Cinema isn't just about stunning visuals – sound plays a crucial role in conjuring the atmosphere, tension and excitement of every great film. If you've put any effort into your home cinema setup, you’ve probably already tested it with go-to films for complex and immersive sound, like Saving Private Ryan (and other classic 90s TV testers), with its pinging ricochets and that endlessly copied moment where an explosion momentarily deafens a character.
That’s just one example of how sound heightens the storytelling of classic films. With Dune: Part Two having just last night picked up the 2025 Academy Awards' Best Sound gong, we've dived back into the history of Oscar-worthy sound. These are some of the classic movies that won Academy Awards for their exceptional sound design, from the early days (of both the Oscars and movie sound) through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and right up to the most deserving winners of recent years. You won't regret giving them a watch – and a listen...
Grand Prix (1966)
By heading out onto real racetracks during actual races, 1966 film Grand Prix captured the raw roaring of Formula 1 cars. John Frankenheimer directs an international ensemble cast including James Garner, Eva Marie Saint and Toshiro Mifune in this motorsporting movie that uses an incredibly realistic soundtrack to put you in the driver's seat. Listen closely to the 5.1 mix on the Blu-ray and you'll hear how Ferrari, Lotus and BRM engines each have distinct sounds, while gears clunk and tyres squeal in layered split-screen scenes, and cleverly-placed microphones recreate the hair-raising Doppler effect of of cars whipping past at high speeds.
Also involved behind the scenes was racing legend Carol Shelby. He appeared as a character 50 years later in another high-speed flick that won an Oscar for its zooming sound, 2017's Ford v Ferrari.
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All the President’s Men (1976)
Unlike many Best Sound winners, All the President’s Men isn’t an action-packed spectacle – it's a suspenseful political thriller where tension and paranoia build through subtle, almost unnoticeable sound design. As Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play investigative journalists uncovering the Watergate scandal, the sense of unease is conjured by whispered meetings in echoey parking garages and silent shadowy locations, while the newsroom hums with the clicking of typewriters and shrill ringing phones. And of course, there's the infamous informant Deep Throat, whose muffled voice adds to the mystery of his identity. This Oscar-worthy sound design is a perfect example of how restraint can be just as powerful as bombast.
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The Right Stuff (1983)
1983's The Right Stuff is a thrilling story about the daring test pilots and early astronauts of the Mercury space program. The sound captures both the juddering violence of high-speed flight and the serene silence of space, influencing the Oscar-winning sound of later space movies like Apollo 13 and Gravity. Listen out for the fantastic moment when real-life pilot Chuck Yeager first goes supersonic, building tension with a roaring engine that suddenly goes awe-inspiringly silent when he breaks the sound barrier. Later, the deep, bass-heavy rumbles of lift-off contrasts with the quiet of space, where we hear only breathing and radio comms to emphasise the astronauts' isolation as they become the first men to leave Earth behind.
Fun fact: between them, The Right Stuff’s winning sound team of Randy Thom, Mark Berger, Tom Scott and David MacMillan have won 11 Oscars. Thom was also nominated again this year for The Wild Robot.
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The Big House (1930)
Going back to the days when 'talkies' were new, prison drama The Big House was, in 1930, the first film to win an Oscar for sound. The oppressive and inescapable feel of the film's prison setting is conveyed by a constant clanking of metal doors, echoing footsteps and distant voices, contrasted with the disconcerting silence of solitary confinement. A scene in which a riot breaks out also gives us an early example of synchronised sound, featuring chaotic gunfire, shouting and breaking glass.
Fun fact: Screenwriter Frances Marion won her first Academy Award for writing The Big House, making her the first woman working behind the scenes to win an Oscar that wasn't for acting.
Sound of Metal (2020)
2020's Best Sound winner was specifically about the role of sound in our lives. It follows a drummer in a rock band who is dealing with the loss of his hearing, which we experience through muffled distortion of the audio. The gradual fading of sound echoes the main character's emotional journey as he goes from chaotic, ear-splitting metal concerts to peaceful silence.
Watch Sound of Metal on Amazon Prime Video
Buy the Sound of Metal Blu-ray on Amazon
The Zone of Interest (2023)
This disturbing drama won 2023's Best Sound Oscar, and sound is crucial to the film's point. The Zone of Interest follows the everyday life of those in charge of a Nazi concentration camp, which is never shown – but we're horribly aware of its malignant presence from discordant sounds somewhere off-screen.
Sound designer Johnnie Burn used a map of the real camp to devise a soundtrack of ambient noise and distant echoes, spending years building a library of noises made by machinery, furnaces, gunfire and human despair. Combined with an unnerving score by Mica Levi, the nerve-jangling sound design creates a chilling contrast with the domestic routine you see on screen, making it a key part of the film's powerful theme of indifference to suffering.
