ACE Eddie nominations

It's going to be a busy two weeks of guild nominations and precursors, starting today with the American Cinema Editors (discussed after the cut), and continuing all the way to next Thursday (the 12th) with the Directors Guild. Polls for Oscar nominations, by the way, will close the very next day.

Critics groups have made it clear that the two horses they'd back are Moonlight and La La Land, which (by no coincidence) are also the only two yours truly would consider voting for as Best Picture of 2016. That's the thing about weak years: It makes it real easy for consensus to form around the few truly great movies that materialize.

Both seem likely to win the respective categories where they were nominated by the editors' guild, but let's take a quick survey of the other contenders...

ACE winners and SAG Predix [UPDATE: Winners]

It's a busy weekend of guild activity. The American Cinema Editors handed out hardware last night to all the usual suspects: Amy and Inside Out received their due in the ghettoized doc and animation categories (but seriously, the editing in those two are good enough to be up for the Oscar), while the current fruntrunners for the Academy's editing prize, The Big Short and Mad Max: Fury Road, got to split the top honours due to comedy/drama distinctions. I'm leaning the way of The Big Short coming out on top in the end, but a BAFTA win for Mad Max may yet give me hope.

Both of those are also in the hunt for awards from the Screen Actors Guild tonight. Mad Max is sure to take the prize for Best Stunt Ensemble, but The Big Short has its eyes set on the more significant Best Ensemble category. If Spotlight is going to make a push back in the latter half of phase two, it must start here. If it loses, however, then it truly is a runaway train.

Three of the four individual acting categories feel locked into place, but for Best Supporting Actor due to the absence of presumed frontrunner Sylvester Stallone. If Mark Rylance or Christian Bale (the only SAG contenders nominated for the Oscar) win, then I think this is still a race to the finish.

My guesses:
Best Stunt Ensemble: Mad Max [WINNER: Mad Max] Because d'uh.
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale [WINNER: Idris Elba] So this ends up not affecting the Oscar race for the moment. Only the forthcoming BAFTA ceremony can shed any light on who Sly's greatest challenger really is.
Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander [WINNER: Alicia Vikander] Category fraud lives.
Best Leading Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio [WINNER: Leonardo DiCaprio] Cannot be stopped.
Best Leading Actress: Brie Larson [WINNER: Brie Larson] But will the Brits prefer her to Irish darling Saoirse Ronan?
Best Ensemble: The Big Short [WINNER: Spotlight] Thank God! This is enough to at least keep the Best Picture race interesting for another week. And even if this proves to be the only major prize that Spotlight claims over The Big Short, it's certainly the most satisfying and deserved prize to win.

'Boyhood', 'Grand Budapest' Win with Editors Guild

The American Cinema Editors handed out their hardware last night, honouring Boyhood's Sandra Adair in the drama category and The Grand Budapest Hotel's Barney Pilling in the muscial/comedy category. Both were nominated by the Academy.

I gotta say this Oscar category is still a complete mystery to me. It used to be that the winner of the ACE drama award always went on to win the Oscar, but that pattern has been bucked twice in the last three years. True, Boyhood could pull out the win on account of its "12 years of footage" narrative (a bit of an oversimplification, as it's actually only 12 weeks of footage amassed over 12 years), but the Academy usually goes for editing that... stands out. The greatest thing about Boyhood's montage is how invisibly fluent it is. I could definitely see something with a more rigourous cutting style like Whiplash or American Sniper taking it.

Elsewhere, The LEGO Movie won the animated category, adding more salt to the wound of its Oscar snub, while Citizenfour won the doc category for Mathilde Bonnefoy (who will actually get to take home her own Oscar since she's also a producer on the film).

ACE Eddie nominees yield a couple of surprises

Next week promises to be a crazy busy one for awards watchers with no less than six guilds announcing their nominees. But getting a jump on all of them are the American Cinema Editors, who offered up their opinion of the best edited films of the year this morning.

Most of the biggest players in the Best Picture race found some love from the editors, except for Selma which might be suffering the effects of a super late release.

But the more interesting than any snubs are the entrants that weren't entirely expected: Nightcrawler and American Sniper both turned up in the Drama category -- which has six nominees due to a tie -- and that can only be a good omen for these Best Picture dark horses during this crucial voting period (ballots went out on Monday and are due next Thursday).

Check out all the nominees with some additional comments after the cut.

ACE Eddie winners

One of the craft categories I'm having the hardest time predicting this year is Best Film Editing. I may keep going back and forth on the issue right up until the eve of the Oscars (and possibly well into the show)! But last night's American Cinema Editors (ACE Eddie) Awards lent some clarity into what the experts themselves think, and the news is not at all surprising.

Christopher Rouse took home top honours in Best Edited Feature (Drama) for Captain Phillips, and may well take the Oscar as well on March 2nd. Even though the film is apparently not the strongest Best Picture contender, having missed out on Best Director and Actor nominations, sometimes the Academy does vote for the film with the most obvious editing. Remember The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Black Hawk Down, The Matrix, and The Bourne Ultimatum (which brought Rouse his first Oscar) managed to win without Best Picture nominations even. Still, one gets the feeling that a Gravity sweep could tilt this category in Alfonso Cuaron's favour.

Guild noms keep rolling with American Cinema Editors

The ACE has joined the fray with their nominations for the Eddies. As expected, all four Best Picture frontrunners are represented.

The four feature film categories (plus commentary) after the cut:

ACE, CAS both announce winners

Winners for the American Cinema Editors Awards went pretty much as expected. Oscar frontrunner William Goldenberg took home the award for Best Edited Dramatic Feature Film for Argo, while fellow Oscar nominees Jay Cassidy and Crispen Struthers won for Best Edited Comedy/Musical Feature Film for Silver Linings Playbook.

Malik Bendjelloul continued Searching for Sugar Man's dominance by winning the Documentary category, while Brave bested Oscar favourite Wreck-It Ralph in the Animated category. I'm starting to get some real vibes that Brave is the one that's gonna take Best Animated Feature next week. The marketing of Wreck-It Ralph may well have deterred many an Academy voter from even seeing it, whereas Pixar is a studio that usually garners respect from the industry. I may have to switch my prediction at the eleventh hour.

American Cinema Editors nominate...

ACE Eddie nominations have landed just one day following Oscar nominations. Oscar snubees Les Mis and Skyfall can take some consolation in their citations here. All five Oscar nominees for Film Editing are accounted for.

Best Editing - Drama
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty

The decade long streak of an ACE winner going on to win Best Film Editing at the Oscars was broken last year when The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won (no comment) over The Descendants and The Artist. Not sure what the case will be this year. Argo and Zero Dark Thirty have showier editing, but Lincoln and Life of Pi appear to be more popular with the Academy. I'd still look to the winner of this prize to be the Oscar favourite.

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.

ACE, CAS, WGA, MPSE preview

It's a busy weekend for guild awards looking to have their say before Oscar polls close on Tuesday.

The American Cinema Editors would be a more important announcement if it weren't for their separation of the nominees into Drama and Comedy categories. The Artist is obviously going to win in the Comedy category, while Drama is probably going the way of Hugo (although I could see it going to Dragon Tattoo as well). As for the Oscar, it'll be down to The Artist and whatever film does win for Drama, as the Oscar winner for Editing has won the ACE Eddie for the last ten years in a row.

The Cinema Audio Society only nominated two films that went on to receive Sound Mixing nods from the Academy; Hugo and Moneyball. I'm anticipating Hugo will take it from the Society, but am still sticking with War Horse to impress the Academy.

The Writers Guild of America is probably going to award Midnight in Paris for Original Screenplay and Moneyball for Adapted, a pair of winners I wouldn't be surprised to see repeat at the Oscars, though I am expecting The Descendants to come out on top with the Academy.

Finally, the Motion Picture Sound Editors have a few categories in which to acknowledge the year's best sound editing. The important category in terms of Oscar is Best Sound Effects and Foley, where I'm guessing it'll be War Horse. Interesting to note: for four of the last five years, the winner of that category with the MPSE as gone on to win the Oscar for Sound Editing, and since the two Sound categories so often go to the same film, this guild is possibly a more accurate bellwether of Best Sound Mixing than the CAS.

ACE Eddie nominees

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic):
The Descendants, Kevin Tent, A.C.E.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Angus Wall, A.C.E. & Kirk Baxter, A.C.E.
Hugo, Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E.
Moneyball, Christopher Tellefsen, A.C.E.
War Horse, Michael Kahn, A.C.E.

War Horse very much needed this to keep its Best Picture hopes alive. Nice to see Tellefsen nominated for his precise work on Moneyball. He'd make a handsome winner, but alas, I fear this is headed the way of Dragon Tattoo.

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical):
The Artist, Anne-Sophie Bion & Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids, William Kerr & Michael L. Sale
Midnight in Paris, Alisa Lepselter
My Week with Marilyn, Adam Recht
Young Adult, Dana E. Glauberman, A.C.E.

What!? No Beginners!? And in lieu of that they nominate My (Excruciatingly Long and Clumsily Paced) Week with Marilyn!? Oh, A.C.E. Bow your heads in shame. I'd say The Artist has this sewn up.

Best Edited Animated Feature Film:
The Adventures of Tintin, Michael Kahn, A.C.E.
Puss in Boots, Eric Dapkewicz
Rango, Craig Wood, A.C.E

Michael Kahn is easily the most deserving of this lot if you ask me, but that doesn't necessarily mean the animators branch will nominate the film. Puss in Boots might be emerging as Dreamworks' better bet over Kung Fu Panda 2.

Best Edited Documentary:
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
, Joe Bini & Maya Hawke
Freedom Riders, Lewis Erskine & Aljernon Tunsil
George Harrison: Living in the Material World, David Tedeschi

None of these are on Oscar's shortlist so it's a moot point. But I must inquire as to where Senna is? I didn't think highly of the film itself but there's no denying it's an editors' piece if there ever was one.

ACE Eddie winners!

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic): The Social Network
Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical): Alice in Wonderland
Best Edited Animated Film: Toy Story 3
Best Edited Documentary: Exit Through the Gift Shop

We can all pretend that Alice in Wonderland winning over The Kids Are All Right and Scott Pilgrim in the Comedy category never really happened right? Right?... Good. Glad we agree.

So other than that bit of unpleasantness, this is a pretty terrific group of winners. I'm doing cartwheels right now for Tom Fulford and Chris King, who were rightfully recognized for what is the best editing job of the year on Exit Through the Gift Shop. Gotta hand it to Lee Unkrich and Ken Schretzmann as well on their hard-earned win for editing Toy Story 3.

But the most encouraging sign of the night was Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall's win for The Social Network. ACE has awarded the eventual Oscar winner for Film Editing for the last nine years in a row! This gives me hope. I love Tariq Anwar's cutting of The King's Speech and all, but I couldn't help but think what a shame it would be if it beat the most impeccably paced film of the year to that Editing Oscar. Now I feel I can safely call The Social Network in that category. Fingers crossed!

ACE, CAS, MPSE predictions

It's a big guild weekend. ACE and CAS announce tonight, MPSE tomorrow. Here are my guesses:

American Cinema Editors

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic): The Social Network

The last ten Oscar winners for Editing all won an ACE Eddie first, so this prediction may be wishful thinking on my part. If The King's Speech wins it, there's your Oscar winner.

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical): Scott Pilgrim vs the World

I firmly believe The Kids Are All Right deserves it here, but it would be so nice to see Scott Pilgrim come out of this awards season with something!

Best Edited Animated Film: Toy Story 3

Hard to argue with that, but it could be How to Train Your Dragon, which would be fine by me.

Best Edited Documentary: Inside Job

It's probably the Oscar frontrunner (hard to tell), but I'll do flips if Exit Through the Gift Shop takes it! Best. Editing. Of. The. Year.

Cinema Audio Society

I'm rooting for Black Swan, but it looks doubtful. Could be The Social Network, but I'm going with Inception. If True Grit wins it, look out on Oscar night!


Motion Picture Sound Editors just taking wild guesses here

Best Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film: Inception
Best Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film: TRON Legacy
Best Sound Effects, Foley, Music, Dialogue and ADR in a Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3
Best Music Editing in a Feature Film: Inception
Best Music Editing in a Musical Feature: Burlesque
Best Sound Editing in a Documentary: Restrepo
Best Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Foreign Feature: Lebanon

ACE nominees!

The American Cinema Editors have spoken:

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)
“Black Swan” (Andrew Weisblum)
“The Fighter” (Pamela Martin)
“Inception” (Lee Smith) This had better win!
“The King’s Speech” (Tariq Anwar)
“The Social Network” (Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall)

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical)
“Alice in Wonderland” (Chris Lebenzon)
“Easy A” (Susan Littenberg)
“The Kids Are All Right” (Jeffrey M. Werner) This had better win!
“Made in Dagenham” (Michael Parker)
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss)

Best Edited Animated Film
“Despicable Me” (Gregory Perler, Pam Ziegenhagen)
“How to Train Your Dragon” (Maryann Brandon, Darren T. Holmes)
“Toy Story 3″ (Ken Schretzmann, Lee Unkrich)

Best Edited Documentary
“Exit Through the Gift Shop” (Tom Fulford, Chris King) This had better win!
“Inside Job” (Chad Beck, Adam Bolt)
“Waiting for Superman” (Jay Cassidy, Greg Finton, Kim Roberts)


Pretty decent slate, especially given how my five film editing favourites of the year are all represented! Yay! Some observations to pick out from this very important guild:

-The omission of 127 Hours is indeed a sign; the industry just doesn't seem excited about this movie. Are people really being turned off by the graphic grisliness? I'm thinking this is the Best Picture contender in that unenviable 11th slot right now.
-I've had The Fighter down for Film Editing since my early predictions waaaaay back in May, and it looks like that may come to fruition.
-Black Swan and Inception have scored with every guild (although you could argue Inception's Stunt Ensemble nod from SAG doesn't really count).
-Inside Job is the only documentary to score with all four major guilds (DGA, WGA, PGA, ACE). Do we have a winner?