For our sixteenth Rundown article, we look at the category where sound is created out of whole cloth. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Sound Editing as well as general commentary about the race. Friday, we’ll cover a category where only men can be nominated and where there has never been a tie in voting.

Best Sound Editing

Winner Predictions

• Baby Driver (PP O)
• Blade Runner 2049
• Dunkirk (WL O) (TB O) (TL O)
• The Shape of Water
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Runner-Up Predictions

• Baby Driver (TB R) [New]
• Blade Runner 2049 (WL O) (TL O)
• Dunkirk (PP R) [New]

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Wesley Lovell: With Blade Runner 2049 winning the primary prize at the Motion Picture Sound Editors, it’s possible that the film will pull out a surprise win at the Oscars. However, Dunkirk fits the pattern of winners in this category more readily and Baby Driver might also be picking up some steam. Dunkirk won BAFTA’s general sound award, so I suspect Oscar voters will follow suit.
Peter J. Patrick: If they go with the most innovative, then Baby Driver has this in the bag. If they go with more traditional sounds, then Dunkirk would seem to have the best chance at this one.
Tripp Burton: The question here is whether Dunkirk holds on to win a bunch of tech awards, or will it go home almost empty-handed like at BAFTA this weekend. It only won Best Sound, but you also have the popular Baby Driver which could win Editing and both sounds, a la The Bourne Ultimatum a few years ago. Plus, after some surprises in the sound categories last year, it feels like anything is game. This is a surprisingly tough category.
Thomas La Tourrette: I do not know how often the guild award lines up with the Oscar, but Blade Runner 2049 won the major guild award which should make it the frontrunner here. That result surprised me as I would have expected Dunkirk to be dominating in this category. Both are to a point war pictures which do well here. It probably is a two-picture race, with a possible upset by Baby Driver in the works. Neither The Shape of Water nor Star Wars stand much of a chance of winning, which brings us back to Blade Runner and Dunkirk. Two years ago, Mad Max: Fury Road dominated the technical awards and it seemed likely that one of those two films might similarly dominate this year. That has not happened and it makes it harder to predict. My gut reaction is that the popular and well received Dunkirk will win this, but would not be surprised if Blade Runner ekes out the win.

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