OVP: Best Sound Editing (2001)
The Nominees Were...
Gary Rydstrom & Michael Silvers, Monsters, Inc.
George Watters II & Christopher Boyes, Pearl Harbor
My Thoughts: For years, categories like Sound Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, and even Song were random numbers of nominations. Some years they were 2, occasionally three, in 2010 it was somehow just four (and that year would've been the perfect year to give Diane Warren an Oscar, for what it's worth). No year stands out as odder, though, than looking at the 2001 Best Sound Editing nominations. As a result of only having two nominees, you're missing The Fellowship of the Ring, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Shrek, AI: Artificial Intelligence, and Black Hawk Down, all of whom might win in a normal year. We will correct this with the My Ballot (I have a uniform five for all of the tech categories there for each year), but for now, we just have two movies to get through.
Let's start with Monsters, Inc, which was the first of what would be a long history of Pixar doing well in the sound categories for the aughts. I think sound for animation occasionally feels weird for Mixing, but for Editing it makes total sense (because, well, on some level it's all editing as it's putting sound into the film itself). This one is so playful with the gadgetry of the titular corporation's headquarters, and the variations in the screams themselves. I could've used a little more personality in the scenes not at the factory, but that's a small slice of the movie-overall this was Oscar thinking outside the box (at least in 2001), and I'm all for it.
Pearl Harbor is a mixed blessing for me. The aerial fights are strong when it comes to its sound editing-I think there's so much CGI here it'd be really easy for it to feel off, but the bullets & plane battles for the time are solid, and are where this nomination happened. I will say that the entire romance angle feels like it's phoning this category in, and while supporting effects are a perfectly legit reason to nominate a movie, I kind of want it to be spectacular given what other options we had here, so I'm fine with this nomination, but Oscar should've done better.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Reel Awards split their categories between live-action & animated. Live action went with Black Hawk Down, atop AI: Artificial Intelligence, Jurassic Park III, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes, Spy Game, The Mummy Returns, & The Fast and the Furious, while animated went to Atlantis: The Lost Empire (man do I miss the days when tech awards had crazy seasons like this) against Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Monsters, Inc., Osmosis Jones, and Shrek. We do know the finalists this year for Oscar, which were AI, Amelie (huh?), Black Hawk Down, The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Fast and the Furious, and there is no way you can convince me third place wasn't Fellowship.
Films I Would Have Nominated: In what universe do you skip Lord of the Rings for a nomination here? I mean...come on now-this should've been an easy statue.
Oscar’s Choice: With Peter Jackson out of the way, Pearl Harbor took its only Oscar in 2001 despite at one-time being billed as the "next Titanic."
My Choice: It's an easy call for the innovative sounds of Monsters Inc over the "haven't we done this already?" choice of Pearl Harbor.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Do you want to side with the dewy-eyed epic that Oscar selected, or are you willing to get a bit more playful with Sully, Mike, & I? Where the hell is Fellowship of the Ring in this lineup? And how did Amelie get shortlisted instead of Harry Potter? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Also in 2001: Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2001
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