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www.postmagazine.com 22 POST MARCH 2015 This year's chosen five were no excep- tion, as Oscar chose to honor Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach for American Sniper, Sandra Adair for Boyhood, Barney Pilling for The Grand Budapest Hotel, William Goldenberg for The Imitation Game, and Tom Cross for Whiplash. But while all are highly deserving of Oscar attention, many in the editing world were scratching their heads over the glaring omission of editors Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione and their stunning work on Birdman. Creating a seamless flow that fooled many into thinking that the film was largely shot in one continuous take, it may be that the editing magic they worked ended up working a little too well, obscuring all the skill that they deployed to create the film's carefully choreographed dance of actors and their egos. And the Oscar went to Tom Cross for Whiplash, surprising many insiders who reasoned that the likely winner would be Adair, the ACE award drama winner for Boyhood. Adair has cut all Linklater's films for 25 years now, and she faced the most obvious challenges in taking on footage from 12 years of shooting and making it seamless. But Cross' editing obviously captivated Oscar voters with its beauti- fully-calibrated rhythms, which made the music and the visuals inseparable. SOUND EDITING Maybe Oscar was blind when it came to Birdman and the film editing category, but it heard the work of Martin Hernandez and Aaron Glascock loud and clear, giving them a coveted slot. They were joined by Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman for American Sniper, Brent Burge and Jason Canovas for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Richard King for Inter- stellar, and Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro for Unbroken. It's noticeable that this was the only nomination for Peter Jackson's final Hobbit installment, and that the box office giant has never matched the love Oscar had for his Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's also worth noting that, to be honest, the vast majority of Oscar voters are relatively clueless when it comes down to really evaluating what sound editing entails — and the same can be said for sound mixing. And the Oscar went to Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman for American Sniper, giving the big box office hit a deserved win for its subtle and realistic treatment both of the sounds of war and the sounds of domesticity. SOUND MIXING In one of the tightest races of the night, and almost duplicating the Sound Ed- iting category in terms of films, Oscar honored John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin for American Sniper; Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montano and Thomas Varga for Birdman; Garry A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten for Interstellar; Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montano and David Lee for Unbroken; and Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley for Whiplash. And the Oscar went to Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley for Whiplash, following in the footsteps of other recent music-based winners such as Les Mis, Dreamgirls, Ray and Chicago. VISUAL EFFECTS Visual effects are not just a separate category but a universe unto itself, as it's the one area in the entire awards show where Oscar could care less about classy dramas or soul-searching explorations of tormented and conflicted characters. All that stuff goes out the window as Oscar usually votes like any excited fan-boy and goes for the truly spectacular blockbuster action film and superhero extravagan- za. And Oscar always votes for a Best Picture nominee in the group, when there is one. But this year's different, as none of the nominations were Best Pic noms. Instead, all the noms are global eye-candy hits: Guardians of the Galaxy (Stepha- nie Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould), X-Men: Days of Future Past (Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Wald- bauer), Interstellar (Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist). And the Oscar went to Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley (they both won an Oscar for Inception), Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher for their work on Interstellar. This was another big upset, as many were predicting that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes would be victorious follow- ing its three wins at the Visual Effects Society awards, including top honor Best VFX in a VFX-driven film (Interstellar only won for Created Environment). But Nolan's 35mm/IMAX sci-fi epic, with its otherworldly vistas, black holes and pioneering effects work done by Double Negative — and input from revered Caltech professor Kip Thorne — swept all before it. OSCARS WRAP UP Interstellar took home the VFX Oscar.