Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (Warner Bros.) won the marquee live-action feature honor for Best Sound Mixing at the 54th Annual Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Awards held Saturday night (2/24) in Los Angeles. The audio team recognized for its efforts on Dunkirk consists of production mixer Mark Weingarten, CAS; re-recording mixers Gregg Landaker and Gary Rizzo, CAS; scoring mixer Alan Meyerson, CAS; ADR mixer Thomas J. O’Connell; and Foley mixer Scott Curtis.
In his acceptance remarks, Landaker reflected on a career spanning 47 years and counting, along with some 200-plus feature soundtracks thus far. He thanked Warner Bros. for giving him “a home.” Colleague Rizzo, CAS, said his career aspirations began to formulate in the early 1980s when as a youngster he saw Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he pointed out were films for which Landaker won Best Sound Oscars. Rizzo affirmed that to now be working with Landaker has been a surreal dream come true. (Landaker won a third Oscar for Speed in 1995 and is currently in the running for a fourth with Dunkirk.)
Dunkirk topped a field of CAS Award-nominated films which also included Baby Driver, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Shape of Water and Wonder Woman. All but Wonder Woman are nominated for this year's Best Sound Mixing Oscar. The remaining Academy Award contender in that category is Blade Runner 2049.
Coco (Disney-Pixar) earned CAS Award distinction in the Animated Film category while Jane (National Geographic) took the Feature Documentary honor.
The CAS Award winners in television were HBO’s Game of Thrones (TV Series-1 Hour), Silicon Valley (TV Series-1/2 Hour) and Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge (TV Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Series or Specials), and Netflix’s Black Mirror (TV Movie or Miniseries).
Special honors
While Darkest Hour was not nominated for a CAS Award, its director, Joe Wright, was honored with the CAS Filmmaker Award for a body of work which also includes Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna, The Soloist, Anna Karenina and Pan. Presenting him with the honor were director Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) and sound mixer Craig Berkey who first collaborated years ago with Joe Wright on Chanel commercials in London and then on features with The Soloist, Hanna, Anna Karenina, Pan and Darkest Hour. Berkey noted that Wright is a director who truly knows the importance of sound in storytelling and makes it a priority from the outset. Berkey said Wright is thinking about sound and picture in tandem the whole time he is reading a script.
Accepting the CAS Filmmaker Award, Wright described Berkey as “my mixing mind reader.” Wright also cited the contributions of Becki Ponting whom he said has served as “dialogue editor on every film and TV show I’ve ever done over the past 18 years.”
The CAS Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon Anna Behlmer, a renowned re-recording mixer who has 10 career Oscar nominations–for Star Trek in 2010, Blood Diamond in 2007, War of the Worlds in 2006, The Last Samurai in 2004, Seabiscuit in 2003, Moulin Rouge in 2002, The Thin Red Line in 1999), L.A. Confidential in 1998, Evita in 1997, and Braveheart in 1996. With Braveheart, Behlmer became the first woman to garner a Best Sound Oscar nomination. Among those presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to Behlmer, whose roost is Technicolor, was her frequent collaborator, producer Paula Wagner.
Wagner noted that Behlmer has pioneered a path for women in sound. The producer credited Behlmer with not only “breaking the glass ceiling” but also “breaking the sound barrier.”
CAS also introduced the Edward J. Greene Award for the Advancement of Sound, named after the late revered production sound mixer known for his innovation and for mixing some of the most highly regarded music, variety and award shows in the history of television. Tomlinson Holman Cass received the inaugural Greene Award. Like Greene, Cass too is an innovator and mentor. At Lucasfilm, he created a breakthrough cinema sound system which George Lucas named THX after Tomlinson’s first two initials and the critical cross(X)over electronics which the audio engineer invented.
Here’s a rundown of the CAS Award category winners:
THE 54th CAS AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING and OUTSTANDING PRODUCTS FOR 2017
MOTION PICTURE – LIVE ACTION
Dunkirk
Production Mixer – Mark Weingarten, CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Gregg Landaker
Re-recording Mixer – Gary Rizzo, CAS
Scoring Mixer – Alan Meyerson, CAS
ADR Mixer – Thomas J. O’Connell
Foley Mixer – Scott Curtis
MOTION PICTURE—ANIMATED
Coco
Original Dialogue Mixer – Vince Caro
Re-recording Mixer – Christopher Boyes
Re-recording Mixer – Michael Semanick
Scoring Mixer – Joel Iwataki
Foley Mixer – Blake Collins
MOTION PICTURE—DOCUMENTARY
Jane
Production Mixer – Lee Smith
Re-recording Mixer – David E. Fluhr, CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Warren Shaw
Scoring Mixer – Derek Lee
ADR Mixer – Chris Navarro, CAS
Foley Mixer – Ryan Maguire
TELEVISION MOVIE or MINISERIES
Black Mirror: USS Callister
Production Mixer – John Rodda, CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Tim Cavagin
Re-recording Mixer – Dafydd Archard
Re-recording Mixer – William Miller
ADR Mixer – Nick Baldock
Foley Mixer – Sophia Hardman
TELEVISION SERIES – 1 HOUR
Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall
Production Mixer – Ronan Hill, CAS
Production Mixer – Richard Dyer, CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Onnalee Blank, CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Mathew Waters, CAS
Foley Mixer – Brett Voss, CAS
TELEVISION SERIES – 1/2 HOUR
Silicon Valley: Episode 9 ‘Hooli-Con’
Production Mixer – Benjamin A. Patrick, CAS
Re-recording Mixer – Elmo Ponsdomenech
Re-recording Mixer – Todd Beckett
TELEVISION NON-FICTION, VARIETY or MUSIC SERIES or SPECIALS
Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge
Production Mixer – David Hocs
Production Mixer – Tom Tierney
Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Fleischman, CAS
OUTSTANDING PRODUCT – PRODUCTION
Mix Pre- 10T Recorder
Manufacturer: Sound Devices
OUTSTANDING PRODUCT – POST-PRODUCTION
RX 6 Advanced
Manufacturer: iZotope, Inc.
STUDENT RECOGNITION AWARD
Xing Li
Chapman University – Orange, Calif.
