Honestly, if you watched Sound of Metal with the volume turned all the way down, you'd still get it. But you’d be missing the entire point of why it cleaned up during the 2021 awards season. When we talk about the Sound of Metal awards run, people usually jump straight to Riz Ahmed. And yeah, he was incredible. He spent seven months learning drums and American Sign Language (ASL) just to play Ruben Stone. But the real story of this movie's trophy cabinet is actually about the stuff you hear—or more accurately, the stuff you don't.
The film didn't just win awards; it forced the Academy to change how they even look at sound.
The Oscar Night That Proved Everyone Wrong
Going into the 93rd Academy Awards, Sound of Metal was the indie underdog. It had six nominations. People were rooting for Riz Ahmed for Best Actor and Paul Raci for Best Supporting Actor. Raci, by the way, is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) and his performance as Joe, the leader of a deaf sober house, was the soul of the film.
But when the dust settled, the big wins came in technical categories: Best Sound and Best Film Editing.
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Now, "Best Sound" might sound like a boring category to the average person. But 2021 was the first year the Oscars combined Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing into one single award. Sound of Metal was the inaugural winner. It beat out massive blockbusters like Greyhound and Soul. Why? Because the sound wasn't just "good"—it was the protagonist.
The team, led by Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, and others, didn't just record noise. They built a sonic prison. They used high-frequency mics to capture the sound of Riz Ahmed’s own heartbeat and the sliding of his muscles. When Ruben gets his cochlear implants and they sound like "metallic garbage," that wasn't a mistake. It was a calculated, award-winning nightmare designed to make the audience feel the exact same frustration Ruben felt.
Beyond the Oscars: The Full Accolades List
It wasn't just the Academy. The Sound of Metal awards haul was massive across the board. You’ve got to look at the BAFTAs, the SAG awards, and the Independent Spirits to see the full picture.
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- BAFTAs: It mirrored the Oscars here, taking home Best Sound and Best Editing.
- Independent Spirit Awards: This is where the film really felt at home. Riz Ahmed won Best Male Lead, and Paul Raci took home Best Supporting Male. It also won Best First Feature for director Darius Marder.
- Critics' Choice: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen won for Best Editing.
- Gotham Awards: Riz Ahmed bagged Best Actor here, which was a huge early signal that the film was going to be a heavy hitter.
The Riz Ahmed Factor
You can't talk about the awards without talking about Riz. He didn't win the Oscar—that went to Anthony Hopkins for The Father in a bit of a shocker—but the nomination itself was historic. Ahmed was the first Muslim nominated for Best Actor.
His preparation was borderline insane. He wore "sound blockers" in his ears that emitted white noise, so he literally couldn't hear his own voice or his co-stars during many scenes. This wasn't just "acting" deaf; it was a physical commitment that the various awards bodies clearly recognized. Even when he didn't win the top prize, he stayed the face of the movie's critical success.
Why the Editing Win Was a Big Deal
Mikkel E.G. Nielsen’s win for Best Film Editing is actually my favorite part of this story. Usually, editing awards go to movies with fast cuts—action movies or musicals. Think Bohemian Rhapsody or Mad Max: Fury Road.
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Sound of Metal is different. The editing is quiet. It’s patient. Nielsen had to coordinate the visual cuts with the sudden drops in audio. When the sound cuts out, the camera lingers. It creates this sense of "sonic POV." The Academy members—who usually go for the "most" editing—voted for the "best" editing. That’s a rare win for subtlety.
The Impact on the Deaf Community
One of the biggest wins for the film wasn't a physical trophy. It was the representation. The film featured a largely deaf cast, including Lauren Ridloff (who later joined the MCU in Eternals). By winning these awards, the film proved that stories about disability don't have to be "inspirational" in a cheesy way. They can be gritty, loud, and technically superior to anything else in theaters.
Practical Takeaways from the Sound of Metal Success
If you're a filmmaker or just a fan trying to understand why this movie dominated the technical categories, here’s the breakdown of what they did differently:
- Empathy through Technology: They didn't just show a man losing his hearing; they used microphones inside his mouth and against his skin to make the audience be him.
- Narrative Sound: They treated sound as a character that could grow, fail, and betray the protagonist.
- Risk-Taking: Choosing to make the "hero" moment of getting an implant sound horrific instead of beautiful was a massive creative risk that paid off at the Oscars.
- Authenticity: Hiring actors from the deaf community and ensuring ASL was central to the story, not a gimmick.
The Sound of Metal awards legacy isn't just about the statues on Darius Marder's shelf. It's about a shift in how movies are "heard." It proved that sound design can be the most powerful storytelling tool in a director's kit. Next time you watch a movie and notice the subtle hum of a room or the way a voice sounds muffled through a wall, you can probably thank the trail blazed by this 2019 indie masterpiece.
To truly appreciate the craft, watch the film again but focus entirely on the transitions. Notice how the "atmosphere" changes when Ruben moves from the hearing world to the deaf community. Pay attention to the silence at the very end—it's the most "expensive" sounding silence in cinema history.