Congratulations to all the Academy nominees

[Jeff Wexler]

Looks like this year the Academy has gone to just one category, Best Sound, instead of splitting it between sound mixing and sound editing. Does this mean that sound editing has been dropped altogether?

 

BEST SOUND
Belfast (Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri)
Dune (Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett)
No Time to Die (Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor)
The Power of the Dog (Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb)
West Side Story (Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy)

 

[Michael Render]

Technically, they combined editing and mixing into one award after 2019. I can see their point from a public facing point of view, but it is a bit of a slap in the face to sound professionals.

 

[codyman]

There's a nice piece about Dune's sound online.  Seems SFX recordists are liking the MixPre 10t II for field recordings.

 

 

[Paul F]

I've always wondered how people in the Academy feel about the voting process. Members of a category make the nominations, but the entire Academy votes for the winner. It seems unsuitable since most members probably don't know much, if anything, about a given category and vote by instinct or whim.

 

For those of you that are Academy members, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about the voting process. Does it aggravate you that the winner is determined by the entire Academy or do you find the results to be satisfactory?

[Jeff Wexler]

I'm fairly sure that the members of each branch are always upset about the fact that the whole membership votes once the nominations are in. I know from being a member of the Sound Branch, we have had numerous discussions about this but no one has ever come up with any sort of corrective plan. The majority of Academy members are actors  --  most are not qualified to weigh in on the more technical awards but I wouldn't go so far as to say that all the voting is meaningless  --  many of the actors are able to judge the quality of work in the other crafts.

[Paul F]

Thanks for the insight Jeff.

 

Not for you Jeff, but for others interest; The Academy needs the awards show in a big way to fund its enterprise. The last time I checked, this single 3-4 hour show brings in over 80% of the Academy's income, most of which is spent on film preservation.

 

I suspect that boosting or keeping the show ratings is a compelling if not overriding factor as to what and how the awards and the show are conducted. Unfortunately, the show's viewers have declined rapidly to 1/4 of what it was in 2015. That probably directly impacts income in a substantial way.

 

[VASI]

Congratulations to all Nominees!

 

I would like to give my special wishes and regards to Mac Ruth and his team; which I had the privilege to work in summer, here at Greece. 🙂

 

Regarding being "one" generic award; it's not a delicate decision from Academy IMHO.

It's like to undervalue the beautiful work of the editing team.

We all know what is editing and mixing; but...

 

Congratulations again, to all Nominees; beautiful delivered piece from everyone!

 

Best,
Vasileios A.

[Paul F]

Here is an article that shows the Academy does prioritize the success of the awards show over other concerns. Given that tens of millions of dollars are involved, it's not surprising. The Tonys and Grammys tried this and it didn't help.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/academy-cuts-multiple-categories-94th-231949560.html

[codyman]

5 minutes ago, Paul F said:

Here is an article that shows the Academy does prioritize the success of the awards show over other concerns. Given that tens of millions of dollars are involved, it's not surprising.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/academy-cuts-multiple-categories-94th-231949560.html

Wow, first the merging of the sound categories into one, and now another slap towards below the line folks by probably quickly cutting away to a 5 second clip of whoever wins for "sound" "film editing" etc with probably them grasping the award and thanking the Academy before cutting away to a Buick commercial.