One Category at a Time: Film Editing

For ten consecutive years, the winner of the ACE Eddie has gone on to win the Academy Award for Film Editing, proving a reliable barometer for pundits. It's usually the ACE winner for Drama that shoulders the most Oscar clout, but this is a rare year in which the ACE winner for Comedy is an equally (or even more) viable contender on account of being the Best Picture frontrunner.

One Category at a Time: Film Editing

This is just one of many tight races that will be decided on Oscar night. The King's Speech and The Social Network are neck-in-neck. As I've stated before, the cause for uncertainty stems from the two conflicting schools of thought on how the general Academy votes on these categories that they might not understand; do they vote for the movie they liked better, or for the movie with the more noticeable craft? There are probably plenty of voters who fall into either camp, but as to which camp is more populated is anybody's guess.

At least it comes down the two most deserving nominees, in my opinion. Tariq Anwar does a terrific job at punctuating the actors' performances with shrewd shot selection for The King's Speech, and Baxter and Wall give The Social Network a flow that can't be topped. Either of them would make a fine winner in lieu of Lee Smith, who suffered the most egregious snub of the year when the editors branch gave Inception the kick.
The only clue I can look to for guidance (or misguidance as the case may be) is the ACE Eddie, which has gone to the eventual Oscar winner for the last nine consecutive years, almost always in the Drama category. The Social Network took that this year, so I'm gonna put my faith in the trend.

As for the also-rans, there's some decent work on display, most notably Andrew Weisblum's cutting of Black Swan. I don't relish the task of trying to moderate and control Aronofsky's off-the-wall visuals. The boxing sequences in The Fighter were well put together by Pamela Martin, and John Harris certainly amped up the intensity in 127 Hours (even if I'm not exactly on board with that directorial decision).

Will win: The Social Network
Runner-up: The King's Speech

Should win: The Social Network
Should have been nominated: Exit Through the Gift Shop and Inception

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!

My Award nominations: Film Editing

Best Film Editing:

Black Swan (Andrew Weisblum):
The slow build of tension is brilliantly controlled so that when we come to the jumps scares, they really do make you jump! The handling of Nina's hallucinations is essential to selling her descent into madness.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (Tom Fulford & Chris King):
A sharp sense of comic timing helps punctuate every hilarious phrase that leaves Guietta's mouth. To have sifted through the tens of thousands of hours of his amateur movie making alone merits some kind of Iron Man award.

Inception (Lee Smith):
Intertwines multiple dream levels into a cohesive and thrilling action extravaganza. The entire final hour of the film is a masterstroke of bravura storytelling, executed with infallible clockwork precision.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss):

I've seen 'Scott Pilgrim' a few times now, but I always laugh as though it's the first time. It occurs to me that it's because the comedy isn't so much in the text as it is in the timing. The editing is so precise that I could watch it in a foreign language and still respond to every comic beat.

The Social Network (Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall):
Does justice to the back-and-forth structure of Sorkin's screenplay, as well as his rapid-fire dialogue. The editors need to be as on their toes as the actors, and they find a terrific rhythm to each scene.

Just missed: Fish Tank, How to Train Your Dragon,
The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, Toy Story 3