Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/799350
www.postmagazine.com 23 POST MARCH 2017 it's actually three, carefully rehearsed, then shot on the freeway ramp over a weekend and stitched together invisibly and seamlessly. For another tour-de-force sequence where stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone literally fly up into the stars of the Griffith Observatory planetarium, the team used wires and blue screen on a set (filming wasn't allowed in the real location). FILM EDITING There was masterful, suspenseful work from Joe Walker in Arrival, BAFTA winner John Gilbert in Hacksaw Ridge and Jake Roberts in Hell or High Water. Tom Cross soared with the dancers in La La Land, and even a black woman got some Oscar love this year in the below the line categories, as editor Joi McMillon was nominated for Moonlight, along with Nat Sanders, making her the first ever African- American woman editor to be nominated (the only other African-American nominee in the Academy's history was Hugh A. Robertson for Midnight Cowboy way back in 1969). And the Oscar went to — Gilbert for his meticu- lous, intricate work on Hacksaw. SOUND EDITING Oscar loves anything aural in the action, war and sci-fi genres, so the nominees — Arrival, Sylvain Bellemare; Deep Water Horizon, Wylie Stateman and Renee Tondelli; Hacksaw Ridge, Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright; La La Land, Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan; Sully, Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman — were no surprise. And while, unlike the other contenders, La La Land is short on explosions, crashes and alien space ship noises, it does pay stylish homage to something many voters love even more — the great Hollywood musical. So no surprise it recently won the Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Award in the musical feature category. But it was Hacksaw Ridge that claimed top honors at the awards, with wins in both the FX/Foley and Dialogue/ADR categories. And the Oscar went to — Bellemare, who edged out the favorites with his powerful work on Arrival. SOUND MIXING The nominees duplicated several of the sound editing category in terms of films Oscar hon- ored; Arrival, Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye; Hacksaw Ridge, Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace; and La La Land, Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow — and historically, musicals have done well in this category. But voters also found slots to honor two very different films — the me- ga-blockbuster Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson, and Michael Bay's taut biographical war drama, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth, which had even more drama behind the scenes thanks to Greg P. Russell's fall from grace. And the Oscar went to — the Hacksaw team for their undeniably brilliant work. And it was an espe- cially sweet win for O'Connell who's been nominat- ed a record 20 times without a single win, and who finally won on his 21 st nomination — 33 years after his first nom for Terms of Endearment. VISUAL EFFECTS As usual, there were several surprises here, as me- ga-successful franchises and global blockbusters stuffed full of flashy VFX (think Captain America: Civil War, Batman v Superman, Deadpool, Suicide Squad, The Legend of Tarzan and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) were all ignored. But Oscar did reward three crowd-pleasing box office monsters — Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould, The Jungle Book, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon and Doctor Strange, Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould. Rounding out the list was Deepwater Horizon, Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton. The other big surprise? The nomination for Kubo and the Two Strings, Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff, as it's been 23 years since an animated film has earned a visual effects nomination (the last time was for Nightmare Before Christmas which was nominated way back in 1994). And, the Oscar went to — The Jungle Book team for their inspired work. OSCAR 2018 Yes, we know it's ridiculously early to be talking about next year's event, but given the historic wins for Moonlight, Viola Davis and Mahershala Ali this year (part of a record-breaking six wins in five categories for black actors and creatives), can the trending hashtag #OscarsSoBlack be far away? We're joking, but then anything seems possible in this uncertain political climate Arrival Hacksaw Ridge