Guide to Oscar: Best Sound Editing

The award for Best Sound Editing honors the technicians who create a film's sonic world by balancing dialogue, effects, and music and making them work together in harmony. The category was first introduced in 1964, though in years when there isn't a sufficient number of films that qualify to be nominated, a Special Achievement Award is given in lieu of the Oscar.

This year's nominees:

Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis, Drive

3rd nomination for Bender. Previously won for Braveheart and nominated for Blood Diamond.

First nomination for Ennis.

Ren Klyce, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2nd nomination for Sound Editing. Previously nominated for Fight Club. Also has 3 nominations for Sound Mixing, including this year for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty, Hugo

2nd nomination for Gearty. Previously nominated for Gangs of New York.

First nomination for Stockton

Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl, Transformers: Dark of the Moon

4th nomination for Van der Ryn. 2 previous wins for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and King Kong, and nominated for Transformers.

First nomination for Aadahl.

Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom, War Horse

8th nomination for Hymns. 3 previous wins for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan, and nominations for Willow, Backdraft, Fight Club, and Minority Report.

8th nomination for Rydstrom for Sound Editing. 3 previous wins for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan, and nominations for Backdraft, Monsters Inc., Minority Report and Finding Nemo. Also nominated for Sound Mixing for War Horse.