The Motion Picture Sound Editors’ (MPSE) 59th annual Golden Reel Awards were held this evening, celebrating excellence in sound editing. “Super 8,” you’ll recall, led the way with nominees (and was nominated by the Cinema Audio Society), yet failed to score an Oscar nod in either sound category.

Tonight, the film managed to take home an award, for dialogue and ADR in a feature film. So it gets to hold its head up high. However, it was “War Horse” that triumphed in the sound effects and foley department, which is the area that most corresponds to Oscar (at least in terms of how the category is largely viewed).

After last night’s CAS win for “Hugo,” I started to lean toward a split between that film (mixing) and “War Horse” (editing) in the sound categories. I’m feeling that even more after tonight, but both categories could just as easily end up going to one film or the other. Pick your splits carefully.

Speaking of “Hugo,” which is considered the favorite to win the Best Sound Editing Oscar by most pundits, it did win the only award it was nominated for tonight, for music editing. Elsewhere, “The Muppets” won in the musical category, while “The Adventures of Tintin” took the animated prize.

The other nominees up for Best Sound Editing along with “Hugo” and “War Horse” are “Drive,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” They were up for two awards each tonight but went home empty-handed.

Previously announced, eight-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner George Watters II, best known perhaps for his work on Jerry Bruckheimer films stretching back to “Top Gun,” was honored with the Career Achievement Award, while Gale Anne Hurd received the MPSE Filmmaker Award.

Check out the full list of winners below.

Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film: “War Horse”

Music in a Feature Film: “Hugo”

Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film: “Super 8”

Music in a Musical Feature Film: “The Muppets”

Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in an Animated Film: “The Adventures of Tintin”

Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue, ADR and Music in a Feature Documentary: “George Harrison: Living in the Material World”

Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Foreign Language Film: “The Flowers of War”

Career Achievement Award: George Watters II

Filmmaker Award: Gale Anne Hurd

Remember to keep track of the ups and downs of the 2011-2012 film awards season via The Circuit.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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