--- title: Sound Mixer Kevin O’Connell Wins Oscar After 21 Nominations description: At Sunday night’s 89th annual Academy Awards, veteran sound mixer Kevin O’Connell won Best Sound Mixing for 'Hacksaw Ridge' canonical: https://time.com/4683413/kevin-oconnell-oscar-hacksaw-ridge-sound-mixing/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-27T04:33:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:32:03.920Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: This Man Just Won His First Oscar After 21 Tries og:description: It finally happened for Kevin O’Connell og:url: https://time.com/4683413/kevin-oconnell-oscar-hacksaw-ridge-sound-mixing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt955dbd39e591670a/6988bc122dce018b379ec6d4/gettyimages-645689022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: ABC's Coverage Of The 89th Annual Academy Awards og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Man Just Won His First Oscar After 21 Tries twitter:description: It finally happened for Kevin O’Connell twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt955dbd39e591670a/6988bc122dce018b379ec6d4/gettyimages-645689022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Veteran Sound Mixer Kevin O’Connell Just Won His First Oscar After 21 Nominations > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly Feb 27, 2017 4:33 AM UTC  Sound mixers Robert Mackenzie and Kevin O'Connell (L-R) are seen at the 89th Oscars, broadcast live on Sunday, Feb. 26 on the ABC Television Network. Sound mixers Robert Mackenzie and Kevin O'Connell (L-R) are seen at the 89th Oscars, broadcast live on Sunday, Feb. 26 on the ABC Television Network.Patrick Wymore/ABC via Getty Images by [Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly Feb 27, 2017 4:33 AM UTC At Sunday night’s 89th annual Academy Awards, the veteran sound mixer Kevin O’Connell won Best Sound Mixing for _Hacksaw Ridge_ alongside Peter Grace, Robert Mackenzie, and Andy Wright. The victory is O’Connell’s first after 21 total nominations; until Sunday, O’Connell was the most-nominated person in Oscars history without a victory. “Thank you so much! I can’t even tell you what this means to me,” O’Connell said in his acceptance speech, going on to thank his colleagues, _Hacksaw Ridge_ director Mel Gibson, and his family, including his late mother. “A special thank you tonight to my mother, Skippy O’Connell, who 39 years ago got me a job in sound,” O’Connell said. “And when I asked her how I could thank her, she told me, ‘You can work hard. You can work really hard, and someday you can win yourself an Oscar, and you can stand on the stage, and you can think me in front of the whole world.’ Mom, I know you’re looking down on me tonight, so thank you.” Born in New York on Long Island, the 59-year-old scored his first sound mixing nomination for _Terms of Endearment_. He’s earned multiple nominations for Tom Cruise films (_Top Gun_, _Days of Thunder_, _A Few Good Men_) as well as Michael Bay blockbusters (_The Rock_, _Armageddon_, _Pearl Harbor_, _Transformers_). O’Connell was nominated for a Mel Gibson movie before, too, earning a citation for the director’s _Apocalypto_, Gibson’s last film before _Hacksaw Ridge_. In an interview with [NPR](http://www.npr.org/2017/02/19/515770382/after-21-nominations-will-sound-mixer-kevin-oconnell-finally-win-his-oscar) last week, O’Connell said he had stopped paying attention to his mounting nominations and losses. “I almost feel like this is like a rebirth for me at this point, you know?” Backstage after his win, O’Connell reflected on his big moment. “I can’t even tell you the experience that it was for me,” he said. As much as I thought I was going to know what it felt like, I didn’t. And I have to tell you it was the greatest feeling in my entire life, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity, especially working with these guys. And I’m so grateful. It’s an amazing blessing.” Best Sound Mixing is one of two sound categories at the Academy Awards, along with Best Sound Editing. Sound mixing focuses on creating the audio mix of a film by using sounds recorded both on set and in post-production; sound editing involves the creation of sound elements (like the explosions in _Hacksaw Ridge_). More on both categories can be found [here](https://blog.dolby.com/2014/02/sound-mixing-sound-editing-whats-difference/). —_With_ _reporting by Marc Snetiker_ _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/awards/2017/02/26/oscars-2017-kevin-oconnell/) _originally appeared on_ [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://ew.com/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4683413/kevin-oconnell-oscar-hacksaw-ridge-sound-mixing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4683413/kevin-oconnell-oscar-hacksaw-ridge-sound-mixing/"},"headline":"Veteran Sound Mixer Kevin O’Connell Just Won His First Oscar After 21 Nominations","datePublished":"2017-02-27T04:33:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:32:03.920Z","description":"It finally happened for Kevin O’Connell","url":"https://time.com/4683413/kevin-oconnell-oscar-hacksaw-ridge-sound-mixing/","keywords":["Oscars 2017","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt955dbd39e591670a/6988bc122dce018b379ec6d4/gettyimages-645689022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt955dbd39e591670a/6988bc122dce018b379ec6d4/gettyimages-645689022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ABC's Coverage Of The 89th Annual Academy Awards","caption":"ABC's Coverage Of The 89th Annual Academy Awards","creditText":"Patrick Wymore/ABC via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/oscars-2017/","name":"Oscars 2017"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4683413/kevin-oconnell-oscar-hacksaw-ridge-sound-mixing/","name":"Veteran Sound Mixer Kevin O’Connell Just Won His First Oscar After 21 Nominations"}}]}] ```