Oscars: ‘Ford v Ferrari’ Races to Sound Editing Award, ‘1917’ Grabs Mixing Statuette

There was a split in the sound categories this year, with James Mangold’s racing drama Ford v Ferrari topping the sound editing category and Sam Mendes’ World War I drama 1917 winning the sound mixing trophy Sunday at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Twentieth Century Studios’ Ford v Ferrari, which recreated 1966’s 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France, delivered the first Oscar nomination and first win for supervising sound editor Donald Sylvester.

Universal’s 1917 — made to appear as one uninterrupted take — brought the first win to rerecording mixer Mark Taylor, who had two prior nominations, and production sound mixer Stuart Wilson, who had six prior nominations.

This is the third time in the past six years that the two sound awards went to different films, still there has been talk about the merging of sound editing and mixing into a single category, as does the BAFTAs.

“I am 100 percent behind it,” said Taylor. “The difference between sound editing and mixing has become so blurred, I think it’s a good thing.”

Onstage, Sylvester took a moment to salute the former 20th Century Fox. “Ford v Ferrari is probably the last film ever made by 20th Century Fox,” he said, “so, I want to thank Aaron Downing and Ted Gagliano and Emma Watts.”

He added that director James Mangold “is the reason I’m here.”

Ford v Ferrari, Joker and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood were nominated for both sound editing and mixing. Ad Astra earned the fifth nomination in sound mixing and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker grabbed the fifth nomination in sound editing.