NOMINEES
- The Artist – Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
- The Descendants – Kevin Tent
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
- Hugo – Thelma Schoonmaker
- Moneyball – Christopher Tellefsen
This award began in 1934 and is closely watched because it is often seen as good indicator for Best Picture.
That’s because since 1981 every Best Picture nominee has also been nominated for editing, and nearly two thirds of the eventual Best Picture winners have also won the award for editing.
The nominations are voted on by members of the Editing Branch, which in 2008 consisted of 233 members.
Academy Rules state:
- A Reminder List of all eligible motion pictures shall be sent with a nominations ballot to all members of the Film Editors Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five productions.
- The five productions receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Film Editing award.
- …only film editors who hold principal position credit(s) shall be considered eligible for the Film Editing award.
- Final voting for the Film Editing award shall be restricted to active and life Academy members.
- 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 generally eligible.
Intriguingly, this is the reverse of the BAFTA voting system where the winner is selected by members of the equivalent editing branch (or ‘chapter’ as it called in the UK).
THE ARTIST
- Michael Hazanavicius talking at the recent ACE awards [about 5 mins in]
- French video interview with Anna-Sophie Bion [18 mins]
THE DESCENDANTS
- Video of the recent ACE tribute to Alexander Payne
- Post Magazine audio interview with Kevin Tent [5 mins]
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
- Post Magazine feature on how Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter edited the movie
- DV Magazine with more details on the post-production
HUGO
MONEYBALL
- Post Magazine audio interview with editor Chris Tellefsen [31 mins]
- NY Times feature on the editing of Moneyball
- Studio Daily interview with Chris Tellefsen
> Official Oscar site
> Explore previous winners of Best Editing at Wikipedia