Full Sail Stories

Awards season goes beyond the Oscars and the Grammys – a range of additional important entertainment industry awards also take place at the start of each year. Full Sail grads worked on a variety of winning projects at the 2026 award shows for Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), the Cinema Audio Society (CAS), British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and the Visual Effects Society (VES).

At this year’s MPSE Awards, five Recording Arts grads were credited on winning projects. David Farmer was a Sound Designer on The Gorge for Apple TV+, which won in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Non-Theatrical Feature. Debora Lilavois was a Music Editor on the episode “Part One” of HBO Max’s Billy Joel: And So It Goes; the miniseries episode won for Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing – Documentary.

Chris Kokkinos and Nick Seamen worked as a Senior Sound Designer and Foley Editor, respectively, on the game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which received the award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Game Effects/Foley. And James Miller was a Sound Designer on Predator: Killer of Killers; the anthology film won for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Non-Theatrical Animation.

At the CAS Awards, Gary Rizzo and Juan Peralta both worked as Re-recording Mixers on Motion Picture – Live Action winner F1; fellow grad Terah Woodley was also credited as a Mix Tech on the film. In addition, Gary and Juan won Oscars for their work on F1, and F1 also received a BAFTA Award for Best Sound.

Grad Michael Merkwan was credited on a winner at the VES Awards: He was an Editorial Supervisor on The Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas, which won for Outstanding Visual Effects In A Special Venue Project.