The music of ‘Maestro’ is the key to an Oscar win for Best Sound

Jacob Sarkisian
·5 min read
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Bradley Cooper‘s “Maestro” features one of the best cinematic sequences this year as Cooper, transformed into Leonard Bernstein conducts a Mahler piece in the Ely Cathedral in Cambridge. The story of how this sequence came to be is almost as incredible as the scene itself and the power of Cooper’s performance is matched by the sheer beauty of the score.

This is the perfect example of why the sound in “Maesto” is so good — it helps to tell the story of the film and convey character more than almost any other sound in any other film does this year. Cooper has turned to music before for inspiration as his directing debut, “A Star is Born,” relied heavily on the power of music, too. He mines that power here again, too, in a film that tells the story of Bernstein’s marriage to Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). While the movie could pick up nominations in any number of areas, it’s Best Sound that we are rightly focusing on here.

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Our current predicted nominees in this category are “Oppenehimer,” “Maestro,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Color Purple,” and “Ferrari.” “Oppenheimer” is predicted to win but “Maestro” could have an upper hand here as musicals or music-based films tend to do well in this category.

“Elvis” and “West Side Story” were nominated in 2023 and “Sound of Metal” won the award in 2021 (the first year of the combined categories). “West Side Story” is a classic musical while “Sound of Metal” is a music-based drama centering on a drummer. “Elvis” is the most comparable to “Maestro,” however, as it’s a biopic that tells the story of a musical icon (Elvis Presley). “Maestro” could follow suit with a nomination of its own. Musicals/music-based films have always done well in sound categories, even before Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing were combined to become simply Best Sound.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is another musical biopic focusing on an iconic musician (Freddie Mercury, this time). That movie won both Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing in 2019 (the second to last year that there were two sound categories). Damien Chazelle‘s “La La Land,” a musical about an actress and a pianist falling in love, was nominated for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing in 2017. Chazelle’s previous film, “Whiplash,” a drama about a drummer, won Best Sound Mixing in 2015. Meanwhile, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” a drama about a young singer in the 1960s, was nominated for Best Sound Mixing in 2014. And the acclaimed Broadway musical “Les Misérables” won that same category in 2013. Plus, Cooper’s own “A Star is Born” was nominated for Best Sound Mixing in 2019. That film told the love story between a country singer on his way out (Cooper) and a rising pop star on her way up (Lady Gaga).

A bid for “Maestro” seems a sure thing, then, but it could also easily win as music films do very well in this category. The only hurdle it has in front of it is the fact that “Oppenheimer” is a Christopher Nolan film. Nolan’s movies also do well in sound categories. “The Dark Knight” won Best Sound Editing in 2009 and was also nominated for Best Sound Mixing (“Slumdog Millionaire” won Best Sound Mixing). In 2011, “Inception” won both sound awards while “Interstellar” reaped nominations for both movies in 2015 but lost to “American Sniper” for Sound Editing and “Whiplash” for Sound Mixing. “Dunkirk” won both awards in 2018.

It’s worth also mentioning that “The Color Purple” is also predicted to land a nomination in this category. That’s a musical, too — an out-and-out musical. Blitz Bazawule‘s film is based on the stage musical of the same name, which is in turn based on Alice Walker’s 1982 novel of the same name. This film could well compete with “Oppenheimer” and “Maestro,” although the fact that it is still an unknown quantity makes it hard to determine how much of a contender it will be in not just this category, but any category. “Maestro,” and “Oppenheimer,” are clear and obvious contenders.

“Oppenheimer” is currently top of the tree here for Best Sound but “Maestro” has a great chance. If it does win, it will be the second Academy Award a Cooper film has won after “A Star is Born” took home Best Original Song for Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt.

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