Johnnie Burn

Johnnie Burn (born May 1970) is a British film sound designer. In addition to founding Wave Studios, he is known for his collaborations with directors Jonathan Glazer, Jordan Peele, and Yorgos Lanthimos. For his work on the 2023 film The Zone of Interest, Burn won the 2024 Academy Award for Best Sound alongside Tarn Willers.^[2][3]

Johnnie Burn
Burn in 2023
Born	1970 (age 54–55)[1]
Occupation	Sound engineer

Career

Burn initially intended to pursue a business career, but dropped out of university to pursue a career in sound design. In 1998, while working at the Tape Gallery in London, he was introduced to frequent collaborator Jonathan Glazer.^[4] Burn co-founded Wave Studios in 1999 with Warren Hamilton.^[5][6] In addition to producing sound design for commercials, films, and television, Wave Studios created the sonic branding for the Skype video messaging application.^[7][8]

Personal life

Burn resides in Brighton.^[8]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Notes
1992	Weekender	Short film
2004	Birth	—N/a
2012	Payback Season	—N/a
	The Devil's Dosh	Short film
2013	Warrioress	—N/a
	Under the Skin	—N/a
2015	A Plea for Grimsby	Short film
	The Lobster	—N/a
	Anchor	Short film
2017	Ghost in the Shell	—N/a
	The Killing of a Sacred Deer	—N/a
2018	The Mercy	—N/a
	The Favourite	—N/a
2019	Olla	Short film
	Nimic	Short film
	Waves	—N/a
2020	Ammonite	—N/a
	First Light	Short film to promote the Alexander McQueen spring/summer 2021 collection
2022	Nope	—N/a
2023	Poor Things	—N/a
	The Zone of Interest	—N/a
2025	28 Years Later [9][10]	—N/a
	Hurry Up Tomorrow[11]	—N/a

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1992	The Fat Slags	Miniseries
2020	Strasbourg 1518	Television short

Commercials

Year	Title	Brand
1999	"Surfer"	Guinness
2001	"Dreamer"	Guinness

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist
1996	"Say You'll Be There"	Spice Girls
1998	"Rabbit in Your Headlights"	Unkle featuring Thom Yorke
1999	"Thursday's Child"	David Bowie
2000	"A Song for the Lovers"	Richard Ashcroft
	"Music"	Madonna

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2013	British Independent Film Awards	Best Technical Achievement	Under the Skin	Nominated
2015	Seattle Film Critics Society	Best Sound Design	Under the Skin	Nominated
	International Online Cinema Awards	Best Sound Mixing		Runner-up[a]
		Best Sound Editing		Runner-up
	Ghent International Film Festival	Best Original Music and Sound Design	The Lobster	Won
2018	British Independent Film Awards	Best Sound	The Favourite	Nominated
2019	Golden Reel Awards	Dialogue and ADR for Feature Film	The Favourite	Nominated[b]
		Sound Effects and Foley for Feature Film		Nominated[c]
2020	Golden Reel Awards	Feature Underscore	Waves	Nominated[d]
2023	Golden Reel Awards	Sound Effects and Foley for Feature Film	Nope	Nominated[e]
	International Cinephile Society	Best Sound Design		Nominated[f]
	Music + Sound Awards, International	Best Sound Design in a Feature Film		Won
	International Online Cinema Awards	Best Sound		Won[f]
	North Carolina Film Critics Association	Best Sound Design		Won[f]
	Gold Derby Awards	Gold Derby Film Award for Sound		Nominated[f]
	Music City Film Critics Association	Best Sound		Nominated[f]
	Portland Critics Association	Best Sound Design		Nominated[f]
	Minnesota Film Critics Alliance	Best Sound Work		Runner-up[f]
	Hollywood Creative Alliance	Best Sound		Nominated[f]
	Cannes Film Festival	CST Award for Best Artist-Technician	The Zone of Interest	Won
	European Film Awards	European Sound		Won[g]
	Los Angeles Film Critics Association	Best Music Score		Won[h]
	London Film Critics' Circle	Technical Achievement of the Year		Nominated[h]
2024	Academy Awards	Best Sound		Won[g]
	British Academy of Film and Television Arts	Best Sound		Won[g]
	International Cinephile Society	Best Sound Design		Pending[g]
	Music City Film Critics Association	Best Sound		Nominated[g]
	Gold Derby Awards	Gold Derby Film Award for Sound		Nominated[g]
	North Dakota Film Society	Best Sound		Nominated[g]
	Association of Motion Picture Sound	Excellence in Sound for a Feature Film		Won[i]
	Golden Reel Awards	Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR for Foreign Language Feature Film		Nominated[j]
		Dialogue and ADR for Feature Film	Poor Things	Nominated [k]

Notes

1. Shared with Steve Single and Nigel Albermaniche
2. Shared with Michelle Fingleton
3. Shared with Simon Carroll, Caoimhe Doyle, Brendan Rehill, and Jean McGrath
4. Shared with Sally Boldt and Trey Edward Shults
5. Shared with Simon Carroll, Brendan Feeney, Maximilian Behrens, Ben Gulvin, Jeff Smith Beresford Cookman, Dhyana Carlton-Tims, Natalia Lubowiecka, Ewa Mazurkiewicz, and Jacek Wisniewski
6. Shared with José Antonio García
7. Shared with Tarn Willers
8. Shared with Mica Levi
9. Shared with Tarn Willers and Mateusz Stasiak
10. Shared with Simon Carroll, Maximilian Behrens, Joe Mount · Brendan Feeney, Ewa Mazurkiewicz, Natalia Lubowiecka, Dawid Konecki and Kamil Kwiatkowski
11. Shared with Tristan Bayliss and Peter Russell