138 - The Sound of Nanny

The 2022 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner was the first ever horror film to win the top award at the film festival. But before that, "Nanny" — the feature film debut from Nikyatu Jusu — was also the recipient of the 2022 Dolby Institute Fellowship, which awards a low-budget Sundance film with a post-production grant to finish the film in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

Now that "Nanny" is available to stream on Prime Video, we recently sat down with writer-director Nikyatu Jusu, supervising sound editor Dave Flynch, and Academy Award winning re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay to discuss the film’s rich soundtrack. This episode was recorded during a live post-screening Q&A for the Artist Academy — Film at Lincoln Center’s program for young filmmakers — and was moderated by our executive producer Amanda Schneider.

“We talked a lot about character arc for the soundscape… There is a tendency to neglect sound in the conception stage. And if you think about your soundscape as a character, then you can have an arc for that soundscape so that the audience doesn't become numb, with a relentless soundscape that is not ebbing and flowing.”

— Nikyatu Jusu, Writer and Director, "Nanny"

Be sure to check out "Nanny" on Prime Video.

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