CAS Celebrates 50th Annual Awards

On Saturday night, the Cinema Audio Society presented its 50th annual awards to this year’s top sound mixers at the historic Biltmore Hotel. The event was attended by a gathering of many of the film industry’s top sound and picture professionals and studio production executives. Trew Audio was there as the Title Sponsor of the awards banquet and after party.

A packed house at the 50th annual CAS Awards

Sci-Fi thriller Gravity won Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture – Live Action earning awards for the sound mixing team of production mixer Chris Munro, CAS; re-­recording Mixers Skip Lievsay, CAS, Niv Adiri and Christopher Benstead; scoring mixer Gareth Cousins; ADR mixers Chris Navarro, CAS and Thomas J. O’Connell; and Foley mixer Adam Fil Mendez.

Taking the top honors in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture – Animated was FROZEN and the sound mixing team of original dialogue mixer Gabriel Guy, re­recording mixers David E. Fluhr, CAS and Gabriel Guy, scoring mixer Casey Stone and Foley mixer Mary Jo Lang.

Our friends at Sound Devices took the technical achievement award for the Sound Devices 633, a compact recorder that has been well-covered in this blog and Trew Audio videos.

Andy Nelson takes home the Lifetime Achievement Award

Held in the Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s famed Crystal Ballroom, the program also honored re‐recording mixer Andy Nelson with the CAS Career Achievement Award. A two-time CAS and Academy Award winner for Les Misérables and Saving Private Ryan, Nelson was feted by Academy Award-winning composer John Williams. “Receiving this award from the CAS is such an honor because it’s from my peers…” said Nelson, “people who love this craft as much as I do, and I am humbled by their generosity and commitment to excellence.”

Among other highlights, Academy Award winning producer Edward Zwick (Shakespeare in Love), was presented with the CAS Filmmaker Award. Zwick and CAS career achievement honoree Nelson collaborated on Zwick’s CAS and Oscar nominated Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai, as well as, Love and Other Drugs, Defiance and Courage Under Fire. Presenting his award were Anna Behlmer and frequent Trew Audio customer Jeffrey S. Wexler, CAS.

During the evening, there was a poignant tribute to Ray Dolby, inventor and founder of Dolby Laboratories. Dolby Exec David W. Gray presented the tribute that included archival footage of Ray Dolby accepting the CAS Life Achievement Award at the 1989 CAS Awards.

The CAS was celebrating their 50th year. In honor of the celebration, Trew Audio commissioned a special cake for the

Trew Audio’s Nagra III Cake commemorates 50 years of CAS

occasion. It was shaped like a NAGRA III and many mixers came by the dessert table to get a picture of it.

Other winners this evening included:

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Television Movie or Mini-Series: BEHIND THE CANDLELABRA and the sound mixing team of production mixer Dennis Towns, re-­recording mixer Larry Blake, scoring mixer Thomas Vicari and Foley Mixer Scott Curtis.

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Series – One Hour:
GAME OF THRONES: The Rains of Castamere and the sound mixing team of production mixers Ronan Hill, CAS and Richard Dyer, re­recording mixers Onnalee Blank, CAS and Matthew Waters, CAS and Foley Mixer Brett Voss.

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Series – Half Hour:
MODERN FAMILY: Goodnight Gracie and the sound mixing team of production mixer Stephen A. Tibbo, CAS and re­recording mixers Dean Okrand and Brian R. Harman, CAS.

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Non Fiction, Variety or Music – Series or Specials: HISTORY OF THE EAGLES – Part One and the sound mixing team of re-recording mixers Tom Fleischman, CAS and Elliot Scheiner.

Now it’s onward to the Oscars!

More photos below: