FINAL 2023 Oscar Nomination Predictions: SOUND
With the two sound guilds – Cinema Audio Society (CAS) and Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) – chiming in with their nominations, plus the BAFTA longlist, we have a very contentious fight for five spots that used to be 10 when this category was split into two.
Four films on the Oscar shortlist for Sound have hit CAS and MPSE plus landed on the BAFTA longlist: All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick. For Pinocchio, it landed its CAS nom in the animated section vs live action for the rest. Not a big deal but in the days of sound being editing and mixing categories, animated films often showed up in one or the other, and sometimes both, but as a single category now might prove more difficult.
Everything Everywhere All At Once made a big splash at MPSE with the most nominations (3) but then got blipped by CAS, which has a single category for its live action sound award. Can it find its way into Oscar’s top five ahead of one those contenders? The sound branch loves the sound of war and All Quiet‘s massive performance with the Oscar shortlists and BAFTA probably shouldn’t be ignored. The cacophony of Babylon feels right there too (but why did it miss all categories at MPSE?), or even the aural splendor of the David Bowie doc Moonage Dream. Music docs have gotten in here before and last year’s Documentary Feature winner, the archival concert film Summer of Soul, didn’t even make the shortlist cut.
There are 549 members in the Sound branch, down one from last year, which means it will take 92 votes to secure a nomination.
Oscar nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 24. Here are my final 2023 Oscar nomination predictions in Sound.
| 1. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures) – BAFTA, CAS, MPSE (2x) |
| 2. Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios) – BAFTA, CAS, MPSE |
| 3. Elvis (Warner Bros) – BAFTA, CAS, MPSE (2x) |
| 4. All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix) – BAFTA, CAS, MPSE |
| 5. Everything Everywhere All At Once – MPSE (3x) |
| 6. The Batman (Warner Bros) – CAS, MPSE (2x) |
| 7. Babylon (Paramount Pictures) |
| 8. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix) – CAS, MPSE |
| 9. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Walt Disney/Marvel Studios) |
| 10. Moonage Dream (NEON) – CAS |
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTRESS (November) - November 20, 2024
- ‘Sugarcane,’ ‘Soundtrack to A Coup d’Etat’ Lead 40th IDA Documentary Awards Nominations - November 20, 2024
- AwardsWatch Partners with Vision Media to Revolutionize the Awards Season Experience - November 20, 2024
2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTRESS (November) 
‘Sugarcane,’ ‘Soundtrack to A Coup d’Etat’ Lead 40th IDA Documentary Awards Nominations 
AwardsWatch Partners with Vision Media to Revolutionize the Awards Season Experience 
Interview: ‘The Substance’ Special Makeup Effects Designer Pierre-Olivier Persin on Transforming Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley into a Funhouse of Horror and Using 4,000 Gallons of Blood