Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations introduced January 17, 2025. Ultimate voting is February 11-18, 2025. And eventually, the 97th Oscars telecast will probably be broadcast on Sunday, March 2, and air dwell on ABC at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT. We replace our picks all through awards season, so hold checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.
The State of the Race
The Finest Sound Oscar shortlist from December 17 consists of “Alien: Romulus,” “Blitz,” “A Full Unknown,” “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Dune: Half Two,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Gladiator II,” “Joker: Folie à Deux,” ““Depraved” and “The Wild Robotic.”
The checklist leans closely towards musicals (“Depraved,” “Emilia Pérez,” “A Full Unknown,” “Joker: Folie à Deux”), and even “Blitz” has musical performances amidst the aerial bombing destruction. Then there’s the sci-fi motion of “Dune: Half Two,” “Alien: Romulus,” and “The Wild Robotic,” the superhero antics of “Deadpool & Wolverine, and the wild Colosseum battles in “Gladiator II.”
The anticipated favorites are “Depraved” (Common), “A Full Unknown” (Searchlight Footage), “Dune: Half Two” (Warner Bros.), “Gladiator II” (Paramount), and “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix).
In “Depraved,” Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, we get the unlikely friendship between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Galinda (Ariana Grande), who finally change into the Depraved Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch. The sound workforce included supervising sound editor/sound designer/re-recording sound mixer John Marquis, supervising sound editor/sound designer Nancy Nugent-Title, Oscar-winning re-recording mixer Andy Nelson (“Les Miserables”), manufacturing sound mixer Simon Hayes, and supervising music editor Jack Dolman. The “Defying Gravity” climax is the centerpiece during which Alphaba flies away on her broomstick. All through the movie, the entire solo musical performances had been recorded dwell on-set (permitting dialogue supply to develop naturally into track). However for this sequence, Erivo sang whereas flying on wires with silent wind centered on her cape.
“A Full Unknown,” James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, chronicles the people star’s rise in New York’s West Village in 1961 to the controversial 1965 Newport People Pageant, the place he turned electrical. The sound workforce dealing with the musical performances was led by Oscar-winning supervising sound editor Donald Sylvester (“Ford v Ferrari”), re-recording sound mixer Paul Massey and manufacturing mixer Tod A. Maitland. The various musical performances (in golf equipment, on the Newport People Pageant, in recording studios) had been carried out primarily dwell on-set, on the insistence of Chalamet, who spent 5 years getting ready for the half. The 22-minute Newport phase was shot from starting to finish with 20 mics.
In “Dune: Half Two,” Oscar-winning supervising sound editor/sound designer Richard King (“Dunkirk,” “Inception”) reunited with re-recording mixers Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill and labored with director Denis Villeneuve for the primary time. “Dune” received the sound Oscar, however the sequel was extra action-driven with a number of battles on Arrakis, in addition to the noise of Harkonnen crowds throughout the gladiator fights on Giedi Prime. Crucially, there have been many sand recordings within the area and on the foley stage, probably the most attention-grabbing of which had been low-end groans. Plus, the sandworms had been far more distinguished and required extra motion sounds within the sequel.
“Gladiator II,” Ridley Scott’s sequel to his Oscar winner, takes place twenty years later because the Roman Empire continues to implode. It issues Lucius (Paul Mescal), the previous inheritor to the Empire, pressured to enter the Colosseum as a ruthless gladiator in what turns into a political energy play engineered by former slave-turned-merchant Macrinus (Denzel Washington). Dealing with the action-packed sound design had been supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Matthew Collinge, supervising sound editor Danny Sheehan, and Oscar-winning re-recording mixer Paul Massey (“Bohemian Rhapsody”). The highlights embrace designing battle appears like an orchestra, creating sounds of a Rhino and baboons, recording personalized arrows, and delivering the immerse crowds on the Colosseum.
“Emilia Pérez,” the musical crime thriller from Jacques Audiard, stars Zoe Saldaña as a lawyer who assists the titular Mexican cartel chief (Karla Sofía Gascón) in present process gender affirmation surgical procedure. Shot on levels in Paris to emulate Mexico Metropolis, the director audaciously affords an operatic fever dream concerning the hope of a brand new life by way of track and dance. The musical sequences had been dwell and pre-recorded and flowed naturally from dialogue to track in hybrid trend. A standout is “El Alegato,” Saldaña’s opening protest quantity within the market. Supervising sound editor Aymeric Devoldère dealt with the essential musical numbers with re-recording sound mixer Cyril Holtzm, who created a brand new vocal software to stylize and modulate Gascón’s singing performances.
Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” (Apple TV+) explores the harrowing German aerial assault on London throughout World Struggle II, specializing in the unimaginable journey of biracial teen George (Elliott Heffernan) to make his manner again house to East London after being evacuated to the countryside. Dealing with the myriad sounds of London throughout wartime, together with the loud, damaging bombings and flooding of the practice station, and the musical performances, is the sound workforce led by sound designer/supervising sound editor James Harrison and supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Paul Cotterell.
Fede Álvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” (twentieth Century Studios), a standalone set between “Alien” and “Aliens,” issues younger colonists who encounter the parasitic Xenomorphs whereas scavenging a derelict area station. Led by supervising sound editors Lee Gilmore and Will Recordsdata (additionally re-recording mixer), and sound designer Chris Terhune, the main focus was to recall the vibe of the primary two movies. A warbly tape impact was added to all the combine, and so they even repurposed tapes from “Alien” for area and ship sounds. The sounds of the Xenomorphs had been created with assistance from rotting meat and seafood.
“The Wild Robotic” (DreamWorks/Common), directed by Chris Sanders, is an animated sci-fi journey that finds robotic Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) washed ashore on an uninhabited island, who should adapt and dwell among the many animals. The sound workforce had the natural sounds of Roz and the island (together with a snowstorm), in addition to the battle with Roz’s firm. It was led by legendary sound designer Randy Thom (director of sound design at Skywalker Sound), supervising sound editor Brian Chumney, and supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Leff Lefferts.
Shawn Levy’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” (Marvel/Disney) reunites Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine for the primary time as a part of the R-rated “Deadpool” franchise throughout the MCU. The soundscape for the music-driven fights was led by supervising sound editors Craig Henighan (additionally re-recording mixer of results) and Ryan Cole, re-recording mixer Lora Hirschberg, and sound designer Eric A. Norris. The highlights embrace the Void, weapon sounds for the katana swords (made from adamantium) and claws, and recording a number of loop group for the “100 Deadpools” combat.
“Joker: Folie à Deux” (Warner Bros.), Todd Phillips’ musical thriller, picks up with Arthur/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) going through the demise penalty for a number of murders and placing up a delusional romance with Girl Gaga’s Harley Quinn whereas incarcerated in Arkham Asylum. Right here the sound workforce expanded on the deluded actuality and musical features of “Joker” with the intimacy and spectacle of dwell on-set musical performances by the 2 leads. It opens with the broad expanse of the jail hallway and will get extra dynamic and immersive from there. The soundscape was led by Oscar-winning sound designer/supervising sound editor Ethan Van der Ryn (“King Kong,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”), sound designer/supervising sound editor Erik Aadahl, and re-recording mixers Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic.
Potential nominees are listed in alphabetical order; no movie will probably be deemed a frontrunner till we’ve got seen it.
Frontrunners
“A Full Unknown”
“Dune: Half Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Gladiator II”
“Depraved”
Contenders
“Alien: Romulus”
“Blitz”
“Deadpool & Wolverine”
“Joker: Folie à Deux”
“The Wild Robotic”