Academy Award for Sound Editing
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The Academy Award of Merit for Best Sound Editing is an Academy Award granted yearly to a film exhibiting the finest or most aesthetic sound editing or sound design. The award is usually received by the Supervising Sound Editors of the film, perhaps accompanied by the Sound Designers.
The Sound Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, like many of the other branches, selects its nominees at an informal gathering called the "Bake-Off" on the last Tuesday in the January following the qualifying year. At the sound Bake-Off, highlight reels of films submitted for nomination are screened in a controlled theater environment. The screening is generally open to the public, but only sound branch members may vote, and the only occasion the sound branch members have for voting is at the bake-off. The rules for balloting have been changed often, but voting involves giving each film a subjective numerical score, based on the quality of the highlight reel. The scores for each are averaged, and if a minimum of three films score above a threshold (often 7 out of 10), those films are passed on to the entire Academy for voting as the Nominees.
In some years, not enough films score above the threshold for official nomination, and in that case, no films are nominated for Best Sound Editing, and a "Special Achievement Award" (and not an Oscar) is granted to the highest-scoring film; when this has happened, it is indicated below.
This is a list of films that have won or been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects (1963-1967, 1975), Sound Effects Editing (1977, 1981-1999), or Sound Editing (1979, 2000-present). See Academy Award for Sound for a corresponding list of winners for Best Sound.
- 1963 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World -- Walter G. Elliott
- 1964 Goldfinger -- Norman Wanstall
- 1965 The Great Race -- Tregoweth Brown
- 1966 Grand Prix -- Gordon Daniel
- 1967 The Dirty Dozen -- John Poyner
- 1968 none given
- 1969 none given
- 1970 none given
- 1971 none given
- 1972 none given
- 1973 none given
- 1974 none given
- 1975 The Hindenburg -- Peter Berkos (Special Achievement Award)
- 1976 none given
- 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- Frank E. Warner (Special Achievement Award)
- 1978 none given
- 1979 The Black Stallion -- Alan Splet (Special Achievement Award)
- 1980 none given
- 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark -- Ben Burtt, Richard L. Anderson (Special Achievement Award)
- 1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial -- Charles L. Campbell, Ben Burtt
- 1983 The Right Stuff -- Jay Boekelheide
- 1984 The River -- Kay Rose (Special Achievement Award)
- 1985 Back to the Future -- Charles L. Campbell, Robert Rutledge
- 1986 Aliens -- Don Sharpe
- 1987 RoboCop -- Stephen Flick, John Pospisil (Special Achievement Award)
- 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit -- Charles L. Campbell, Louis L. Edemann
- 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- Ben Burtt, Richard Hymns
- 1990 The Hunt for Red October -- Cecelia Hall, George Watters II
- 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day -- Gary Rydstrom, Gloria S. Borders
- Backdraft -- Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country -- George Watters II, F. Hudson Miller
- 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula -- Tom C. McCarthy, David E. Stone
- 1993 Jurassic Park -- Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns
- 1994 Speed -- Stephen Hunter Flick
- 1995 Braveheart -- Lon Bender, Per Hallberg
- 1996 The Ghost and the Darkness -- Bruce Stambler
- 1997 Titanic -- Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes
- 1998 Saving Private Ryan -- Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns
- 1999 The Matrix -- Dane A. Davis
- 2000 U-571 -- Jon Johnson
- 2001 Pearl Harbor -- George Watters II, Christopher Boyes
- 2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers -- Ethan Van der Ryn, Michael Hopkins
- 2003 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World -- Richard King
- 2004 The Incredibles -- Michael Silvers and Randy Thom