Oscar Prep: Sound

I know the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing the way I know the difference between the words editing and mixing. Editing is about how it is cut and mixing is about how it is blended, right? I have an awful ear for music in general so I cannot pretend that I can tell the difference between these two categories. I will try though. Besides, I'm picking the winners, not who I liked best.

 A couple notes first:
-Each category is arrange from Most to Least likely to win by my measure.
-An '*' before the title indicates a movie that I have seen.
-I'm trying to keep the shorthand to a minimum (get it). A couple that come up though are BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), SAG (Screen Actors Guild), PGA (Producers Guild of America, WGA (Writers Guild of America), DGA (Directors Guild of America).

Other Picks

Best Sound Editing
Front Runner: *Gravity
Winner: BAFTA - Best Sound
Nominee: Motion Picture Sound Editors - Best Sound Editing in 3 categories
Beating a dead horse, right? If this is boring you, too bad. Remember Hugo a couple years ago? This is like Hugo on crack. Besides, the movie sounded great.

Dark Horse: All Is Lost
Nominee: BAFTA - Best Sound, Motion Picture Sound Editors - Best Sound Editing in 1 category
Predictions aren't all a numbers game. For example, Captain Phillips is more recognized by the Motion Picture Sound Editors than All is Lost but I'm still calling this the dark horse. It's 90 minutes of Robert Redford in a boat. Robert Redford barely speaks the whole time so the sound editing must be pretty good then. At least that's my theory.

Other Nominees:
*Captain Phillips
Nominee: BAFTA - Best Sound, Motion Picture Sound Editors - Best Sound Editing in 2 categories
The BAFTAs liked it, but not enough for a win. Same goes for the Sound Editors group.
*Lone Survivor
Nominee: Motion Picture Sound Editors - Best Sound Editing in 2 categories
It's hard to count out a war movie to sound editing. Warfare done right in film owes a lot to the sound editing.
*The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Nominee: Motion Picture Sound Editors - Best Sound Editing in 2 categories
I don't think a movie this noisy can win. Plenty of Sound Editing nominations to go around from the Motion Picture Sound Editors though, if you notice.

Best Sound Mixing
Front Runner: *Gravity
Nominee: Cinema Audio Society - Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing
There's not a clear-cut front runner based on previous nominations. When in doubt, go for Gravity.

Dark Horse: *Captain Phillips
Nominee: Cinema Audio Society - Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing
I don't have a good reason for this as the Dark Horse over the others beyond a possible feeling that Captain Phillips is owed something for not yield an acting nomination for Tom Hanks. This would be an arbitrary way to rectify it.

Other Nominees:
*Lone Survivor
Nominee: Cinema Audio Society - Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing
The Cinema Audio Society likes it, so that's enough to give it more of a chance than the movies that didn't secure a nomination.
*Inside Llewyn Davis
If it was up to me, a movie that sounded this pretty would be more of a contender if not the front runner. Sadly, the rest of the world ignored it. With the amount of music featured in the movie, I have to put it as more likely to win than The Hobbit although by the slimmest of margins.
*The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
See Sound Editing, excluding the part about nominations. No guilds nominating this one.