AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 14th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. I’m drawing only from films that were either released or playing at a film festival in the 2020 calendar year. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Like the Oscars, I’m combining the sound and sound editing races this year. Click to see previous years of these two categories.

Honorable mentions:
Mank, News of the World, The Midnight Sky, Sky Raiders, Run

The winner:
Greyhound calibrated a captivating audial experience that amplified its isolated setting.

Other nominees:
Sound of Metal
Tenet
Ema
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the fourteenth category of the 13th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions:
None

The winner:
Avengers: Endgame masterfully combined so many superheroes and epic action sequences to create one unforgettable auditory experience.

Other nominees:
1917
Ford v Ferrari
Dolemite Is My Name
Wild Rose

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 12th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

*Fun note – this is one of just two categories in which my list matches up 100% with the Oscar list.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Annihilation, Avengers: Infinity War, Mary Poppins Returns, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

The winner:
Black Panther created a nation and a culture defined in part by the way it was heard.

Other nominees:
Bohemian Rhapsody
A Star is Born
First Man
Roma

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 11th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Land of Mine, The Shape of Water, The Space Between Us

The winner:
Blade Runner 2049 (Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mac Ruth) used its sound to tremendous effect in its depiction of character interactions and all the space and places between in its visually and aurally mesmerizing world.

Other nominees:
Baby Driver (Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater)
Dunkirk (Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo, Mark Weingarten)
The Fate of the Furious (Chris Giles, Frank A. Montaño, Whit Norris, Seva Solntsev, and
Jon Taylor)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Michael Semanick, David Parker, Stuart Wilson, Ren Klyce)

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 10th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Deadpool, Deepwater Horizon, Game of Aces, Hacksaw Ridge, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Jungle Book

The winner:
La La Land was defined by its sound, mixing marvelous music with the tune of a terrific romance.

Other nominees:
Arrival
Sully
Star Trek Beyond
Doctor Strange

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 9th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Mad Max: Fury Road, Sicario

The winner:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens blasted back into a galaxy far, far away with a terrific return to what was always one of the best things about its franchise: its spectacular sound.

Other nominees:
The Martian
‘71
The Revenant
The Hateful Eight

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 8th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Begin Again, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Into the Woods, Snowpiercer

The winner:
Interstellar did just what last year’s winner, “Gravity,” did, and set itself in space and proved to be a true audio adventure, but on a much grander and more ambitious scale.

Other nominees:
Birdman
Whiplash
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Unbroken

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 7th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
All is Lost

The winner:
Gravity set itself in space and proved to be a true audio adventure.

Other nominees:
Fast and Furious 6
Star Trek Into Darkness
Captain Phillips
Iron Man 3

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the eleventh category of the 6th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
The Amazing Spider-Man, Argo, Flight, Headhunters, Skyfall

The winner:
The Avengers brought together a handful of superheroes from other competent action films for one blockbuster that sounded great.

Other nominees:
The Dark Knight Rises
Zero Dark Thirty
Prometheus
Les Miserables

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 5th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
The Adjustment Bureau, Attack the Block, Captain America: The First Avenger, Cars 2, Hanna, Thor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, X-Men: First Class

The winner:
Fast Five was a well-oiled machine that supplemented all of its eye-popping visuals with spectacular sound.

Other nominees:
Drive
Super 8
The Adventures of Tintin
Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Alice in Wonderland, Daybreakers, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Micmacs, 127 Hours, Shutter Island

The winner:
Inception relied heavily on its audio-related elements to drive forward its story and sow its worlds together.

Other nominees:
Iron Man 2
District 13: Ultimatum
Lebanon
Knight and Day

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 3rd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

The winner:
Watchmen wove together a spectacular soundtrack with just the right noise to make this dystopian alternate reality seem real.

Other nominees:
Avatar
Fast & Furious
The Hurt Locker
District 9

AFT Awards: Best Sound

This is the thirteenth category of the 2nd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order.

The winner:
Wanted wisely emphasized sounds and score over dialogue and highlighted the fact that it was an action movie first and foremost.

Other nominees:
Body of Lies
Cloverfield
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

AFT Awards: Best Sound/Sound Editing

This is the eleventh and twelfth category of the 1st Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order by film title. Winners will be announced in late February.

**I have omitted descriptions for each of the nominees for a few categories because they have become repetitive. For some of my own invented categories, they will return.**

I have done my best to break down the nominees here into Best Sound and Best Sound Editing though this is not my strong point. I am leaving off runner-ups for these categories.

Best Sound
I AM LEGEND
SERAPHIM FALLS
SMOKIN’ ACES
SWEENEY TODD
THERE WILL BE BLOOD


Best Sound Editing
I AM LEGEND
THE KINGDOM
LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD
SERAPHIM FALLS
SMOKIN’ ACES