F1 Speeds Past Rivals to Snag Top Sound Award at CAS 2026!

The 62nd annual Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Awards took place Saturday night in Los Angeles, celebrating excellence in sound mixing across film and television. The auto-racing drama F1: The Movie won the top prize for best sound mixing in a theatrical motion picture.

Film Winners

F1 triumphed in a category that included several Oscar-nominated films for Best Sound, such as Frankenstein, One Battle After Another, and Sinners. The win strengthens its momentum heading into the Academy Awards, where CAS winners have historically aligned with Oscar winners three times in the past five years. In animation, KPop Demon Hunters continued its awards season streak, taking home the CAS Award for best sound mixing in an animated feature. The documentary category went to Becoming Led Zeppelin, a film that highlights the legendary band’s journey with immersive audio design.

Television Winners

Television categories saw familiar names:

• The Studio won for half-hour series.
• The Pitt earned recognition in the one-hour series category.
• Adolescence was honored in the limited series category.
• Billy Joel: And So It Goes won in the nonfiction category, showcasing the sound team’s work on the music special.

Career and Special Honors

Skip Lievsay received the Career Achievement Award, honoring his four-decade career collaborating with directors such as the Coen brothers, Alfonso Cuarón, Martin Scorsese, and Spike Lee. Guillermo del Toro was presented with the Filmmaker Award. The CAS also recognized student talent, awarding Mingxi Xu from the National Film and Television School as a finalist in the Student Recognition Award category.

Industry Significance

The CAS Awards are one of the two major honors dedicated to sound in film and television, alongside the Motion Picture Sound Editors’ Golden Reel Awards. CAS president Peter Kurland emphasized the importance of sound mixing, noting that the craft requires both technical precision and artistic creativity. With F1 leading the way and other winners showcasing the diversity of sound design across genres, the ceremony reaffirmed the critical role audio plays in storytelling.