This week saw two groups weighing in with some nominations that may help some of you get a better grip on some of the below-the-line tech awards as you begin filling out your Oscar predictions. Both the Visual Effects Society (VES) and Cinema Audio Society (CAS) and both offer very little in terms of surprises. First let’s take a look at those from CAS and I’ll begin by offering a pair of audio features courtesy of the SoundWorks Collection.
I originally previewed the sound feature below for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen back on December 31 and it is quite fascinating if you haven’t watched it yet, and the latest one for Star Trek is just as interesting.
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Star Trek |
I think the obvious name that many will also turn to is Avatar, but I would never count out The Hurt Locker in this category either as that is a film that takes supreme advantage of the use of sound. Below are the nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing as named by the Cinema Audio Society.
- Avatar
Re-recording mixers: Chris Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson
Production mixer: Tony Johnson - District 9
Re-recording mixers: Michael Hedges, Gilbert Lake
Production mixer: Ken Saville - The Hurt Locker
Re-recording mixer: Paul N.J. Ottosson
Production mixer: Ray Beckett - Star Trek
Re-recording mixers: Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson
Production mixer: Peter J. Devlin - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Re-recording mixers: Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers
Production mixer: Geoffrey Patterson
The complete list of nominees, including television, can be viewed right here (downloadable .PDF). The Awards will be presented at a sealed envelope dinner on February 27th.
Next we come to the VES Award, which Avatar led with 11 nominations followed by Coraline with four while Weta Digital was the most nominated company with nine noms. Avatar is the obvious choice here and for those of you that haven’t done so yet, just below is the 22-minute behind-the-scenes featurette for Avatar that Yahoo debuted this week.
It’s a long video, but if you were wondering how James Cameron and his effects team were able to finally get motion captured performances to emote while Robert Zemeckis has failed to do it three straight times, just fast forward to about the 11:30 mark and find out how they did. Also tell me if you now believe Zoe Saldana should be nominated for an Oscar or if it was all CGI.
With that said, here are the VES’s nominees for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Feature Motion Picture:
- 2012
- Avatar
- District 9
- Star Trek
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
The VES also hands out several additional awards, all of the nominees can be found here.
