Countdown to Oscar: Best Sound Mixing

Nominees:
Argo
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

And here we have the two seemingly most out of place Oscar categories:  the sound awards.  Nobody knows the nominees by name, Robin Williams infamously joked that no one cares about the prizes, and most people don't even understand the difference between the Oscar for sound mixing and the one for editing.  Let's start with mixing.  It is the sound mixing technician's job to combine all of the raw sound that was either recorded or added in post production (by special effects or foley artists) into a free flowing, natural, and well balancing final cut.  Not really much more to say about that to break down the nominees, but I don't really see how Les Mis loses this one.  They broke the rules of how sound could be captured for a movie musical and did so in a way that was not distracting and, at the same time, breathtakingly beautiful.

My ballot:
Les Miserables
Skyfall
Argo
Lincoln
Life of Pi

My pick to win:
Les Miserables

Shoulda been here:
Magic Mike