Oscar Predictions: Best Sound Editing

This year, Oscar nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 14th. As a result, most of the corresponding guilds won’t have announced their picks by then, so I’m making predictions in advance without being able to take those into consideration. I’ll be offering detailed predictions in most of the major categories, saving some of the biggest categories for last.

Last year’s nominees: American Sniper, Birdman, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Interstellar, Unbroken

This year’s locks: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian

Very likely: Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant

Possible: Sicario, The Hateful Eight, Bridge of Spies, Jurassic World

Unlikely: Creed, Inside Out

The rundown: I’m not so confident in my predictions here because of my lack of expertise in this particular category, especially as it differs from Best Sound, but I’m betting on this field matching up four out of five with that race as it has the past two years. The four frontrunners are Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Revenant. Joining them I think will be Sicario, but it could just as easily be The Hateful Eight, Bridge of Spies, Jurassic World, or any number of other films.

One possible crazy scenario: The Walk is honored for heightening the suspense of its spectacular extended sequence.

Forecasted winner: I think that Star Wars: The Force Awakens sweeps most of the technical categories.