Oscar Winner Predictions: Best Sound Editing

The competition: Baby Driver (Julian Slater), Blade Runner 2049 (Mark Mangini and Theo Green), Dunkirk (Richard King and Alex Gibson), The Shape of Water (Nathan Robitaille and Nelson Ferreira), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce)

Previous winners: Arrival, Mad Max: Fury Road, American Sniper, Gravity, Skyfall/Zero Dark Thirty, Hugo, Inception
My winner: Announcing shortly after the Oscars!

The facts: Mangini has five previous nominations, winning on his most recent try for “Mad Max: Fury Road.” King is tied for the most wins in this category, with three, for “Master and Commander,” “The Dark Knight,” and “Inception,” and an additional three nominations. Wood has three previous nominations and Klyce has two. At the Motion Picture Sound Editors Awards, “Blade Runner 2049” defeated every other film nominated here in one category, while “Dunkirk” took another prize.

Who should win: Obviously there’s overlap with the Best Sound category, which boasts the same nominees, so I’ll do my best to make the proper distinctions. “The Shape of Water” and “Blade Runner 2049” were great but wouldn’t top my list. “Baby Driver” made the most of its visual cues and matched them with aural responses, while “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” simulated the sound of space battles exceptionally well. Ultimately, the gunfire and grandeur of “Dunkirk” wins out for me.

Who will win: Many people think that “Baby Driver” could triumph here, as could “Blade Runner 2049,” but I’ll stick pick Dunkirk.