93rd Academy Awards: Best Film Editing

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Best Film Editing is noteworthy as an Oscar categoryfor its strong connection with the Best Picture race. With the exception of 2014’s Birdman (which prided itself for being a one-take film even if it actually isn’t), we have to go back to 1980 to find a Best Picture winner without a corresponding Film Editing nomination. However, the expanded ballot changed the Editing race. Since 2009, only four non-Best Picture nominees have gone on to be nominated in this category, with only one winning. This lends a preordained quality to the contenders.

This year is no exception, with all five nominees coming from Best Picture contenders. However, the predictability of the crop does not equate to the predictability of the race; this is one of those categories where one can see any of the five nominees realistically taking the award based on presumed strength in the awards season...

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93rd Academy Awards: on Best Sound and trips to other worlds

by Eurocheese

More than most years, I felt strongly about which films deserved to be in the conversation for Sound this year. This is the first year since the 1980 Oscars that only one team will receive a Sound prize, and even before 1980, Sound Effects would often receive a special separate prize (sometimes competitively, sometimes as the sole choice). Many Oscar fans learned to explain the difference between Oscar wins for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, a separation we’ve had since 2003. The Academy has rewarded the Sound Department in every year since the third Oscar ceremony back in 1930, which means the honor has been around even longer than our supporting acting categories.

The nominees this year brought us a wide range of stories – a high seas chase, a Hollywood throwback, a western, an animated film and an immersive film focused on hearing loss. And did you know this year’s Sound category brought us two double nominees?

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Best Picture Nominees - Who's Up? Who's Down?

by Christopher James

Is Nomadland still looking like the clear winner for Best Picture?

Oscar nomination morning changes everything. What it takes to be nominated for an Oscar and win an Oscar are very different. As we enter this new phase for the Oscars, who is best set up for success on April 25th? The eight Best Picture nominees were all the most nominated movies of the year. Mank led with ten nominations. The rest of the nominees all had relatively good days, each earning six nominations except for Promising Young Woman, which received five nominations. Among non-Best Picture nominees, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom led with five nominations and News of the World with four nominations.

With the Oscar mainly coalescing around the eight Best Picture movies, which of them benefitted? Were any movies disappointments, despite a Best Picture nomination? Can anything beat current frontrunner Nomadland?

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What are your 4 wishes for nomination morning?

Yesterday was the final day of voting for the nominations for 93rd annual Academy Award nominations. Since there are four days until the nominations are announced please name your 4 non-locked up dreams for Monday morning. I'll go first...

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Interview: BAFTA nominee Mikkel E.G. Nielsen on finding the balance and structure of "Sound of Metal"

by Nathaniel R

Talking to film editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen (A Royal Affair, Beasts of No Nation), is a bit dizzying. His conversation moves around our subject, Sound of Metal, in circular fashion regularly bringing up both the films beginning, a raucous noisy concert where we first experience Ruben (Riz Ahmed's) hearing loss with him, and the films very quiet yet symmetrical ending. It doesn't surprise us then when he describes his job holistically. "My job is to try and create a whole from start to finish where you feel that you've been on this journey. Either it's revealing or it's fulfilling or emotional."

Nielsen divides his time between movies, music videos, and commercial work and though he loves the immersive challenge of cinema, he appreciates the mix. "Molding a movie" for months, he explains, becomes all encompassing. Working on a spot for three weeks, though, "Wow, that was almost like a vacation!'"

Another 'vacation' will have to wait. We're deep in awards season and Nielsen's fine work, honing the film's structure, and finessing the movies internal and external rhythms alongside its much praised sound design, has been honored with a Critics Choice Award for Best Editing and, this morning, a BAFTA nomination as well. We recently spoke to him about his work and international career...

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