94th Annual Academy Awards Roundup: Part 2: Visuals, Sound, and Music
Last week, I broke down the 94th Annual Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Acting, and Best Screenplay categories in comparison to the 2021 Sketchy’s. Today, we’re continuing with Visuals, Sound, and Music categories.
I will get to Short Films, Documentary, Animated, and International films soon, but that requires a bit more research to write confidently on.
Cinematography
Greg Fraser, Dune
Dan Lausten, Nightmare Alley
Ari Wegner, The Power of the Dog
Bruno Delbonnel, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Janusz Kaminski, West Side Story
I shared two nominations with the Oscars: Ari Wegner for The Power of the Dog and Bruno Delbonnel for The Tragedy of Macbeth. I think this is a strong group of nominees. What you’ll see in a lot of categories is that I didn’t really fall in love with Dune or Nightmare Alley. They’re not bad films. They just weren’t my favorites. I also struggled with West Side Story because of casting reasons and didn’t really want to put a lot of effort into examining it.
Of my other nominees, Passing probably came the closest since it received any nominations/wins for Cinematography throughout awards season. It also wasn’t really in the discussion for this prize. Again, Ruth Negga became the rallying point, with Rebecca Hall also getting attention for new director prizes.
This feels like another category where The Power of the Dog is going to be the presumptive winner. Westerns historically do well in this category. The Tragedy of Macbeth really pays tribute to that gorgeous German Expressionism style, so I could see it taking the prize here, too.
Costume Design
Jenny Beavan, Cruella
Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran, Cyrano
Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan, Dune
Luis Sequeira, Nightmare Alley
Paul Tazelwell, West Side Story
I shared two nominations with the Oscars: Jenny Beavan for Cruella and Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan for Dune. It’s a good sleight of nominations. Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran being nominated for Cyrano is a surprise only because Jacqueline Durran did receive a lot of attention for her excellent costume work in Spencer.
I went very contemporary with my own nominees this year. Eight of my 10 nominees are contemporary films, with Encanto technically being set in the ambiguous past and Dune being set in the future. None of my other nominees were realistically in the Oscar discussion. Annette was nominated for the César awards for Costume Design and that’s about it.
Cruella is going to win this, right? Look at the material. Literally.
Film Editing
Hank Corwin, Don’t Look Up
Joe Walker, Dune
Pamela Martin, King Richard
Peter Sciberras, The Power of the Dog
Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum, tick, tick…BOOM!
I only share one nominee for the Oscars in the category: Peter Sciberras for The Power of the Dog. The Academy didn’t go for super flashy “look at my editing” this year, which is a nice change. I can’t complain about the nominees, either. It’s a good group. I thought Drive My Car would be the surprise nominee, not tick, tick…BOOM!, but I’ll take it.
Of my own nominees, it’s hard to say who came closest. Encanto was nominated for the American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards, but in the Animated Feature category. The Novice made the cut at the Independent Spirit Awards. Every other nominee wasn’t really in the discussion. I imagine Drive My Car or The Tragedy of Macbeth came the closest since they did receive nominations in other categories, but other precursor and critics awards suggest otherwise.
There are three ways this could realistically go based on the past few years. If the Academy is all in for another Adam McKay film, Don’t Look Up takes Editing. If the Academy likes The Power of the Dog overall, it wins the award here. If the Academy wants to recognize a very well made grand film with a lot of moving pieces, Dune takes it. I’d vote for tick, tick…BOOM! because it’s an option I hadn’t really considered, but I will be shocked if it actually wins.
Makeup & Hairstyling
Mike Marino, Stacey Morris, and Carla Farmer, Coming 2 America
Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne, and Julia Vernon, Cruella
Donald Mowat, Love Larson, and Eva von Bahr, Dune
Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram, and Justin Raleigh, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock, and Frederic Aspiras, House of Gucci
I share two nominees with the Oscars, which is pretty good for me this year: Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne, and Julia Vernon for Cruella and Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram, and Justin Raleigh for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The Suicide Squad, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story, No Time to Die, and Cyrano were the only other possible nominees because of the preliminary ballot in this category.
None of my other nominees made the short list. Titane and Candyman were the only films with any major awards traction at all and it wasn’t really for this category. Titane did win the European Film Awards prize for Hair & Makeup Artist, and I’m sure some of those voters are also in the Academy Awards voting pool for this category.
Makeup & Hairstyling is one of the most unpredictable categories at the Oscars. Remember, Suicide Squad won in 2016 and its sequel missed out entirely. Meanwhile, Coming to America was nominated back in 1988 and its sequel made the cut here.
Cruella could take it if they like extravagance this year. The Eyes of Tammy Faye or House of Gucci wins if they want to reward full body character transformations. Dune wins if they want to honor Dune, which isn’t sarcasm. The Academy sometimes concentrates all these technical prizes around one film they really like the aesthetics of (think Avatar or Pan’s Labyrinth or Mad Max: Fury Road). And Coming 2 America wins if they want something more realistic with excellent hair and beauty makeup this year. You can find multiple winners that look just like all these nominees since Makeup became a nominated category in 1981. We’re seeing the breadth of the category here minus the occasional pull for CGI makeup ala The Wolfman.
Production Design
Patrice Vermette and Zsuzsanna Sipos, Dune
Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau, Nightmare Alley
Grant Major and Amber Richards, The Power of the Dog
Stefan Dechant and Nancy Haigh, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Adam Stockhausen and Rena DeAngelo, West Side Story
I share one nominee with the Oscars: Stefan Dechant and Nancy Haigh for The Tragedy of Macbeth. I think this is a good category, though I would argue this is maybe the one technical category The Power of the Dog could’ve missed on. The Production Design is good in that film, but not as memorable as other potential nominees.
Of my own nominees, Candyman was nominated for Contemporary Feature Film and Encanto was nominated for Animated Feature Film at the Art Directors Guild Awards. Saint Maud made the cut at the British Independent Film Awards and tick, tick...BOOM! made the cut for Comedy or Musical at the Set Decorators Society of America Awards.
What you’ll consistently see at most awards is nominations or wins for Dune in this category. That feels like a pretty safe bet. Super immersive sci-fi on a grand scale does well here. If they really want a victory lap for The Power of the Dog, it’ll take this prize. The Academy has been spreading the wins out more recently, so I’m not sold this is the year we go back to one film dominating every category.
Sound
Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather, and Niv Adiri, Belfast
Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, and Ron Bartlett, Dune
Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey, and Mark Taylor, No Time to Die
Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie, and Tara Webb, The Power of the Dog
Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Adam Nelson, and Shawn Murphy, West Side Story
In a year filled with possible musical nominees, I only share one nomination with the Oscars: Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie, and Tara Webb for The Power of the Dog. What can I say? That film has great Sound.
It’s really hard to discuss Sound since the switch from two categories to one only happened at the last ceremony. Sound Mixing is actually layering the sound together, which is where recognition for musicals with crystal clear lyrics, quiet indie dramas where you don’t miss a breath, and loud action-filled war movies with intelligible dialogue land. Sound Editing is the creation of the sound effects, which is the realm of the genre film, the war film, and the animated film.
Those two broad categories can be easily broken down into even more categories specific to music, dialogue, ADR, effects, and more. Slamming all of this together because the categories overlapped is a disservice to two very different skill sets. It’s the equivalent of saying “all short films are short films, so they get one category now.”
I digress.
Of my own nominees, Encanto received Cinema Audio Society Award and the Motion Picture Sound Editors’ Golden Reel Award nominations for Animated film. tick, tick…BOOM! and In the Heights both received nominations for Sound Editing – Feature – Music from the Golden Reel Awards. Titane was nominated for Sound Editing – Foreign Language Feature. My guess is tick, tick…BOOM! came close in quite a few categories but only broke through in Editing and Best Actor.
Not to be snarky, but the loudest film tends to win here. Congratulations, No Time to Die.
Visual Effects
Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer, Dune
Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis, and Dan Sudick, Free Guy
Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner, and Chris Corbould, No Time to Die
Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker, and Dan Oliver, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein, and Dan Sudick, Spider-Man: No Way Home
This is the category where I have the most overlap with the Oscars. Three of my nominees made the list: Free Guy, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Neither of my winners made the list, but very indie horror films dealing with issues of global consumerism and generational trauma don’t tend to light the Oscars on fire. Dune and No Time to Die are great choices, as well. I just went in for superheroes and innovative monster design this year.
This category also has a preliminary ballot, so Godzilla vs. Kong, The Matrix Resurrections, Ghostbusters Afterlife, Black Widow, and Eternals missed out.
Of my other nominees, Eternals was on the preliminary ballot for the category. Beyond that, Candyman did make the nominations for Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature at the Visual Effects Society Awards. Meanwhile, Encanto received six nominations there, including nominations in categories open to animated and live action films. Encanto probably came closer, but only three fully animated films have ever been nominated at the Oscars for Visual Effects: The Nightmare Before Christmas, Kubo and the Two Strings, and The Lion King (2019).
This is another category that can be hard to predict. I think Dune takes it because it made the cut for Best Picture, but this is also a category where more is more, which leads me to Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Best Score
Nicholas Britell, Don’t Look Up
Hans Zimmer, Dune
Germaine Franco, Encanto
Alberto Iglesias, Parallel Mothers
Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog
I share three nominations with the Oscars: Germaine Franco for Encanto, Alberto Iglesias for Parallel Mothers, and Hans Zimmer for Dune. Different people listen for different things in Original Score. I’ll be honest and say I can’t recall the music in Don’t Look Up or The Power of the Dog. That does not make it bad. It just didn’t stand out for me.
This category also had a preliminary ballot, meaning The French Dispatch, Being the Ricardos, The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Harder They Fall, The Last Duel, King Richard, No Time to Die, The Green Knight, Candyman, and Spencer all came close to nominations.
Of my nominees, that means Candyman and The Tragedy of Macbeth came the closest since they made the preliminary ballot. Realistically, my other nominees weren’t close here. Anette was a more likely contender in Original Song than Score, which always baffles me that there isn’t more crossover between the two categories when musicals are specifically written for the screen. Those songs are part of the score. Flames. Flames on the side of my face.
I digress.
I can see Encanto sweeping the Music categories this year. I can also see Dune taking score because that music is so big and pronounced in the best ways throughout that film. The score is iconic enough that its grandiosity instantly became a meme.
Best Original Song
Beyonce Knowles-Carter and DIXSON, “Be Alive,” King Richard
Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Dos Origuitas,” Encanto
Van Morrison, “Down to Joy,” Belfast
Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, “No Time to Die,” No Time to Die
Diane Warren, “Somehow You Do,” Four Good Days
I share one nominee with the Oscars here: “No Time to Die.” That’s because the Oscars went for “Dos Origuitas” instead of…any other song in Encanto. Sorry. It’s a beautiful little ballad used well in the film, but any of those other songs in the film are masterpieces of contemporary musical writing and they go with the voiceover on a montage song. Boring.
The other songs that made the preliminary ballot but missed out are “Here I Am” from Respect, “Guns Go Bang” from The Harder They Fall, “So May We Start” from Annette, “Just Look Up” from Don’t Look Up, “Right Where I Belong” from Long Promised Road, “Beyond the Shore” from CODA, “Dream Girl” from Cinderella, “Automatic Woman” from Bruised, “Anonymous Ones” from Dear Evan Hansen, and “Your Song Saved My Life” from Sing 2.
The Academy chose not to release all the eligible songs this year, so we’ll never know if the incredible, paradigm shifting songs from Willy’s Wonderland were even eligible. Remember, horror musicals like Repo! The Genetic Opera, Anna and the Apocalypse, and The Devil’s Carnival all qualified for evaluation by the Original Song voters in the past. Anything is possible here, even qualifying for the preliminary ballot and then being disqualified the day before the nominees are announced. Or being nominated and unnominated. Original Song is chaos and it will always hold a special place in my heart.
Of my nominees, both “Beyond the Shore” from CODA and “So May We Start” from Annette made the preliminary ballot. I’m shocked “Beyond the Shore” didn’t get in since it’s essential to the film and they love nominating that kind of song in a tiny indie film. Bo Burnham Inside is getting some nominations and wins for its original songs, but it’s being submitted as a Television Movie, not a Feature Film, so its exclusion here isn’t surprising.
I will be shocked if Lin-Manuel Miranda doesn’t walk out with his EGOT this year. Watch this turn into Diane Warren finally winning on her 13th nomination instead..
The 94th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will air on 27 March 2022 on ABC.
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