards success and convince themselves to vote elsewhere.
Our other contender, Civil War, is a divisive choice. Whether you enjoyed the film or not, it’s hard to deny the wonders of its sound design, especially when seen in IMAX. During the intense war sequences, the sound alternates between some of the loudest gunshots I’ve ever heard to cutting out completely as Lee (Kristen Dunst) and Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) snap photographs of the gruesome scene. This variation in design, combined with how the sound swirls around the theater, makes Civil War one of the more impressive achievements in recent memory. Civil War benefits from doing two things that voters love to see in this category: having big, loud sounds and playing around with the lack of sound. This could help put it above other films that do only one element well.
This year’s dark horse for Best Sound could be the Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt vehicle, The Fall Guy. This love letter to stuntmen and action films has plenty of action scenes with speeding cars and booming explosions likely to wow audiences and critics alike. However, for The Fall Guy to have a chance, it must turn its box office performance around and be seen more widely. The marketing may have made people think this would be too comedic and silly or not quite the action spectacle director David Leitch delivered. There’s one massive upcoming film to look out for regarding the Best Sound award, and fortunately, we will get to see it in just a few days. Visionary director George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is likely to make a splash in all the technical categories. Its predecessor, Mad Max: Fury Road, won both Sound Editing and Sound Mixing in 2015 when the award was split into two separate categories. It is a blessing and gift that we get technical marvels like Furiosa and Dune: Part Two in the same year. They’ll be competing for all the technical awards, and it will be so fun to see who will come out on top here.
