We’re Only Half Way Through the Year, but These 3 Amazing Films Are Already in a Tight Oscar Race

Possibly the most confounding Oscar category for regular moviegoers, who might not fully understand how movies are made, is the Sound category. Previously split into the Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories, this is very simply everything coming out of the speakers while you’re watching a movie and how those sounds are created and mixed for the optimal aural experience. Believe it or not, 2025 has already delivered several contenders that could get nominated in the Sound category: Joseph Kosinski‘s F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt, might be seen as a frontrunner for reasons that will be explained, but it already has a lot of competition, including Danny Boyle‘s 28 Years Later, the Alex Garland co-directed Warfare, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and even the just-released Jurassic World Rebirth.

Why Joseph Kosinski’s ‘F1’ May Already Be an Oscar Frontrunner For Its Sound

The Sound category has often gone to the biggest and loudest of movies, and you’re just as likely to see some of the same names in the mix, which very well might be the case this year, too. F1 is already likely to get nominated for its sound, with a possibility of winning the category, just like Kosinski’s previous movie, Top Gun: Maverick, did three years ago. One important name to note on F1 is that of two-time Oscar winner Gary Rizzo of Skywalker Sound, since he has been Christopher Nolan’s go-to sound guy, who previously won Oscars for Inception and Dunkirk. Some may say that he was robbed of his third Oscar for Oppenheimer because the sound in that A-bomb testing sequence was phenomenal.

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F1 also benefits from being a racing movie, since many racing movies have been in the Oscar mix for their sound. James Mangold‘s Ford v Ferrari won the Oscar for Sound Editing in 2019, when sound effects and Foley had their own separate category from Mixing. Another movie that could be considered “racing” is George Miller‘s Mad Max: Fury Road, which dominated the tech categories in 2015, winning both Sound categories that year. Miller’s 2024 Furiosa prequel somehow managed to completely blank out, missing out on even a single technical Oscar earlier this year. Even smaller movies like Nicholas Refn‘s 2010 film, Drive, managed to be nominated in the Sound category in 2011, because again, when it comes to the Academy’s Sound branch, louder tends to mean better, and you can’t get louder than cars racing around the track. Some might be shocked to learn that even the Keanu Reeves–Sandra Bullock action movie, Speed, won two Sound Oscars in 1994.

Alex Garland Has Two Movies This Year With Impressive Sound Work

Alex Garland is no stranger to Oscar night, with his 2014 directorial debut, Ex Machina, winning the Oscar for visual effects. Reteaming with Danny Boyle for 28 Years Later, Garland doubles down on this category, mostly because he also co-wrote and co-directed the appropriately-titled Warfare, which has the type of pedigree that has led to so many previous nominations in the Sound category. Nolan’s aforementioned Dunkirk, Mel Gibson‘s Hacksaw Ridge, and Sam Mendes‘ 1917 are three of the war films that have won the Oscar for Sound, and that’s just in the past ten years. Other previous winners include Kathryn Bigelow‘s Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker; Ridley Scott‘s Black Hawk Down; Clint Eastwood‘s Letters from Iwo Jima; and even Michael Bay‘s Pearl Harbor. No one might ever consider the last of those as an Oscar contender, and yet, it won an Oscar. Garland’s sound team on Warfare includes Howard Bargroff and Ben Barker, who have been more in the Emmy mix for their work on Garland’s limited series, Devs, but they’re not names that the Film Academy sound branch might recognize, even if their work on the very loud Warfare is undeniable.

28 Years Later might also be a contender for sound when you consider just how innovative the sound design is and also how crucial it is to the film’s terrifying horror element, particularly all the roaring and screeching of the infected. It’s also significant for the ambient sound design used to create tension while perfectly blending with the score by Young Fathers. When you realize that much of the sound work was done by Johnnie Burn, who recently won the Oscar for the quieter and more subdued The Zone of Interest from Jonathan Glazer, the quality of the film’s sound makes a lot more sense. That latter movie also won the Oscar in the International Feature category, so it had a slight advantage over Boyle’s film, which is more likely to be nominated for its Hair and Makeup.

There Are Other Movies in the Mix for That Sound Oscar

Those aren’t the only 2025 movies with notably impressive sound work, though. Christopher McQuarrie‘s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning follows a previous installment in that franchise, which already received an Oscar nomination for its Sound. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning was the first and only movie in the entire franchise to receive an Oscar nomination, although the Academy’s Sound franchise has never been shy of nominating sequels or summer blockbuster fare. Case in point: Paul Greengrass‘ The Bourne Ultimatum won both Sound categories in 2007, and an Oscar for its film editing.

We might also want to consider the sound for Gareth Edwards‘ Jurassic World Rebirth, and whether it might follow in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg‘s Jurassic Park, which won the Oscar for Sound way back in 1994. Making those CG dinosaurs seem more realistic requires a lot of crafty sound design. There’s also how important character dialogue is mixed with the sounds of the new installment’s settings, which include noisy oceans and jungles, all of which has to contend with Alexandre Desplat‘s fantastic score, as well. Despite the statement made before about this category not fearing the franchise, not a single other Jurassic movie has been nominated for sound since Spielberg’s original movie.

Since it’s only July, we’ll have to wait six more months to see how things pan out with the five movies mentioned, and they will undoubtedly be getting even more competition for the Sound Oscar from other candidates released over the next six months. Either way, the Sound category at the Oscars is already in good shape with so many movies having the pedigree for a nomination from the Academy’s Sound branch. Chances are that F1 will be in that mix, but maybe one or two of the others mentioned might also sneak in.