CAS and MPSE Golden Reel Awards Preview

As we head into the last week of Oscars season for 2016-2017, there is a final trio of final guild awards this weekend to be announced from the Writers Guild, the Cinema Audio Society (CAS), and the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) Golden Reel Awards. The latter two are important precursors for the Oscar races in the sound mixing and sound editing categories, respectively, so let’s take a deeper dive, shall we?

Before we begin, let’s review about the difference between sound mixing and sound editing, which many still often confuse or cannot tell the difference. Sound mixing is about integrating and layering the many different audio components of a film: e.g., the musical score and soundtrack, the dialogue, the sound effects. Sound editing is the creation and recording of sound effects, from gunshots and explosions to more mundane (Foley) effects like doors closing or footsteps. There are a good number of ways one can use to demonstrate this contrast, but I always tend to fall back on using an orchestra analogy – sound editors are like the musicians while the sound mixers are like conductors: the musicians create and perform the music, while the conductor attempts to harmonize and balance all the instrumental sections during the performance.

The CAS is one of the two main precursor awards for sound mixing, along with the BAFTA. The CAS has a so-so track record of matching with Oscar, however – it has only matched six times in the past 10 years, and missed last year by going with The Revenant over Mad Max: Fury Road. This year’s CAS nominees are:

Doctor Strange
Hacksaw Ridge*
La La Land* – predicted winner
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story*
Sully

Only three of the five CAS nominees are nominated for sound mixing – Doctor Strange and Sully were replaced by Arrival and 13 Hours at the Oscars. La La Land should have no problems picking up this award en route to a sound mixing win given its status as the musical Best Picture frontrunner. But if the CAS decides to veer off again, I can certainly see them giving their award to Hacksaw Ridge.

As for the MPSE, they give out multiple Golden Reel awards for sound editing in different categories, including sound editing for musicals and documentaries as well as dialogue/ADR and music editing. For our purposes, the MPSE award that crosses over with the sound editing Oscar is the “Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film” award, the winner of which has gone on to also win the Oscar eight times in the past 10 years. This year’s nominees in that category are:

Arrival*
Captain America: Civil War
Deadpool
Deepwater Horizon*
Doctor Strange
Hacksaw Ridge* – predicted winner
The Jungle Book
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Like with CAS, only three of these MPSE nominees were nominated for sound editing: Arrival, Deepwater Horizon, and Hacksaw Ridge. They are joined by La La Land (which became the first musical to be nominated for sound editing) and Sully at the Oscars.

War films historically have had the advantage in a sound editing race, so I do believe Hacksaw Ridge is the favorite to win both the MPSE and the Oscar. However, given that the sound branch elected to give La La Land a sound editing nomination and the fact that many voters still don’t know the difference between sound mixing and editing and just check off a film for both, it’s entirely possible that La La Land wins both sound Oscars en route to its Best Picture win next week.

The CAS announces tonight, while the MPSE Golden Reels will be tomorrow (Sunday, February 18). Stay tuned for the winners!