The Academy Award of Merit for Best Sound Editing is an Academy Award granted yearly to a film exhibiting the finest or most aesthetic sound editing or sound design. The award is usually received by the Supervising Sound Editors of the film, perhaps accompanied by the Sound Designers.

The Sound Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, until 2006 would use a “bake-off” of the best films from the previous year to decide which films should be referred to the full academy as nominations for award. In a rule change on June 30, 2006, the bake-off for the sound branch was eliminated and the usual process of a “preferential ballot” submission was instituted.

During certain years, the highest award given for this category may be a “Special Achievement Award,” and not an Oscar. Academy rules require that a minimum of number of films must be nominated in a category for an Academy Award to be granted, and so when the number of qualifying nominees isn’t sufficient, a Special Achievement Award is granted instead.

This is a list of films that have won or been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects (1963–1967, 1975), Sound Effects Editing (1977, 1981–1999), or Sound Editing (1979, 2000–present).

• 2010: Inception – Richard King
  
• 2009: The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson
• 2008: The Dark Knight – Richard King
• 2007: The Bourne Ultimatum – Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
• 2006: Letters from Iwo Jima – Bub Asman and Alan Robert Murray
• 2005: King Kong – Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn
• 2004: The Incredibles – Michael Silvers and Randy Thom
• 2003: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World – Richard King
• 2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Michael Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn
• 2001: Pearl Harbor – George Watters, Christopher Boyes
• 2000: U-571 – Jon Johnson
• 1999 The Matrix — Dane Davis
• 1998 Saving Private Ryan — Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns
• 1997 Titanic — Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes
• 1996 The Ghost and the Darkness — Bruce Stambler
• 1995 Braveheart — Lon Bender, Per Hallberg
• 1994 Speed — Stephen Hunter Flick
• 1993 Jurassic Park — Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns
• 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula — Tom McCarthy, David Stone
• 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day — Gary Rydstrom, Gloria Borders
• 1990 The Hunt for Red October — Cecelia Hall, George Watters
• 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — Ben Burtt, Richard Hymns
• 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit — Charles Campbell, Louis Edemann
• 1987 RoboCop — Stephen Hunter Flick, John Pospisil (Special Achievement Award)
• 1986 Aliens — Don Sharpe
• 1985 Back to the Future — Charles Campbell, Robert Rutledge
• 1984 The River — Kay Rose (Special Achievement Award)
• 1983 The Right Stuff — Jay Boekelheide
• 1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — Charles Campbell, Ben Burtt
• 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark — Ben Burtt, Richard Anderson (Special Achievement Award)
• 1980 none given
• 1979 The Black Stallion – Alan Splet (Special Achievement Award)
• 1978 none given
• 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Frank Warner (Special Achievement Award)
• 1976 none given
• 1975 The Hindenburg – Peter Berkos (Special Achievement Award)
• 1974 none given
• 1973 none given
• 1972 none given
• 1971 none given
• 1970 none given
• 1969 none given
• 1968 none given
• 1967 The Dirty Dozen — John Poyner
• 1966 Grand Prix — Gordon Daniel
• 1965 The Great Race — Treg Brown
• 1964 Goldfinger — Norman Wanstall
• 1963 It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World — Walter Elliott