Academy Award for Sound Editing

The Academy Award of Merit for Best Sound Editing is an Academy Award granted yearly to a film exhibiting the finest or most aesthetic sound editing or sound design. The award is usually received by the Supervising Sound Editors of the film, perhaps accompanied by the Sound Designers.

The Sound Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, like many of the other branches, selects its nominees at an informal gathering called the "Bake-Off" on the last Tuesday in the January following the qualifying year. At the sound Bake-Off, highlight reels of films submitted for nomination are screened in a controlled theater environment. The screening is generally open to the public, but only sound branch members may vote, and the only occasion the sound branch members have for voting is at the bake-off. The rules for balloting have been changed often, but voting involves giving each film a subjective numerical score, based on the quality of the highlight reel. The scores for each are averaged, and if a minimum of three films score above a threshold (often 7 out of 10), those films are passed on to the entire Academy for voting as the Nominees.

In some years, not enough films score above the threshold for official nomination, and in that case, no films are nominated for Best Sound Editing, and a "Special Achievement Award" (and not an Oscar) is granted to the highest-scoring film; when this has happened, it is indicated below.

This is a list of films that have won or been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects (1963-1967, 1975), Sound Effects Editing (1977, 1981-1999), or Sound Editing (1979, 2000-present). See Academy Award for Sound for a corresponding list of winners for Best Sound.

See also: Academy Award for Sound Editing, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971