In the history of the Academy Awards, the Best Editing category has been an indicator for the Best Picture winner. And what's the best indicator for our Editing nominees? The annual ACE Eddie Awards, honoring the best in the field of motion picture splicing.
Martin Scorsese once said that when editing two shots together, you have three shots to contend with. Both shots, plus the one in-between that no one sees. With that sort of mindset, you don't have to wonder why his editor Thelma Schoonmaker and he work so well together.
This year's Feature Film nominees, after the cut -
Best Editing Dramatic Feature Film -
Black Swan - Andrew Weisblum, ACE
The Fighter - Pamela Martin
Inception - Lee Smith, ACE
The King's Speech - Tariq Anwar
The Social Network - Angus Wall, ACE and Kirk Baxter
Best Editing Comedy/Musical Feature Film -
Alice in Wonderland - Chris Lebenzon, ACE
Easy A - Stuart Littenberg
The Kids Are All Right - Jeffrey M Warner
Made in Dagenham - Michael Parker
Scott Pilgrim vs the World - Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss
For the full nominees, click here.
One reason I'm so pleased that the Academy Awards switched to nominating ten films for Best Picture, rather than the former five, is that it makes the race just a little bit more interesting. Out of the ten nominees listed in the ACE awards above, only six of those stand a shot of being nominated for Picture at the Oscars. Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The King's Speech, The Kids Are All Right, and The Social Network. That leaves four spots open - say, in 2008, or before, there was little to no tension this time of year. No one expected The Blind Side to be a Best Picture nominee, the way so few of us expected The Fighter to do this well. We knew it would make some sort of a splash for Bale, but... all these other awards? A very pleasant surprise.
In 2008, the Eddie Awards matched, 5/5, the DGA nominees. The only surprise that year was the criminal exclusion of The Dark Knight come Oscar nomination day. At least Heath Ledger won - we have something to hold on to. This year, the Eddie awards match our DGA nominees 5/5 again. Will Christopher Nolan be left out this year as well? Surely the ACE nominations can't be cursed...
Oh, well - at least Stephen Daldry didn't release a movie this year. Inception might be safe.
Who do you think will win at these awards? Tell me in the comments below. For my money, it's The Social Network.
