Oscar Predictions: Best Sound

This year, Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 8th. I’ll be offering detailed predictions in all categories.

Last year’s nominees: Greyhound, Mank, News of the World, Soul, Sound of Metal

My choices: Coming soon!

This year’s locks: Dune

Very likely: No Time to Die, West Side Story

Possible: A Quiet Place Part II, tick, tick…BOOM!, The Power of the Dog, Belfast, Spider-Man: No Way Home

Unlikely: The Matrix Resurrections, Last Night in Soho

The rundown: This category combines the former sound mixing and sound editing races, which have existed as one since last year, and we have a shortlist for the first time ever. All five films cited by the Cinema Audio Society are on this shortlist and all received nominations from the Motion Picture Sound Editors too: Dune, No Time to Die, West Side Story, The Power and the Dog, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. I’m dubious about the chances of the last of those, and I’m betting on tick, tick..BOOM! instead to take the fifth slot. It also doesn’t quite feel right to leave A Quiet Place Part II, which picked up three bids, off, but its lack of heat in any other category could lead to it missing. The Matrix Resurrections also scored three bids from MPSE, so it shouldn’t be discounted, and the original film won both sound prizes back in 1999. The other two films on this list are wild cards: Belfast, which will have Best Picture heat, and could score here, and Last Night in Soho, a deserving choice that I don’t think will be on any voters’ radar.

Forecasted winner: I think West Side Story could win, but I’m not sure.