Today, we start our final week of Rundown articles. This week, we’ll cover the remaining categories for this year’s Oscars starting with today’s look at Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. Tomorrow, we’ll open up about our thoughts on the Best Editing prize. Following on Wednesday, we’ll look at Costume Design, then round out the week with Best Director on Thursday and Best Picture on Friday along with our final predictions for this coming weekend’s Oscars.

Sound Mixing

• Inception (O) (O) (O) (O)
• The King’s Speech
• Salt
• The Social Network
• True Grit

Runners-Up

• The Social Network (H) (H)
• True Grit (R) (H)

KEY:

Wesley Lovell: The True Grit win at the Cinema Audio Society was a bit of a surprise considering it wouldn’t have been one of my top two choices and certainly doesn’t seem like the kind of film with a notable sound mix. In the last ten years, only three times has CAS matched the Oscar result, so I wouldn’t use them as an accurate guide, though at least take their pick into consideration because those three times were within the last four years. Still, Inception just seems like the perfect match for Oscars here and unless True Grit is an actual Best Picture contender, Sound Mixing is probably out of its reach. After all, the last Coens film that won the CAS award failed to pick up the Oscar.

Peter J. Patrick: The most obvious choice.

Tripp Burton: Well-respected effects films tend to do the best here, whether Best Picture contenders like The Hurt Locker or critically praised action films like The Bourne Ultimatum. Inception falls under both categories, and should easily take the prize here. If it doesn’t, any of the three remaining Best Picture nominees could prove an upset, but I think True Grit’s western motifs would take the cake here, especially after its CAS award.

Sound Editing

• Inception (O) (O) (O) (O)
• Toy Story 3
• TRON Legacy
• True Grit
• Unstoppable

Runners-Up

• Toy Story 3 (H)
• TRON Legacy (N)
• True Grit (H)
• Unstoppable (H)

KEY:

Wesley Lovell: The Motion Picture Sound Editors’ Golden Reel Awards have a better track record at the Oscars than the Cinema Audio Society with 5 of the last ten years matching. In addition, out of the four times a film won two Golden Reel Awards, three of them have also picked up the Oscar. But sometimes a Best Picture juggernaut can thwart an otherwise safe bet. Still, I don’t see anything like that happening here and Inception should easily win the day.

Peter J. Patrick: The most obvious choice.

Tripp Burton: This is the category where the loudest film tends to do the best, and if that film is also a Best Picture nominee so much the better. Inception should win this in a cakewalk, but Toy Story 3 could pose itself to be the first Pixar film to win this category in 6 years.