Films that won Oscars for Score, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing in the same year, or whatever sound categories were available at the time (more info below). I thought this would be a good reflection of the films that overall have the best sound work.
Films on the list that also won Best Original Song:
Titanic - "My Heart Will Go On"
(oddly enough, it's also the only one that was ever nominated for Best Original Song)
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Best Sound Editing didn't become a consistent award until 1981, so the films before then just won the two available awards, Score and Sound Mixing.
To keep them consistent with what probably would have also won Best Sound Editing, I took the…
Films that won Oscars for Score, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing in the same year, or whatever sound categories were available at the time (more info below). I thought this would be a good reflection of the films that overall have the best sound work.
Films on the list that also won Best Original Song:
Titanic - "My Heart Will Go On"
(oddly enough, it's also the only one that was ever nominated for Best Original Song)
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Best Sound Editing didn't become a consistent award until 1981, so the films before then just won the two available awards, Score and Sound Mixing.
To keep them consistent with what probably would have also won Best Sound Editing, I took the mean of the average ratings of the 4 films that did win all the awards (E.T., The Right Stuff, Titanic, and Gravity) and subtracted two standard deviations, giving a minimum rating cut of 3.43. This eliminated One Night of Love (2.93), The Jolson Story (3.25), and Oklahoma! (3.27).
That leaves the current list, which I think is a decent representation of best overall sound. If anyone has any other insights or opinions on these choices please let me know.
The weakest of the remaining films are The King and I (3.47), Gravity (3.51), Yankee Doodle Dandy (3.50), and Oliver! (3.59).
Oscars 2021 update: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing are now combined into a single award, Best Sound. With this being the case, I'm also applying the minimum rating cut of 3.43 to post-2021 winners of Best Original Score and Best Sound.
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Status: Updated through the 2026 Oscars
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My "Oscars Combined" series:
Best Made: Films That Won Oscars For Cinematography, Production, and Editing
Critically Popular Films - Money, Awards, and Critical Acclaim
Films That Won Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay In the Same Year
Films That Won Both the Best Actress and Best Actor Oscars
Films That Won Both the Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor Oscars
Films That Won Oscars For Score, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing In the Same Year
Years Where a Different Film Won Each Of the "Big 4" Oscars
