Cinema Audio Society • Est. 1964 • Awards since 1994

CAS Awards

The Cinema Audio Society Outstanding Achievement Awards recognise excellence in sound mixing across every format: feature film, television drama, comedy, limited series, and documentary. The CAS honours the production sound mixers who capture dialogue on set and the re-recording mixers who create the final audio experience in the dub stage — the professionals whose work audiences feel without consciously hearing. CAS awards are voted by the society’s members, making them the definitive peer recognition in the sound mixing discipline.

Feature Film TV Drama Series TV Comedy Series TV Movie or Mini-Series Documentary
1964
CAS Founded
1994
First CAS Awards
2021
Oscar Sound Categories Merged
5
Main Award Categories

Sound Mixing vs. Sound Editing: The CAS recognises sound mixing — the discipline of combining and balancing all audio elements into a final soundtrack. The MPSE Golden Reel Awards recognise sound editing — the discipline of cutting, designing, and preparing those elements. In 2021, the Academy merged its two sound Oscars (Sound Mixing and Sound Editing) into a single Best Sound category, a decision that was controversial within both communities. The CAS and MPSE continue to recognise the disciplines separately.

Feature Film

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing — Feature Film

The flagship CAS category, honoring the re-recording mixers and production sound mixer of the year’s best-mixed film.

Year Mixing Team Film Oscar?
2025 Various Dune: Part Two Oscar: Wicked
2024 Various Oppenheimer CAS + Oscar
2023 Various Top Gun: Maverick CAS + Oscar
2022 Various Dune CAS + Oscar
2021 Various Soul CAS + Oscar (merged category)
2020 Mark Taylor & Stuart Wilson 1917 CAS + Oscar
2019 Various Bohemian Rhapsody CAS + Oscar
2018 Various Dunkirk CAS + Oscar
2017 Various Hacksaw Ridge CAS + Oscar
2016 Various Mad Max: Fury Road CAS + Oscar
2015 Various Whiplash CAS + Oscar
2014 Various Gravity CAS + Oscar
2013 Various Les Misérables CAS + Oscar
Television Drama Series

Outstanding Achievement — TV Drama Series

Year Mixing Team Series
2025 Various Shōgun
2024 Various The Last of Us
2023 Various Andor
2022 Various Succession
2021 Various The Mandalorian
2020 Various Game of Thrones
2019 Various Game of Thrones
Television Comedy Series

Outstanding Achievement — TV Comedy Series

Year Mixing Team Series
2025 Various The Bear
2024 Various The Bear
2023 Various Abbott Elementary
2022 Various Ted Lasso
2021 Various Ted Lasso
TV Movie or Limited Series

Outstanding Achievement — TV Movie or Mini-Series

Year Mixing Team Production
2025 Various Ripley
2024 Various Beef
2023 Various The White Lotus (Season 2)
2022 Various Dopesick
2021 Various The Queen’s Gambit
2020 Various Chernobyl
The Merged Oscar Controversy

When the Academy Merged Sound

In 2021, the Academy merged its two longstanding sound categories into one Best Sound award — a decision that sparked significant debate in both the mixing and editing communities.

Before 2021: Two Categories
Best Sound Mixing • Best Sound Editing
For decades, the Oscar honoured sound mixing and sound editing as distinct disciplines. Sound mixing recognised the re-recording mixers who combined all audio elements; sound editing recognised the supervising sound editors and sound editors who designed and cut those elements. The CAS and MPSE championed their respective disciplines’ contributions as genuinely different crafts requiring different skills.
Two categories • 1930–2020
After 2021: Best Sound
Single merged category
The Academy argued that audiences and voters could not meaningfully distinguish between the two disciplines. Critics argued the merger diminished recognition for both — sound editors and sound mixers now compete for a single award that cannot adequately represent either discipline. The CAS and MPSE continue to give separate awards, insisting that the crafts are genuinely different and deserve separate recognition.
Single category • 2021–present
CAS and MPSE Response
Maintaining separate recognition
Both the Cinema Audio Society and the Motion Picture Sound Editors have explicitly declined to follow the Academy’s lead. Their continued operation of separate mixing and editing awards serves as an ongoing industry statement that the crafts are distinct. The CAS Lifetime Achievement Award, given separately, honours careers in the mixing discipline specifically — a recognition the merged Oscar category cannot provide.
CAS and MPSE awards continue as separate disciplines