The Edge of the Frame

A new guild nomination, today. The Cinema Audio Society have released their annual short list of the five best audio mixes in film from 2010. Some strange choices here, or at least unexpected ones. This year, nearly every single nominee is a surefire contender for a Best Picture nomination at the Oscar. One has to wonder where films like “TRON: Legacy” or “Iron Man 2” are, or for that matter, certain animated films such as “How to Train Your Dragon” or “Toy Story 3.”

Here are the nominees:

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing
“Black Swan” (Ken Ishii; Dominick Tavella, Craig Henighan)
“Inception” (Ed Novick; Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo)
“Shutter Island” (Petur Hliddal; Tom Fleishman)
“The Social Network” (Mark Weingarten; Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick)
“True Grit” (Peter F. Kurland; Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff)

For sure, the most pleasant surprises are “Shutter Island” and “The Social Network.” While the sound design in “The Social Network” is phenomenal (especially in in opening bar scene with Rooney Mara and the later club scene with Justin Timberlake), I am mostly just glad that it has hit every guild thus far, showing that it has a lot of support headed into the Oscars. For sure, the most disappointing nomination here, in my opinion is “True Grit.” The action scenes just didn’t pop well enough for me and the music  became highly distracting. While I haven’t seen “TRON Legacy,” yet, I have heard nothing but raves over its sound design and is surely far more deserving than the Coen Brothers’ film.

While “Inception” is definitely the likely favorite here for the win (deservedly), I would not be surprised if “Black Swan” swooped in and stole this one away.