ACE winners clarify Best Film Editing race

Only one notable surprise at last night's American Cinema Editors awards. While The Artist predictably took home the Best Edited Feature prize in the Comedy/Musical category, and while Rango continued its precursor dominance in the Animated Feature category (I'd have liked to see Michael Kahn win that for Tintin), it was the subdued editing of The Descendants that beat out the Best Picture buzz of Hugo, flashier editing of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and superior editing of Moneyball in the Drama category.

Going by the precedent that the Oscar winner for Editing has first one an ACE Eddie for ten consecutive years, that would pare the contest down to The Descendants vs. The Artist. And given that The Artist is going to win Best Picture and has much more noticeable editing than The Descendants, it should be an easy call. However, I still think the conspicuous cutting of Hugo and Dragon Tattoo stand a better shot at upsetting the frontrunner than The Descendants, but it would be the first time since 2001 when Traffic trumped eventual Best Picture winner Gladiator, and that year was a real anomaly. Nope, The Artist is clearly the one to beat in this category.

Over in the Documentary category, Freedom Riders took the Eddie over higher profile contenders Cave of Forgotten Dreams and George Harrison: Living in the Material World.