Courtesy of Alex Bailey/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
The sound mixing team that brought Freddie Mercury and Queen’s legendary Live Aid performance to the theater won the Cinema Audio Society award for sound mixing on Saturday at the 55th CAS Awards at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Downtown.
Accepting the award with the mixing team, rerecording mixer and music mixer Paul Massey thanked Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor for the “privilege” to work with them and “trusting me to mix the music of Queen.”
Bohemian Rhapsody topped a field that included the teams behind A Quiet Place, A Star is Born, Black Panther and First Man. In six of the past 10 years, the winner of the CAS feature category went on to claim the Oscar in sound mixing.
For next weekend’s Academy Awards, Bohemian Rhapsody is nominated for sound mixing, alongside A Star is Born, Black Panther, First Man and Roma. Last weekend, Bohemian Rhapsody won the BAFTA for best sound (which combines mixing and editing).
Also during the CAS Awards, Isle of Dogs won the animation category, topping a competitive field that included Incredibles 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Grinch. Isle of Dogs, Incredibles 2, Ralph and Spider-Man, along with GKIDS’ Mirai are nominated for the Oscar for best animated feature.
The climbing-themed Free Solo — the only CAS-nominated documentary that is also Oscar nominated — claimed the documentary prize.
American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown won CAS awards in the TV categories.
Steve Spielberg received the CAS Filmmaker Award, which was presented by Bradley Cooper and a team of Spielberg’s sound collaborators. Sound pro Gary Rydstrom got a big laugh when he quipped, “We spent so much money on Jurassic Park that we had to shoot Schindler’s List in black & white.”
Accepting the award, Spielberg told the crowd, “Through your talent, you allow the audience to see with their ears.” He also emphasized the importance of the theatrical experience: “There’s nothing like going to a big dark theater,” he said to applause. “I’m a firm believes that movie theaters need to be around forever.”
Oscar-winning production sound mixer Lee Orloff (Terminator 2: Judgement Day) received the Career Achievement Award. He saluted the collaborative relationship between the members of a sound and filmmaking team, receiving applause as he said it was “so much more powerful than the strongest wall you could build.”
Outgoing CAS president Mark Ulano, who reached his term limit, presented the President’s Award to MaryJo Lang (Frozen). It’s not been easy working in this field as a woman,” said Lang. “It’s slowly changing. … where you are judged by your ability and talent. I hope anyone who considers following sound as a career is given open minds.”
Karol Urban is the Society’s newly-elected president. She and the new CAS Board were also installed on Saturday.
A student award was presented to Anna Wozniewicz of Chapman University. The student finalists also included Maria Cecilia Ayalde Angel of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Allison Ng of USC, Bo Pang of Chapman and Kaylee Yacono of Savannah College of Art and Design.
The complete list of winners follows.
