Academy Award for Best Film Editing explained
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.[1] [2] 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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]
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:
To date, two film directors have won this award: James Cameron and Alfonso Cuarón, for the films Titanic and Gravity, 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"), Chloé Zhao and Sean Baker 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
Superlatives taken from a document published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[8]
Winners and nominees
These listings are based on the Awards Database maintained by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[9]
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
| Year | Film | Nominees |
|---|
1960
(33rd) | The Apartment | Daniel Mandell |
|---|
| The Alamo | Stuart Gilmore |
| Inherit the Wind | Frederic Knudtson |
| Pepe | Viola Lawrence and Al Clark |
| Spartacus | Robert Lawrence |
1961
(34th) |
|---|
| West Side Story | Thomas Stanford |
| Fanny | William H. Reynolds |
| The Guns of Navarone | Alan Osbiston |
| Judgment at Nuremberg | Frederic Knudtson |
| The Parent Trap | Philip W. Anderson |
1962
(35th) |
|---|
| Lawrence of Arabia | Anne V. Coates |
| The Longest Day | Samuel E. Beetley |
| The Manchurian Candidate | Ferris Webster |
| The Music Man | William H. Ziegler |
| Mutiny on the Bounty | John McSweeney Jr. |
1963
(36th) |
|---|
| How the West Was Won | Harold F. Kress |
| The Cardinal | Louis R. Loeffler |
| Cleopatra | Dorothy Spencer |
| The Great Escape | Ferris Webster |
| It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | Frederic Knudtson, Robert C. Jones and Gene Fowler Jr. |
1964
(37th) |
|---|
| Mary Poppins | Cotton Warburton |
| Becket | Anne V. Coates |
| Father Goose | Ted J. Kent |
| Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte | Michael Luciano |
| My Fair Lady | William H. Ziegler |
1965
(38th) |
|---|
| The Sound of Music | William H. Reynolds |
| Cat Ballou | Charles Nelson |
| Doctor Zhivago | Norman Savage |
| The Flight of the Phoenix | Michael Luciano |
| The Great Race | Ralph E. Winters |
1966
(39th) |
|---|
| Grand Prix | Fredric Steinkamp, Henry Berman, Stewart Linder and Frank Santillo |
| Fantastic Voyage | William B. Murphy |
| The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming | Hal Ashby and J. Terry Williams |
| The Sand Pebbles | William H. Reynolds |
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Sam O'Steen |
1967
(40th) |
|---|
| In the Heat of the Night | Hal Ashby |
| Beach Red | Frank P. Keller |
| The Dirty Dozen | Michael Luciano |
| Doctor Dolittle | Samuel E. Beetley and Marjorie Fowler |
| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | Robert C. Jones |
1968
(41st) |
|---|
| Bullitt | Frank P. Keller |
| Funny Girl | Robert Swink, Maury Winetrobe and William Sands |
| The Odd Couple | Frank Bracht |
| Oliver! | Ralph Kemplen |
| Wild in the Streets | Fred R. Feitshans Jr. and Eve Newman |
1969
(42nd) |
|---|
| Z | Françoise Bonnot |
| Hello, Dolly! | William H. Reynolds |
| Midnight Cowboy | Hugh A. Robertson |
| The Secret of Santa Vittoria | William A. Lyon and Earle Herdan |
| They Shoot Horses, Don't They? | Fredric Steinkamp | |
1970s
1980s
1990s
| Year | Film | Nominees |
|---|
1990
(63rd) | Dances with Wolves | Neil Travis |
|---|
| Ghost | Walter Murch |
| The Godfather Part III | Barry Malkin, Lisa Fruchtman and Walter Murch |
| Goodfellas | Thelma Schoonmaker |
| The Hunt for Red October | Dennis Virkler and John Wright |
1991
(64th) |
|---|
| JFK | Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia |
| The Commitments | Gerry Hambling |
| The Silence of the Lambs | Craig McKay |
| Conrad Buff, Mark Goldblatt and Richard A. Harris |
| Thelma & Louise | Thom Noble |
1992
(65th) |
|---|
| Unforgiven | Joel Cox |
| Basic Instinct | Frank J. Urioste |
| The Crying Game | Kant Pan |
| A Few Good Men | Robert Leighton |
| The Player | Geraldine Peroni |
1993
(66th) |
|---|
| Schindler's List | Michael Kahn |
| The Fugitive | Dennis Virkler, David Finfer, Dean Goodhill, Don Brochu, Richard Nord and Dov Hoenig |
| In the Line of Fire | Anne V. Coates |
| In the Name of the Father | Gerry Hambling |
| The Piano | Veronika Jenet |
1994
(67th) |
|---|
| Forrest Gump | Arthur Schmidt |
| Hoop Dreams | Frederick Marx, Steve James and William Haugse |
| Pulp Fiction | Sally Menke |
| The Shawshank Redemption | Richard Francis-Bruce |
| Speed | John Wright |
1995
(68th) |
|---|
| Apollo 13 | Mike Hill and Daniel P. Hanley |
| Babe | Marcus D'Arcy and Jay Friedkin |
| Braveheart | Steven Rosenblum |
| Crimson Tide | Chris Lebenzon |
| Seven | Richard Francis-Bruce |
1996
(69th) |
|---|
| The English Patient | Walter Murch |
| Evita | Gerry Hambling |
| Fargo | Roderick Jaynes |
| Jerry Maguire | Joe Hutshing |
| Shine | Pip Karmel |
1997
(70th) |
|---|
| Titanic | Conrad Buff, James Cameron and Richard A. Harris |
| Air Force One | Richard Francis-Bruce |
| As Good as It Gets | Richard Marks |
| Good Will Hunting | Pietro Scalia |
| L.A. Confidential | Peter Honess |
1998
(71st) |
|---|
| Saving Private Ryan | Michael Kahn |
| Life Is Beautiful | Simona Paggi |
| Out of Sight | Anne V. Coates |
| Shakespeare in Love | David Gamble |
| The Thin Red Line | Billy Weber, Leslie Jones and Saar Klein |
1999
(72nd) |
|---|
| The Matrix | Zach Staenberg |
| American Beauty | Tariq Anwar and Christopher Greenbury |
| The Cider House Rules | Lisa Zeno Churgin |
| The Insider | William Goldenberg, Paul Rubell and David Rosenbloom |
| The Sixth Sense | Andrew Mondshein | |
2000s
2010s
2020s
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.[13]
| Year | Finalists | Ref |
|---|
| 1967 | Bonnie and Clyde, Camelot, The Graduate, Sofi, Thoroughly Modern Millie | [14] |
|---|
| 1968 | The Fixer, The Lion in Winter, Rachel, Rachel, Star!, The Thomas Crown Affair | [15] |
|---|
| 1969 | Anne of the Thousand Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cactus Flower, Gaily, Gaily, Marooned | [16] |
|---|
| 1970 | Catch-22, Five Easy Pieces, The Great White Hope, A Man Called Horse, Ryan's Daughter | [17] |
|---|
| 1971 | Carnal Knowledge, Fiddler on the Roof, Mary, Queen of Scots, Nicholas and Alexandra, Sunday Bloody Sunday | [18] |
|---|
| 1972 | Avanti!, Ben, Butterflies Are Free, Man of La Mancha, 1776 | [19] |
|---|
| 1973 | The Iceman Cometh, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Paper Chase, Paper Moon, Papillon | [20] |
|---|
| 1974 | For Pete's Sake, The Front Page, The Godfather Part II, Hearts and Minds, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three | [21] |
|---|
| 1975 | Funny Lady, The Hindenburg, The Other Side of the Mountain, Rollerball, The Sunshine Boys | [22] |
|---|
| 1976 | King Kong, Midway, The Omen, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Silver Streak | [23] |
|---|
| 1977 | Black Sunday, The Deep, The Goodbye Girl, Islands in the Stream, Saturday Night Fever | [24] |
|---|
| 1978 | The Brink's Job, Foul Play, Grease, Heaven Can Wait, Hooper | [25] |
|---|
| 1979 | The China Syndrome, The Electric Horseman, A Little Romance, Norma Rae, 10 | | |
|---|
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).
See also
Notes and References
- News: Harris . Mark . Which Editing is a Cut Above? . The New York Times . January 6, 2008. In 1980, Ordinary People won as Best Picture, but its editor Jeff Kanew was not nominated for Best Editing.
- News: Dimond . Anna . Why Editing Nominations Predict the Best Picture Oscar . Variety . December 13, 2013 . Interviews with prominent film editors exploring the correlation between the Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and for Best Film.
- Web site: Academy Branches . https://web.archive.org/web/20120224235733/http://www.oscars.org/academy/history-organization/branches.html . 2012-02-24 . . February 2012.
- Web site: Rule Thirteen—Special Rules for the Film Editing Award . 79th Academy Awards Rules for Distinguished Achievements in 2006 . 2010-07-18 . https://archive.today/20100718105027/http://old.oscars.org/79academyawards/rules/rule13.html . 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".
- Web site: Orange British Academy Film Awards: Rules and Guidelines 2008-2009 . British Academy of Film and Television Arts . https://web.archive.org/web/20110728001046/http://static.bafta.org/files/rule-book-bafta-film-awards-0809-23.pdf . 2011-07-28 . dead .
- Web site: FILM EDITING FACTS: MOST NOMINATIONS AND AWARDS . 2020-01-27 . Oscars.org.
- Web site: Tibbs . Ros . 2023-02-08 . The youngest Oscar winner in every Academy Award category . 2023-02-23 . Far Out.
- Web site: Film Editing Facts . . March 2012 . 2012-03-01 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131113125041/http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/help/statistics/FEdit-Facts.pdf . 2013-11-13 .
- Web site: The Official Academy Awards Database . 2022-03-20 . Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Select all "film editing" awards.
- Web site: Academy Awards 2017: Complete list of Oscar winners and nominees . . February 26, 2017 . . January 8, 2018 .
- Web site: Oscar Nominations: 'The Shape Of Water' Leads Way With 13 . Hipes . Patrick . January 23, 2018 . . January 23, 2018 .
- Web site: Oscar Nominations – The Complete List Of Noms . Hipes . Patrick . January 22, 2019 . . January 22, 2019 .
- News: Champlin . Charles . January 5, 1980 . Oscar Prunes the Candidates . Los Angeles Times . January 19, 2025. .
- News: January 17, 1968 . A Whisker-Close Oscar Race . Variety . January 30, 2025. .
- News: January 22, 1969 . Sizing Up This Spring's Oscarcade . Los Angeles Times . January 26, 2025. .
- News: January 15, 1970 . Preliminary Selections in Eight Oscar Races . Los Angeles Times . January 25, 2025. .
- News: January 11, 1971 . First Screenings in Oscar Races . Los Angeles Times . January 23, 2025. .
- News: Alice . Miller . January 16, 1972 . Preliminaries Start in Oscar Screenings . Abilene Reporter News . January 21, 2025.
- News: January 5, 1973 . Oscar Contenders Set for Screening . The Hollywood Reporter . January 21, 2025. .
- News: January 14, 1974 . 5 Branches List Choices for Oscar Nominations . Los Angeles Times . January 20, 2025. .
- News: January 10, 1975 . Screenings Open Oscar Bids . The Hollywood Reporter . January 20, 2025. .
- News: January 14, 1976 . Oscar's Craft Nod Prelim Choices . Variety . January 20, 2025. .
- News: January 8, 1977 . Early Selections for Oscars Noted . Los Angeles Times . January 20, 2025. .
- News: January 6, 1978 . Films Eligible for Technical Oscars . Los Angeles Times . January 20, 2025. .
- News: Champlin . Charles . January 6, 1979 . 'Grease' Tops Oscar Hopefuls . Los Angeles Times . January 19, 2025. .
