Cinema Audio Society Awards

Overview

The Cinema Audio Society Awards recognize outstanding achievement in sound mixing across film, television, and non-fiction programming. The CAS is a professional organization of production and re-recording mixers founded in 1964. Its awards represent the sound mixing community's own assessment of the year's best work, voted by members who understand the technical and creative decisions involved in balancing dialogue, music, and effects into a final audio presentation.

The 62nd Annual CAS Awards were held on March 7, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom in Los Angeles. Hosted by comedian Chris Hardwick, the ceremony honored winners across 7 competitive categories plus 3 special awards. F1 won the top prize for live action motion pictures, KPop Demon Hunters for animated, and Becoming Led Zeppelin for documentary. In television, The Pitt won for one-hour series, The Studio for half-hour series, Adolescence for non-theatrical or limited series, and Billy Joel: And So It Goes for non-fiction, variety, or music.

For sound mixers, a CAS Award is peer recognition from colleagues who understand the craft at a technical level that general audiences and other awards bodies do not. For directors and producers, CAS nominations identify films with exceptional sonic presentation, which directly affects how audiences experience dialogue clarity, spatial immersion, and emotional impact.

Key Categories

The CAS Awards present 7 competitive categories:

• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing: Motion Pictures (Live Action)
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing: Motion Pictures (Animated)
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing: Motion Pictures (Documentary)
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing: Non-Theatrical Motion Pictures or Limited Series
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing: Television Series (One Hour)
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing: Television Series (Half Hour)
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing: Television Non-Fiction, Variety or Music: Series or Specials

Each category credits the full mixing team, including production sound mixers, re-recording mixers, scoring mixers, ADR mixers, and foley mixers. This comprehensive crediting practice distinguishes the CAS Awards from other ceremonies that may only list the production company or a single sound supervisor.

Special Awards

In addition to the competitive categories, the CAS presents up to 3 special honors each year:

• CAS Career Achievement Award: Presented to a mixer with a body of work spanning decades. The 2026 recipient was Skip Lievsay CAS, the Academy Award-winning re-recording mixer known for Gravity, No Country for Old Men, and Roma. The 2025 recipient was Tod Maitland CAS, known for Joker and West Side Story.
• CAS Filmmaker Award: Honors a director who demonstrates exceptional commitment to sound. The 2026 recipient was Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein, The Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth). The 2025 recipient was Denis Villeneuve.
• Jeffrey S. Wexler Award for Advancement in Sound Technology: First presented in 2026, this award honors transformative achievements in non-linear technology for sound recording, editing, and mixing. Named after the late Jeffrey S. Wexler CAS, a production mixer and educator whose career spanned more than 4 decades and 70 feature films. The inaugural recipients were Evan Brooks, Peter Gotcher, Glenn Sanders, and Howard Stark.

History

The Cinema Audio Society was founded in 1964 to advance the art and science of sound mixing for motion pictures and television. The organization's stated objectives include educating the public and industry that effective sound requires creative and technical blending of diverse elements, providing a progressive society of master craftspeople, and advancing the field through exchange of ideas and methods.

The CAS Awards program launched in 1995, giving the sound mixing community a dedicated ceremony after decades of recognition limited to the Academy Award and occasional technical awards. The first CAS Awards honored films from 1994. The organization distinguished itself by focusing specifically on mixing, as opposed to the broader "sound" category that the Academy used at the time. This specificity allows the CAS to evaluate the mixing craft on its own terms, separate from sound editing, sound design, and production sound recording.

The CAS expanded its categories over the years to reflect changing industry practices. The current 7-category structure covers the full range of motion picture and television sound mixing work. The addition of the Jeffrey S. Wexler Award in 2026 expanded the organization's recognition beyond individual craft achievement to include technological innovation that enables the craft.

Oscar Prediction Track Record

Since the Academy combined its two sound races (Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing) into a single Best Sound category beginning with films released in 2020, the CAS winner for live action motion pictures has matched the Oscar winner 3 out of 5 times. The matching winners were Sound of Metal (2020), Dune (2021), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). The CAS winners that did not match the Oscar were Oppenheimer (2023, Oscar went to The Zone of Interest) and A Complete Unknown (2024, Oscar went to Dune: Part Two).

This 60% match rate makes the CAS Awards a statistically useful but not definitive predictor of the Academy Award for Best Sound. The divergence occurs because the CAS evaluates mixing specifically, while the Academy's combined category considers both mixing and editing. Films where sound editing is the primary differentiator may win the Oscar without winning the CAS, and vice versa.

Recent Winners

At the 62nd CAS Awards (March 2026), the winners were:

• Motion Pictures (Live Action): F1 (Production Mixer: Gareth John; Re-Recording Mixers: Gary A. Rizzo, Juan Peralta; Scoring Mixer: Alan Meyerson; ADR Mixer: Michael Miller; Foley Mixers: Dennis Leonard, Elizabeth Marston)
• Motion Pictures (Animated): KPop Demon Hunters (Original Dialogue Mixer: Howard London; Re-Recording Mixers: Michael Babcock, Tony Lamberti; Scoring Mixer: Erich Talaba; Foley Mixer: Giorgi Lekishvili)
• Motion Pictures (Documentary): Becoming Led Zeppelin (Production Mixer: Nigel Albermaniche; Re-Recording Mixer: Nick Bergh)
• Non-Theatrical or Limited Series: Adolescence, Episode 1
• Television Series (One Hour): The Pitt, "7:00 PM"
• Television Series (Half Hour): The Studio, "Golden Globes"
• Television Non-Fiction, Variety or Music: Billy Joel: And So It Goes, "Part One"

At the 61st CAS Awards (February 2025), A Complete Unknown won for live action, The Wild Robot for animated, and Music by John Williams for documentary. Television winners included Shogun (one hour), The Bear (half hour), and Masters of the Air (limited series).

Significance for Filmmakers

For production and re-recording mixers, a CAS Award represents the highest peer recognition available in their discipline. The guild's membership evaluates work with an understanding of the full scope of sound mixing, from production recording through the final re-recording session. Only fellow mixers fully appreciate the decisions involved in balancing hundreds of tracks, managing dialogue intelligibility against complex effects beds, and maintaining sonic consistency across a feature-length runtime.

For directors and producers, CAS nominations serve as a quality signal for a film's audio presentation. The mixing quality directly affects audience experience in theaters and at home. A CAS-recognized mix indicates that a film has been finished to the highest audio standard, which matters for theatrical exhibition, streaming platform delivery, and awards season positioning in the Best Sound category.

The CAS Awards ceremony also provides networking opportunities for sound professionals. The annual event at the Beverly Hilton brings together production mixers, re-recording mixers, scoring mixers, ADR mixers, and foley artists with directors and producers who prioritize sound. For mixers seeking feature assignments or for directors seeking experienced sound teams, the CAS Awards function as an industry gathering point.

Eligibility Quirks That Trip People Up

• CAS evaluates mixing only, not sound editing or design: The CAS Awards specifically recognize sound mixing, which is the balance of dialogue, music, and effects into the final audio track. Sound editing (the creation and selection of sound elements) and sound design (the creative conceptualization of the sonic world) are not what the CAS evaluates. Films with exceptional sound design but conventional mixing may not win a CAS Award, while films with technically precise mixing can win even if the sound design is unremarkable.
• The Oscar combined category creates divergence: Since the Academy merged Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing into a single Best Sound category in 2020, the CAS winner matches the Oscar only 60% of the time. Films where sound editing is the primary differentiator (like The Zone of Interest, which won the 2023 Oscar over the CAS winner Oppenheimer) can win the Oscar without winning the CAS. Filmmakers campaigning for Best Sound should not assume a CAS win guarantees the Oscar.
• Full mixing team credits are required: The CAS credits the entire mixing team, including production sound mixers, re-recording mixers, scoring mixers, ADR mixers, and foley mixers. Submissions with incomplete credit information are not evaluated. Production teams must ensure all mixing personnel are properly credited before submission.

Prestige Tier

The CAS Awards are the highest peer-voted recognition for sound mixers in the film and television industry. They sit alongside the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) Golden Reel Awards as the two major sound craft ceremonies, but the CAS focuses specifically on mixing while the MPSE focuses on editing. For sound professionals, a CAS Award is the more technically precise honor because it evaluates the final mix as heard by audiences. In terms of Oscar prediction, the CAS is useful but not definitive (60% match rate since the Academy combined its sound categories). Compared to other guild craft awards (ACE Eddie for editors, ADG for production designers, CDG for costume designers), the CAS has a similar peer-voting structure and similar career-impact value for its discipline.

Watch

See Also

For understanding the technical standards that CAS members work with, see the LUFS Calculator and the Audio Bitrate Calculator. For context on audio delivery requirements, see Audio Delivery Standards for Film. For comparison with other guild craft awards, see the American Cinema Editors Awards and the Art Directors Guild Awards.