Oscar 2010: Hurt Locker Sound Wins Two

Hurt Locker wins Academy Award for Sound Editing, then a second sound award for Sound Mixing

By Robin Rowe

Hurt Locker wins two Oscars for sound

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 3/8/2010 – “Catherine, what an incredible movie and thank you for your friendship,” said The Hurt Locker sound editor Paul N.J. Ottosson. The sound editor is the one who brings together the sounds for a film. The sound mixer is who takes those sounds and mixes them into a soundtrack on a sound stage. Traditionally, the sound editor and the sound mixer are two different union positions. Technology has blurred the lines. Times have changed.

Ottosson, who had just won for Sound Editing, was called back to the stage to accept the award for Best Sound Mixing. “You have to say something!” somebody told him in a stage whisper. “This is a little embarrassing, a spoil of riches.” Accepting the Sound Mixing award with Ottosson was Ray Beckett.

Other nominees for Sound Editing include Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle), Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman), Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin), Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers). Other nominees for Sound Mixing include Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson), The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett,  Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano), Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin), and  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson).