Audio Video News

With the Academy Awards just a few days away, Dolby has been quick to point out that three of the eight films nominated for Best Picture were mixed in Dolby Atmos sound and two use Dolby Vision high-dynamic-range imaging technology. The two technologies appear in other categories as well with Atmos garnering nine of the ten nominations for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.

Here’s a summary of Dolby-connected Oscar nominees:

Best Picture
The Martian (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
The Revenant (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Dolby Atmos)

Animated Feature Film
Inside Out (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)

Short Film (Animated)
Sanjay’s Super Team (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)

Cinematography
The Revenant (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)

Visual Effects
The Martian (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
The Revenant (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)

Sound Editing
The Martian (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
The Revenant (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Dolby Atmos)
Sicario (Dolby Atmos)

Sound Mixing
The Martian (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
The Revenant (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Dolby Atmos)

Oscar Tech History
The original Star Wars, which was mixed in Dolby Stereo, won the 1978 Academy Award for Best Sound. In 1979, Dolby Stereo surround sound was introduced with Apocalypse Now (1980 Academy Award for Best Sound). In 2012, Dolby launched Atmos with Brave (2013 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film), and in 2015, two films with Dolby Atmos soundtracks received Oscars, with American Sniper taking the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and Big Hero 6 for Best Animated Feature Film.

For those who want to delve deeper into the sonic side of some of these films, Dolby offers a series of “Road to the Oscars” podcasts:

The Sound of Sicario with Alan Murray.

The Sound of Mad Max Fury Road with Mark Mangini and Dave White.

The Sound of The Revenant with Lon Bender and Martin Hernandez. In this podcast sound editor, Lon Bender talks about the sound team’s trek to Colorado: “It was evident that the footsteps was a huge component of guys in the 1820s who were in the snow for two and a half hours […] we went to Colorado for a week and we made over 300 recordings…deep snow, gritty snow, snow falling off branches…”

Matthew Iadarola talks about mixing Mad Max: Fury Road in Dolby Atmos here.