The Oscars film editing race is beginning to look clear after King Richard and tick, tick…BOOM! took home wins at the ACE Eddie Awards 2022.
The 72nd Annual ACE Eddie Awards presented by American Cinema Editors (ACE) today announced winners LIVE at the Theater at the ACE Hotel recognizing outstanding editing in 14 categories of film, television, and documentaries. In addition to the announcement of winners in competitive categories, Michelle Satter accepted the prestigious ACE Golden Eddie Award – recognizing an artist or company for distinguished achievement in film – on behalf of The Sundance Institute; two-time Oscar winner and 2021 ACE Eddie nominee Chloe Zhao presented the honor.
Film editors Lillian E. Benson, ACE and Richard Chew, ACE received Career Achievement Awards for their outstanding contributions to film editing with long time collaborators Debbie Allen presenting to Benson and Emilio Estevez presenting to Chew.
When I make my Oscars predictions, one of the things I also look at is who were awarded by the guilds. The ACE Eddie Awards honor films for both dramatic and comedy. Historically speaking, 22 of the last 30 winners in the dramatic category have also gone on to repeat on Oscar Sunday. More recently, this number is 11 when you look at the past 16 dramatic winners. The last film to win an Eddie but lose out on the Oscar was Parasite. Ford v Ferrari took home the Oscar instead. Given the statistical history, Pamela Martin is the current frontrunner for King Richard. Oscars history gives her this advantage but you never know. We’ll certainly see what happens on Oscar Sunday when King Richard, tick, tick…BOOM!, Don’t Look Up, Dune, and The Power of the Dog face off against each other.
It should be noted that King Richard has a Best Picture nomination while tick, tick…BOOM! does not. Regardless, I feel bad for whichever film wins the category because they won’t have their Oscar moment in the traditional sense. Not while the Academy goes through with its fakakta plan to present eight categories while everyone else is out on the red carpet. It’s a bullshit move and they know it. PRESENT ALL 23. I have strong feelings on the matter. Rant over.
As we look ahead to the future, it is certainly hard to take home Best Picture without a film editing nomination. This isn’t to say it’s impossible because it has been done. It is also rare–nine films if I recall correctly. The lack of a nomination by the Academy is what hurts the campaigns for films like Belfast and CODA. Since 1980, only two films have won without the nomination: Ordinary People and Birdman. CODA winning Best Cast at the SAG Awards certainly helps with its campaign but only so much.
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC):King RichardPamela Martin, ACE BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY):tick, tick…BOOM!Myron Kerstein, ACE, Andrew Weisblum, ACE BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:EncantoJeremy Milton, ACE BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE):Summer of Soul……Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be TelevisedJoshua L. Pearson BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (NON-THEATRICAL):The Beatles: Get Back “Episode 3”Jabez Olssen BEST EDITED MULTI-CAMERA COMEDY SERIES:Kevin Can F**k Himself “Live Free or Die”Daniel Schalk, ACE and Joseph Fulton BEST EDITED SINGLE-CAMERA COMEDY SERIES:Hacks “1.69 Million” Susan Vaill, ACE BEST EDITED DRAMA SERIES: Succession “All the Bells Say”Ken Eluto, ACE BEST EDITED MOTION PICTURE (NON-THEATRICAL):Oslo Jay Rabinowitz, ACE BEST EDITED LIMITED SERIES:Mare of Easttown “Illusions”Amy E. Duddleston, ACE BEST EDITED NON-SCRIPTED SERIES:Formula 1: Drive to Survive “Man on Fire”Dan Ablett, Kevin Austin, Otto Burnham, Shane McCormack, Graham Taylor BEST EDITED VARIETY TALK/SKETCH SHOW OR SPECIAL:Bo Burnham: InsideBo Burnham BEST EDITED ANIMATION (NON-THEATRICAL):Bob’s Burgers “Vampire Disco Death Dance”Jeremy Reuben ANNE V. COATES AWARD FOR STUDENT EDITING:Guanqing Lin – American Film Institute
The Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on March 27, 2022.
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