Los Angeles, CA (November 27, 2023)— The annual free virtual event, Mix Presents Sound for Film: Awards Season, has added a panel with the audio team behind this year’s runaway hit, Barbie! The event, taking place Tuesday, December 12, 2023, will highlight sound-related contenders in the races for the Oscars, the MPSE Golden Reels and the CAS Awards.
REGISTER NOW!
Through a series of video presentations, the event will showcase the creative sound teams behind the year’s top films. Newly added to the agenda is a panel with the audio team behind Barbie, presented by Warner Bros. Pictures. The panel will include:
Kevin O’Connell — Re-Recording Mixer
Kevin O’Connell’s early years were rooted in the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles. At 18, immediately after high school, he joined the Los Angeles County Fire Department, serving at Camp 8 in Malibu, California. However, the rigors of his duty, underscored by a particularly grueling six-day brush fire assignment in the Angeles National Forest, prompted his mother Skippy, an employee at the 20th Century Fox Studios Sound Department, to urge him to consider a career change. Consequently, she facilitated an interview with Donald C. Rogers, the head of the Samuel Goldwyn Studios Sound Department.
In January 1978, O’Connell embarked on his career in sound starting at the entry-level position of machine-room operator at Goldwyn Sound, which would later become known as Warner Hollywood Studios.
During this time, he made contributions to iconic films like Grease, Hair, Animal House, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, among others. By 1980, he earned his first official screen credit for The Empire Strikes Back.
In the years since, he has worked with luminaries like Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Jerry Bruckheimer, Tony Scott, Mel Gibson, Ridley Scott, William Friedkin, Barbra Streisand, David Lynch, Lawrence Kasdan, Steven Spielberg, James L.Brooks and Bruce Springsteen.
Notably, after 20 nominations and the dubious distinction of being the “most nominated without a win,” O’Connell secured an Academy Award in 2017 for “Hacksaw Ridge,” a win he poignantly dedicated to his late mother, Skippy.
In 2023, O’Connell lent his talents to two of the most outstanding films of the year, Barbie and Oppenheimer, which resulted in the cultural phenomenon known as “Barbenheimer” as both films were released simultaneously and captured the public’s imagination.
O’Connell is currently putting the finishing touches on Sony’s upcoming Madame Webb.
Dan Kenyon — Sound Designer / Supervising Sound Editor
Dan Kenyon is an award-winning sound editor/designer/mixer who has been recognized by the Motion Picture Sound Editors guild with Golden Reel Award nominations for his work on the animated features The Mitchells vs the Machines and Smallfoot, the Ryan Gosling-directed live action Lost Feature, and Ron Howard’s documentary feature The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years, for which he won an Emmy Award. He also won the Golden Reel and received an Emmy nod for the documentary Cobain: Montage of Heck.
Kenyon’s work has been heard most recently as sound designer/supervising sound editor for Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed Barbie and sound effects editor for Ben Affleck’s Air.
Throughout his career, he has lent his sound expertise in various capacities to numerous features, including Smile, Where the Crawdads Sing, Red Notice, Cinderella, The Trial of the Chicago 7, An American Pickle, Bombshell, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Game Night, War Dogs, Keanu, and many more.
Kenyon grew up in Hingham, Massachusetts. When his family temporarily moved to England in the late 1990s, he learned to play guitar and formed a band. His interest in music lead him to study recording arts at Columbia College in Chicago where, surrounded by film students, he quickly shifted his focus to sound for film and immersed himself in the program. He moved to Los Angeles after graduating and has been working in the film industry since 2010.
Ai-Ling Lee — Sound Designer / Supervising Sound Editor / Re-Recording Mixer
Ai-Ling Lee was born in Singapore where she studied music audio engineering. After two years of mixing and editing commercials and music, she moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to pursue a career in sound design for feature films. Since then, she has worked as a sound designer, re-recording mixer and sound supervisor on a variety of films, including Barbie, Air, JoJo Rabbit, La La Land, Deadpool, Wild, Maze Runner and Buena Vista Social Club. Ai-Ling has worked with directors Greta Gerwig, Ben Affleck, Damien Chazelle, Taika Waititi, Jean-Marc Vallée, Wes Ball, Cameron Crowe, Gus Van Sant and Sam Raimi. She has been nominated for four Academy Awards (for editing and mixing) and two BAFTAs.
Nina Rice AMPS — Production Sound Mixer
Nina Rice is an Irish UK-based production sound mixer, who studied sound recording at The National Film & Television School. After graduating, she became a trainee on a BBC drama then worked her way up the ladder working with various mixers. During that time, production sound mixer Chris Ashworth saw something in her and pushed her to become a mixer.
Nina won the The Royal Television Society award in 2022 for her work on This is Going to Hurt, which was her first time mixing drama. Since cutting her teeth in drama, Nina has mixed three features for Netflix, along with Barbie, another feature doe Margot Robbie’s production company Luckychap, and Amazon Studios’ upcoming Saltburn.
