Oscars 101: Best Sound Mixing

In which I run down on the nominees (and likely winners) of the Academy Awards.

Now we get to the other most confusing Oscar category: Best Sound Mixing.  Remember, Sound Editing is the process of stringing together pre-existing sounds to create an authentic aural experience within a film.  Sound Mixing, however, is when two or more different sounds are combined, tweaked and reworked together in order to create a completely new one.  This year's nominees are:

American Sniper
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash

It should really not come as much of a surprise to anybody that the nominees for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing are virtually identical.  The only difference between the two, when it really comes down to it, is that one includes The Hobbit and the other includes Whiplash.  Don't be surprised if, when all is said and done, they both honor the same film.

American Sniper - Everything that I said about American Sniper in my previous Oscars 101 entry applies here as well.  Its subject matter provides a myriad of interesting things to listen to and the filmmakers capitalize fully on that its potential to do so.  It still suffers from Unbroken's somewhat surprising nomination in this category: potentially splitting the vote between the two patriotic war movies with a similar range of sound effects.

Birdman - Whereas Birdman's status as the sole "normal" nominee in Sound Editing was a massive boon to it in yesterday's category, it no longer retains that luxury in Sound Mixing.  Whiplash's presence throws this race into turmoil, potentially enough so to split the vote between it and Birdman with their competing jazz drums and (more or less) grounded realism.

And if the race came to a head between these two nominees, I am certain that Birdman would lose.  While it is certainly an Academy darling and has a much broader pallet of sounds to choose from, it's no longer the choice of realistic holdouts within the Academy's voting body.  Whiplash may only do one thing, but it does it so absurdly well that Birdman is playing second fiddle, at best.

Interstellar - American Sniper's chances remain the same with Unbroken's continued inclusion in the race and Birdman's have fallen with Whiplash's nomination to the category.  Interstellar's odds have vastly improved now that The Battle of Five Armies has left this race, leaving it as the sole "genre film" (ie, fantasy, sci-fi, horror) nomination.

At this point, anybody favoring the fantastical only has one film to really turn to.  Some might splinter off to support Birdman's scenes of fantastical hallucination, but I doubt many will.  Interstellar will consolidate the "nerd" fan base within the Academy.  The only question is whether its big enough to really make that much of a difference.

Unbroken - Like American Sniper, Unbroken's odds of winning have not changed between this and the Sound Editing category.  It still will likely split the patriotic vote between the two films and will still likely lose in a head-to-head race with it.  It doesn't stand much of a chance of winning, and it's wonder that it was ever nominated in the first place.

Whiplash - This is the real question mark in this race: the film whose inclusion throws everything out of balance.  If I was a betting man, I would say that Whiplash is the absolute favorite to win this category.  It's in part owed to its fanatically loyal fan base, in part because of the niche it fills (pure, unadulterated, contemporary realism) and in part because it's just so outstanding at everything it does.

Music is central to the film, and what is music if not a series of carefully mixed sounds?  Combine that with the protagonist's increasingly unhinged style of playing and the antagonist's penchant for throwing things (all of which clatter spectacularly) and it's a wonder why its sound is only nominated for Mixing.

Safe Bet: Whiplash

Long Shot: Interstellar

Longer Shot: American Sniper

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