Academy Award for Best Film Editing
{{Short description|Annual award for best film editing}}
{{use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox award
| name = Academy Award for Best Film Editing
| presenter = Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
| country = United States
| year = {{start date and age|1935|2|27}} (for films released in 1934)
| holder_label = Most recent winner
| holder = Sean Baker
Anora (2024)
| website = {{URL|oscars.org}}
| image = Sean Baker at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (cropped).jpg
| image_caption = The 2024 recipient: Sean Baker
}}
File:ThelmaSchoonmaker.jpg (left) and Columba Powell (right) at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Schoonmaker is among the deans of film editing; Powell is the son of Michael Powell, a prominent film director to whom Schoonmaker was married until his death in 1990.]]
File:Conrad A. Nervig ACE Headsot.png was the inaugural winner, winning for Eskimo (1933). He also won for King Solomon's Mines (1950), alongside Ralph E. Winters.]]
The Academy Award for Best Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. For 33 consecutive years, 1981 to 2013, every Best Picture winner had also been nominated for the Film Editing Oscar, and about two thirds of the Best Picture winners have also won for Film Editing.{{cite news |last=Harris |first=Mark |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/movies/awardsseason/06harr.html |title=Which Editing is a Cut Above? |work=The New York Times |date=January 6, 2008}} In 1980, Ordinary People won as Best Picture, but its editor Jeff Kanew was not nominated for Best Editing.{{cite news |last=Dimond |first=Anna |title=Why Editing Nominations Predict the Best Picture Oscar |work=Variety |date=December 13, 2013 |url=https://variety.com/2013/film/awards/oscars-why-editing-predicts-the-best-picture-1200945193/}} Interviews with prominent film editors exploring the correlation between the Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and for Best Film. Only the principal, "above the line" editor(s) as listed in the film's credits are named on the award; additional editors, supervising editors, etc. are not currently eligible.
The nominations for this Academy Award are determined by a ballot of the voting members of the Editing Branch of the academy; there were 220 members of the Editing Branch in 2012.{{cite web |title=Academy Branches |url=http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/branches.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224235733/http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/branches.html |archive-date=2012-02-24 |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |date=February 2012}} The members may vote for up to five of the eligible films in the order of their preference; the five films with the largest vote totals are selected as nominees.{{cite web|url=http://old.oscars.org/79academyawards/rules/rule13.html |title=Rule Thirteen—Special Rules for the Film Editing Award |work=79th Academy Awards Rules for Distinguished Achievements in 2006 |archive-date=2010-07-18 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20100718105027/http://old.oscars.org/79academyawards/rules/rule13.html |url-status=dead }} Rules are published for each year's awards. In earlier years, different rules applied; thus Robert Parrish was nominated for All the King's Men (1949) with a credit as an "editorial consultant". The Academy Award itself is selected from the nominated films by a subsequent ballot of all active and life members of the academy. This process is essentially the reverse of that of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA); nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing are done by a general ballot of academy voters, and the winner is selected by members of the editing chapter.{{cite web |title=Orange British Academy Film Awards: Rules and Guidelines 2008-2009 |url=http://static.bafta.org/files/rule-book-bafta-film-awards-0809-23.pdf |publisher=British Academy of Film and Television Arts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728001046/http://static.bafta.org/files/rule-book-bafta-film-awards-0809-23.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-28 |url-status=dead }}
History
This award was first given for films released in 1934. The name of this award is occasionally changed; in 2008, it was listed as the Academy Award for Achievement in Film Editing.
Four film editors have won this award three times in their career:
- Ralph Dawson won for A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
- Daniel Mandell won for The Pride of the Yankees (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and The Apartment (1960).
- Michael Kahn won for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Schindler's List (1993), and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
- Thelma Schoonmaker won for Raging Bull (1980), The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006).
To date, three film directors have won this award: James Cameron, Alfonso Cuarón, and Sean Baker, for the films Titanic, Gravity, and Anora, respectively. Directors David Lean, Steve James, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (under the alias "Roderick Jaynes"), Michel Hazanavicius, Jean-Marc Vallée (under the alias "John Mac McMurphy"), and Chloé Zhao have been nominated for editing their own films as well, with Cameron, Cuarón, and the Coens each being nominated for the award twice. Also, Best Film Editing winner, Walter Murch, although known for film editing and sound, directed the Oscar nominated Return to Oz, and is, to date, the only person with Oscars for both sound engineering and film editing—winning them in the same year for his work on The English Patient.
Additionally, former film editors Robert Wise (nominee for Citizen Kane), Hal Ashby (winner for In the Heat of the Night), and Francis D. Lyon (co-winner for Body and Soul) became directors whose films were subsequently nominated for Best Film Editing themselves. These films include Somebody Up There Likes Me, I Want to Live!, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, The Sand Pebbles, and The Andromeda Strain for Wise; Bound for Glory and Coming Home for Ashby; and Crazylegs for Lyon.
Superlatives
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" |
| width="150" | Category
!width="150" | Name !width="150" | Superlative !width="150" | Year !width="350" | Notes |
|---|
| rowspan="4"| Most awards
| rowspan="4"| 3 awards{{cite web |title=FILM EDITING FACTS: MOST NOMINATIONS AND AWARDS |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/Help/Statistics?file=FEdit-Facts.pdf |access-date=2020-01-27 |publisher=Oscars.org}} | 2006 | Awards resulted from 9 nominations |
| Michael Kahn
| 1998 | Awards resulted from 8 nominations |
| Daniel Mandell
| 1960 | Awards resulted from 5 nominations |
| Ralph Dawson
| 1938 | Awards resulted from 4 nominations |
| Most nominations
| 9 nominations | 2023 |
| rowspan="2"| Most nominations without a win
| rowspan="2"| 6 nominations | 1963 | rowspan="2"| Nominations resulted in no awards |
| Gerry Hambling
| 1996 |
| Oldest winner
| Age 68 | 1998 | |
| Oldest nominee
| Age 84 | 2023 | |
| Youngest winner
| Age 27 | 1989 | Co-edited with Joe Hutshing{{cite web |last=Tibbs |first=Ros |date=2023-02-08 |title=The youngest Oscar winner in every Academy Award category |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/youngest-winner-every-academy-award-category/ |access-date=2023-02-23 |publisher=Far Out}} |
Superlatives taken from a document published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.{{cite web |title=Film Editing Facts |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/help/statistics/FEdit-Facts.pdf |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |date=March 2012 |access-date=2012-03-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113125041/http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/help/statistics/FEdit-Facts.pdf |archive-date=2013-11-13 }}
Winners and nominees
These listings are based on the Awards Database maintained by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.{{cite web |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org |title=The Official Academy Awards Database |accessdate=2022-03-20 |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences }} Select all "film editing" awards.
{{legend|#FAEB86|indicates the winner}}
=1930s=
| class="wikitable" style="width:100%" |
| bgcolor="#bebebe"
! width="5%" | Year ! width="35%" | Film ! width="60%" | Nominees |
| style="background:#FAEB86"
| Eskimo |
| Cleopatra |
| One Night of Love |
| style="background:#FAEB86" |
| David Copperfield |
| The Informer |
| Les Misérables |
| The Lives of a Bengal Lancer |
| Mutiny on the Bounty |
| style="background:#FAEB86" |
| Come and Get It |
| The Great Ziegfeld |
| Lloyd's of London |
| A Tale of Two Cities |
| Theodora Goes Wild |
| style="background:#FAEB86"
| Gene Havlick and Gene Milford |
| The Awful Truth
| Al Clark |
| Captains Courageous |
| The Good Earth |
| One Hundred Men and a Girl |
| style="background:#FAEB86" |
| Alexander's Ragtime Band |
| The Great Waltz
| rowspan=2 | Tom Held |
| Test Pilot |
| You Can't Take It with You |
| style="background:#FAEB86"
| Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom |
| Goodbye, Mr. Chips |
| Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
| Gene Havlick and Al Clark |
| The Rains Came |
| Stagecoach
| Otho Lovering and Dorothy Spencer |
=1940s=
=1950s=
=1960s=
=1970s=
=1980s=
=1990s=
=2000s=
=2010s=
=2020s=
| class="wikitable" style="width:100%" |
| bgcolor="#bebebe"
! width="5%" | Year ! width="35%" | Film ! width="60%" | Nominees |
| style="background:#FAEB86" |
| The Father |
| Nomadland |
| Promising Young Woman |
| The Trial of the Chicago 7 |
| style="background:#FAEB86"
| Dune |
| Don't Look Up |
| King Richard |
| The Power of the Dog |
| tick, tick... BOOM! |
| style="background:#FAEB86" |
| The Banshees of Inisherin |
| Elvis
| Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond |
| Tár |
| Top Gun: Maverick |
| style="background:#FAEB86" |
| Anatomy of a Fall |
| The Holdovers |
| Killers of the Flower Moon |
| Poor Things |
| style="background:#FAEB86" |
| The Brutalist |
| Conclave |
| Emilia Pérez |
| Wicked |
Shortlisted finalists
Finalists for Best Film Editing were selected by branch members, who voted for ten finalists which were screened to determine the five nominees.{{cite news |last=Champlin |first=Charles |date=January 5, 1980 |title=Oscar Prunes the Candidates |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/162681439 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=January 19, 2025|id={{ProQuest|162681439}} }}
Multiple wins and nominations
The following editors have received multiple nominations for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. This list is sorted by the number of total awards won (with the number of total nominations listed in parentheses).
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
- 3: Thelma Schoonmaker (9)
- 3: Michael Kahn (8)
- 3: Daniel Mandell (5)
- 3: Ralph Dawson (4)
- 2: William H. Reynolds (7)
- 2: Harold F. Kress (6)
- 2: William A. Lyon (6)
- 2: Joe Hutshing (4)
- 2: Pietro Scalia (4)
- 2: Kirk Baxter (3)
- 2: Gene Milford (3)
- 2: Conrad A. Nervig (3)
- 2: Arthur Schmidt (3)
- 2: Angus Wall (3)
- 2: Harry W. Gerstad (2)
- 2: Paul Weatherwax (2)
- 1: Barbara McLean (7)
- 1: Walter Murch (6)
- 1: Anne V. Coates (5)
- 1: William Goldenberg (5)
- 1: Fredric Steinkamp (5)
- 1: Ralph E. Winters (5)
- 1: Anne Bauchens (4)
- 1: Daniel P. Hanley (4)
- 1: Mike Hill (4)
- 1: William Hornbeck (4)
- 1: Frank P. Keller (4)
- 1: James E. Newcom (4)
- 1: George Amy (3)
- 1: John Bloom (3)
{{col-break}}
- 1: Joel Cox (3)
- 1: Lisa Fruchtman (3)
- 1: Gerald B. Greenberg (3)
- 1: Gene Havlick (3)
- 1: Hal C. Kern (3)
- 1: Stephen Mirrione (3)
- 1: Charles Nelson (3)
- 1: Christopher Rouse (3)
- 1: Lee Smith (3)
- 1: Joe Walker (3)
- 1: Peter Zinner (3)
- 1: Hal Ashby (2)
- 1: Conrad Buff (2)
- 1: James Cameron (2)
- 1: Richard Chew (2)
- 1: Jim Clark (2)
- 1: Tom Cross (2)
- 1: Alfonso Cuarón (2)
- 1: Adrienne Fazan (2)
- 1: Verna Fields (2)
- 1: John Gilbert (2)
- 1: Richard A. Harris (2)
- 1: Alan Heim (2)
- 1: Paul Hirsch (2)
- 1: Robert J. Kern (2)
- 1: Marcia Lucas (2)
- 1: Michael McCusker (2)
- 1: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen (2)
- 1: Thom Noble (2)
- 1: Robert Parrish (2)
- 1: Gene Ruggiero (2)
{{col-break}}
- 1: Claire Simpson (2)
- 1: Cotton Warburton (2)
- 1: Elmo Williams (2)
- 0: Gerry Hambling (6)
- 0: Frederic Knudtson (6)
- 0: Al Clark (5)
- 0: Warren Low (4)
- 0: Michael Luciano (4)
- 0: Richard Marks (4)
- 0: Dorothy Spencer (4)
- 0: Dede Allen (3)
- 0: Philip W. Anderson (3)
- 0: Jay Cassidy (3)
- 0: Hank Corwin (3)
- 0: Richard Francis-Bruce (3)
- 0: Stuart Gilmore (3)
- 0: Doane Harrison (3)
- 0: Pembroke J. Herring (3)
- 0: Robert C. Jones (3)
- 0: Ralph Kemplen (3)
- 0: Sam O'Steen (3)
- 0: Steven Rosenblum (3)
- 0: William Steinkamp (3)
- 0: Frank J. Urioste (3)
- 0: Ferris Webster (3)
- 0: Robert L. Wolfe (3)
- 0: William H. Ziegler (3)
- 0: Tariq Anwar (2)
- 0: Stuart Baird (2)
- 0: Alan Baumgarten (2)
- 0: Samuel E. Beetley (2)
- 0: Danford B. Greene (2)
{{col-break}}
- 0: Walter Hannemann (2)
- 0: Roderick Jaynes (2)
- 0: Sheldon Kahn (2)
- 0: Myron Kerstein (2)
- 0: Saar Klein (2)
- 0: Viola Lawrence (2)
- 0: Chris Lebenzon (2)
- 0: Louis R. Loeffler (2)
- 0: Barry Malkin (2)
- 0: Owen Marks (2)
- 0: Pamela Martin (2)
- 0: Yorgos Mavropsaridis (2)
- 0: Craig McKay (2)
- 0: Sally Menke (2)
- 0: Otto Meyer (2)
- 0: Frank Morriss (2)
- 0: Eve Newman (2)
- 0: Paul Rubell (2)
- 0: Arthur P. Schmidt (2)
- 0: Bud S. Smith (2)
- 0: Tim Squyres (2)
- 0: Crispin Struthers (2)
- 0: Robert Swink (2)
- 0: Kevin Tent (2)
- 0: Walter A. Thompson (2)
- 0: Dylan Tichenor (2)
- 0: Sherman Todd (2)
- 0: Dennis Virkler (2)
- 0: Billy Weber (2)
- 0: Andrew Weisblum (2)
- 0: Juliette Welfling (2)
- 0: John Wright (2)
{{col-end}}
See also
- BAFTA Award for Best Editing
- Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing
- Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Editing
- American Cinema Editors Award for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic
- American Cinema Editors Award for Best Edited Feature Film – Comedy or Musical
- List of Academy Award–nominated films
References
{{reflist}}
{{Academy Awards}}
{{Academy Award Best Film Editing}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Academy Award For Best Film Editing}}