We’ve come to the end of the road. We are less than one week away from the 97th Academy Awards, and some tight races became even tighter after some chaos ensued at Sunday’s SAG Awards. The race for Best Sound has been quiet for the most part this year, with one film being the frontrunner solely due to there not being a major opponent.
Since its release, Dune: Part Two has been my prediction, and there hasn’t been much reason to switch from that. This win should have been solidified by its victory at the Sound Editors’ Golden Reel Awards Sunday night. It took home the prize in the Feature Effects/Foley category, which most closely aligns with the Best Sound category at the Oscars.
Despite this win, Dune’s frontrunner status in the category, and Part One’s dominance of technical categories a few years ago, I feel uneasy predicting it to win. It should be a shoo-in, but the overall chaos of this awards season is getting to me. Will there be chaos in this category as well? Perhaps I’m overthinking this, but we must look at Dune’s overall performance compared to its predecessor.
Dune: Part Two maintained its level of craft, if not elevating things across the board, but only received four below-the-line nominations, compared to Part One’s nine nominations with six wins. Dune: Part Two flat-out underperformed at the Oscars this year, and it’s hard to imagine it having much support with only five total nominations. It’s time to consider alternatives to the thought that Dune will run away with this category.
The two serious contenders vying for the prize have one commonality: mixing and editing in singing done on set. Wicked and A Complete Unknown contains four of the best vocal performances of the year, with their main stars all getting nominated in their respective acting categories. Ten total nominations for Wicked and eight for A Complete Unknown clearly indicate massive support for both films, with many considering the former to have overperformed on nomination morning.
Between these two films, I found Wicked to be the more compelling challenger to Dune: Part Two. Not only was a lot of the singing we heard in the film recorded live on set but it was also mixed with extravagant instrumentation and score, not to mention the sounds of the fantasy elements found throughout the movie. A Complete Unknown’s sound work outside of the singing and more plain instrumentation is simply plainer than Wicked’s. The film also took home its respective award for music editing at the Golden Reel Awards, which showed support from the industry.
Final Prediction
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m going with Wicked. Dune: Part Two has underperformed in a lot of facets this season, and the support for Wicked indicates it is going to win a couple of awards that were thought unachievable two months ago.
