Best Sound predictions

Two spots seem pretty much locked to me: Dune and West Side Story are extremely safe bets.

Then I'd say No Time to Die as the big respectable action movie of the year.

And then it gets really tricky.

I have Belfast at #4 just because at this point I feel like it's gonna snatch as many nominations as possible. The sound folks can often nominate a quieter BP frontrunner when they like it enough and I think that Belfast may be exactly that movie this year. To me its soundscape is nowhere near as evocative as the one in Roma but I feel that they'll just vote for it anyway. And it's got a couple of noisy crowd scenes so hey, maybe that'll help it.

I'm truly lost as far as the fifth spot is concerned. I went with A Quiet Place Part II even though the first one only managed a Sound Editing nomination despite all the hype. But I suppose the sequel can stand out in this particular crowd of flicks. But at the same time I can just as easily see tick, tick...BOOM! or even Last Night in Soho happening. Or maybe Spider-Man gets a blockbuster mention here. Although the MCU films haven't really been doing well in the sound categories. The only film of this shortlist I can't really picture in the eventual five is The Matrix Resurrections.

Conventional wisdom would say Dune and West Side Story are our frontrunners. Then I'd slot No Time to Die in here as a comfortable (but not invulnerable) third. Belfast feels right here, and then I'm gonna take a wild swing and say Last Night in Soho is our surprise fifth.