The Association of Motion Picture Sound has awarded Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley the 2014 AMPS Award for Excellence in Sound for a Feature Film for their work on Whiplash.
Wilkins said, "We're elated to have won. There's no better feeling than to have hard work appreciated by your peers.”
The Awards will be presented to the winners at an AMPS event later this year. AMPS’ Members who have creatively contributed to the winning soundtrack will each receive Certificates of Merit.
Five films exhibited in 2014 were selected by an AMPS Awards Committee, from which the three leading sound creatives (Production Sound, Sound Editing and Re-Recording) were nominated for the award. A further ballot among all AMPS voting members selected the winning film.
The nominees were Wayne Lemmer, Christopher Scarabosio & Pawel Wdowczak for The Grand Budapest Hotel; Mike Prestwood-Smith, Renee Tondelli & John Casali for Into The Woods; Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins & Thomas Curley for Whiplash; Stuart Hilliker, Lee Walpole & John Midgley for The Imitation Game and Paul Massey, Oliver Tarney & David Stephenson for Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Chris Munro from the AMPS Awards Group said, “The AMPS awards group would like to congratulate all the sound professionals that contributed to the sound of Whiplash and wish them luck in both the BAFTA and Academy Awards. We’re also very proud to confirm that our ‘Excellence in Sound’ award is one of the first sound awards to be announced in the season.”
AMPS' Graham Hartstone added, “The AMPS award going to Whiplash is particularly significant, as the Voting Members of AMPS are all experienced professionals who understand the complex challenge posed, and the skills required to produce such an impressive soundtrack of this genre.”
Whiplash is also nominated for Sound Mixing in the Academy Awards and also for Sound at the BAFTA awards.
Long-time AMPS Sustaining Member, Dolby Europe once again acted as headline sponsor for this year's award.
The award program was created in celebration of the Association’s 25th anniversary in 2014 with plans to expand in future years to include a broader selection of creative sound technicians as well as encompassing television sound and gaming.
The Association of Motion Picture Sound www.amps.net