It was a glorious night for the sound community as they gathered for The Motion Picture Sound Editors' 73rd Annual Golden Reel Awards, held at the historic Wilshire Ebel theater on Sunday, March 8th, where the creme de la creme honored their own for outstanding achievement in sound editing, sound design, music editing and Foley artistry for film, television and gaming.
Comedian/actor Patton Oswalt was on fire again as host for the fourth time, delivering a wide ranging set from Timothy Chalamet's recent comments on opera, to being a "nerd, geeking" with the honorees like legendary producer Kathleen Kennedy and sound master Mark Mangini. Overall, he "geeked" considerably on the invisible nature of sound editing while marveling at the technical artistry that defines their profession.
Oswalt's consistent vibe throughout the packed room was so relaxed and inviting. It set the tone for rest of the evening. In fact, he would come out and joke on the length of the show going over its time, which the crowd responded to and appreciated.
However, in the competitive film categories, several titles emerged as notable winners. Such was the case for Sinners, which took two awards, beating out One Battle After Another among others - one for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing for Feature Dialogue/ADR, the other for Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing - Feature Motion Picture.
The foreign film Sirât earned the prize for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing for an International Feature, while Zootopia 2 beat out favorite KPop Demon Hunters for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing for Feature Animation. Frankenstein won the Golden Reel for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing/Feature Effects/Foley.
Television projects were also firmly represented during the ceremony. The episode "Neverland" from Alien: Earth won for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing/Broadcast Long Form Effects/Foley, while the UK slice-of-life series Adolescence took home honors for Dialogue/ADR for its second episode. In the broadcast animation category, Netflix's surreal Love, Death + Robots won for the episode "400 Boys."
These guild ceremonies brought out a certain vibe of artistic camaraderie, where their acceptance speeches were not all about them, but, more so about their whole team of Foley artists, dialogue editors, re-recording mixers and assistants, whose work came together as a collective whole.
The two crowning moments of the show were the honorary awards that set the emotional centerpiece for the night. Legendary producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy received the Filmmaker Award from her long-time colleague/legendary sound meister himself, Ben Burtt, recognizing a career that has helped to define the term blockbuster filmmaking, which started with Steven Spielberg and grew to being a major part of Lucasfilm. Kennedy got such a standing ovation and reflected on what sound can do.
'Sound helps root the story," she shared. "It helps represent where characters are, not only geographically, but emotionally. It helps foreshadow the intent of a character or define what they're going through. In short, it takes the audience on the journey of the film."
And legendary supervising sound editor Mark Mangini was presented with the Career Achievement Award by long-standing friend, director Gavin O'Connor. The accolade honors Mangini's astounding body of work, which has helped redefine cinematic sound design to date, and most recently included work on Marty Supreme. Mangini, known affectionately in certain circles, as the 'Don of Sound,' is highly respected in the sound community, and spoke most heartfully about the collaborative nature of sound work and the many thousands of creative decisions that ultimately shape to what audiences hear and feel. With one closing bit of advice he mentioned, 'Help the up & comers - the young ones, because one day they'll be standing in your shoes.'
Overall, it was a grand night where these masters of their craft, behind the noise and indelible silence of this invisible art are being heard. And tonight sound stood loud and clear. It has a voice - and the entire room listened.