With Oscar nominations coming on January 23rd,, it’s crunch time for awards enthusiasts. The Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) announced their nominees on January 10th,, recognizing A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, The Substance, and Wicked for their sound work, giving us a glimpse into which films the sound industry supports. Over the past 11 years, the AMPS winner has gone on to win the Best Sound Oscar seven times. More often than not, upwards of three of the AMPS nominees match with the Academy’s nominees. It’s safe to say they are a huge precursor for this category.
Below are my predictions for Best Sound, listed in alphabetical order.
Alien: Romulus – This is my pick for the more commercial genre film that gets in on nomination day. There are some truly horrifying sounds found in this film that could only be created for an Alien movie.
A Complete Unknown – The first of three musical-adjacent films, A Complete Unknown utilizes live recordings of actors singing and playing their instruments, which makes the movie stand out in the musical biopic genre. The mixing is so precise and makes you feel like you’re there with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez instead of listening to a studio recording while Timotheé Chalamet and Monica Barbaro lip-sync on camera. It would be hard for the Academy to leave out such intimate sound design.
Dune: Part Two – Dune: Part Two’s predecessor took home this award, among many other below-the-line prizes in 2022, and it seems like the team should be gearing up for another win here. There’s been a significant dip in support for Part Two when compared to the original, but sound is where it has held strong throughout the season. Dune: Part Two is the only film thus far to have won more than one critics’ group award for sound, so the case for its nomination is rather compelling.
Emilia Perez – Emlia Perez is trending toward becoming the most Oscar-nominated film of the bunch this year, and Best Sound is just one more inevitable nomination for the international musical. There seems to be a divide between online backlash and industry support, as Emlia Perez continues to overperform with various voting bodies. film has numerous people against it, yet it seems to perform It was a shock to some that it beat out Wicked for Best Musical/Comedy at the Golden Globes, but the writing had been on the wall all night. I don’t find the sound work in Emilia Perez to be all that memorable, but it feels like this will be part of the package that will make the film the thing to beat after nominations are announced.
Wicked – Similar to A Complete Unknown, almost all the singing used in the movie was recorded live on set and not in a studio. Wicked’s commercial and critical success has made it more of an awards player than I would have ever guessed, but the sound mix is legitimately impressive. We’re headed toward three musicals being nominated for Best Sound, and to me, it feels like Wicked has the weakest chance of actually pulling out the win compared to the other two.
I’m confident in all of these picks, with the exception of Alien: Romulus. I could easily see Gladiator II swooping in for that spot, but I found the work on Romulus to be head and shoulders above Ridley Scott’s latest outing. In a more fun world, The Substance would also make an appearance here, but I just don’t see it jumping ahead of any of these other films despite its AMPS nomination.
The Academy’s nominees for Best Sound will be announced on January 23rd.
