This year marked the first year in recent memory that the Motion Picture Sound Editors offered up its list of nominees prior to the Oscar nominations announcement rather than after. Generally that batch of tea leaves is therefore elusive for those of us looking for indicators along the way.
Nevertheless, there wasn’t a huge shift in ideology form the mixing field to the editing field. Four films crossed over while the one that pushed through here certainly isn’t as deserving as the one that was nixed, but c’est la vie. I get the feeling there was some chummy autopilot voting going on there, but it’s a relatively solid batch of competitors anyway.
The nominees are:
“Avatar” (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
“The Hurt Locker” (Paul N.J. Ottosson)
“Inglourious Basterds” (Wylie Stateman)
“Star Trek” (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)
“Up” (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)