“I was camping at the time,” recalls Robert Mackenzie during our recent webcam chat (watch above) when asked where he was the moment he became a two-time Oscar nominee for “Hacksaw Ridge.” “I was just outside of Sydney with my kids in a tent,” he adds, “so I was kind of oblivious, and then I started getting texts.” Mel Gibson‘s WWII epic about a conscientious objector (Andrew Garfield) who becomes a hero during the Battle of Okinawa brought Mackenzie bids for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing, and was additionally nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Film Editing.
Sign up to get Gold Derby’s free newsletters
with experts’ latest predictions and breaking news
One of the biggest challenges of the film, reveals fellow nominee Andy Wright, was in creating a sense of scope. “If you ever look online at the size of the set that Mel and his production had to work with,” he explains, “it’s quite small. It’s only the size of about a football field. And he did wonders with making it look like the battle was bigger, but the big challenge from a sound point of view was to make the battle feel a lot bigger as well. So to create the illusion that there’s on-going fighting all around the camera, and really put us in the middle of that battlefield, was quite a challenge.”
Mackenzie and Wright share their Sound Mixing nomination with 21-time contender Kevin O’Connell and first-time nominee Peter Grace.
Make your Oscar predictions now; change them until Feb. 26
Make your Academy Awards picks now and tell industry insiders which films and performers you have out front to win on February 26. You can keep changing them until just before show time. Be sure to make your predictions right here. You’ll compete for a place of honor on our leaderboard and a starring role in next year’s Top 24 Users (the two dozen folks who do the best predicting this year’s nominees). Read our contest rules.
