The 'Guild Week' starts with the Cinema Audio Society
Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at 10:00PM
Cláudio Alves in A Complete Unknown, Best Sound, Deadpool & Wolverine, Dune: Part Two, Oscars (24), Punditry, Ripley, Shogun, Sound, TV, guild awards, precursors

by Cláudio Alves

The Cinema Audio Society sure loves themselves some Timothée Chalamet.

This week will be all about the Hollywood guilds having their say, giving us awards obsessives a better picture of the industry's reaction to the season's top contenders. Today, the Cinema Audio Society shared their film and TV nominations, with various of the Academy's shortlisted picks making the cut. But pundits beware, for the CAS can fail to be in perfect synchronicity with AMPAS. The TV nominees are much of the same as we've seen so far in the season, Emmy and Golden Globe favorites on repeat. That being said, there's a sense of individuality to the organization's taste. The voters love music-heavy projects, war, and racing cars…

Let's start with the film categories since the voting period for the Oscar nominations begins tomorrow.

 

Motion Picture – Live-Action

Motion Picture - Animated 

Motion Picture – Documentary

This is a boost for the live-action feature nominees – all shortlisted by AMPAS – and The Wild Robot, too. Hilarious that the CAS refuses to abide by Disney's absurd assertions that their new Lion King movies aren't animation. In the Documentary category, it's interesting to note how much this guild loves music docs and celebrity profiles. Hell, all the guilds love the latter. Thank heavens, AMPAS' non-fiction branch is more adventurous.

But now, let's talk about recent Oscar history. Since the Academy returned to only one sound category in 2020, they have matched the CAS twice – 2020 and 2022. In 2021, AMPAS went with Belfast instead of the CAS-nominated Spider-Man: No Way Home. And last year, the guild went with Barbie, Ferrari, and Killers of the Flower Moon, whereas the Academy nominated The Zone of Interest, The Creator, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Don't bank on these nominees being the ones heard 'round the world on Oscar nomination day.

There's still hope for Alien: Romulus, Blitz, Emilia Pérez, and Joker: Folie à Deux. Although, in the French musical's case, I wonder if this is a sign that the industry might not be as infatuated with Audiard's vision as the Globes recently were.

 

Non-Theatrical Motion Picture or Limited Series 

Television Series – One-Hour 

Television Series – Half-Hour 

Television Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Special 

I'm more fascinated by some of these episode choices than the chosen shows themselves. Wouldn't one of The Penguin's more action-packed hours be preferable as a submission? Either the episode with the Batman flashback or the last few chapters, when all hell goes loose, felt like better sonic showcases. The same could be said about Shogun, whose more martial narratives should be catnip for this guild over the courtlier premiere. Oh well, these are fine nominations, just the same. Kudos for recognizing Ripley, whose predisposition for thick silence often made for a haunting watch, viscerally uneasy even when the screen looked like a black-and-white postcard. Night Country also makes great use of silences that aren't really silent, the whisper of distant terrors.

I am, however, mystified by the Jim Henson: Idea Man nod. But I've been mystified by all the praise that Ron Howard joint has received this season.

 

What do you make of the CAS nominations? Were you surprised by any of their picks? Or, perchance, by who they didn't pick?

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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