1st Qtr, 2020

In an accelerated awards season where many categories felt wide open until the very end, the ACE Eddies predicted the ultimate winner of the Academy Award® for Best Picture. Parasite’s Yang Jinmo took home the Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic), which is the first time in Eddies and Oscar® history that a foreign language film won the top prize. Yang received his award from director Taika Waititi, whose own editor, Tom Eagles, won the Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy) for Jojo Rabbit.

Held Jan. 17 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel and hosted by D’Arcy Carden, star of NBC’s The Good Place, trophies were handed out in 11 categories of film, television and documentaries. The night also celebrated those whose art and tireless efforts have made significant contributions to advancing the prestige of film editing. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner (Logan, Deadpool, Any Given Sunday) received the Golden Eddie; Alan Heim, ACE, and Tina Hirsch, ACE, accepted Career Achievement Awards.

Cathy Repola, National Executive Director of the Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG), was honored with ACE’s Heritage Award, presented to her by ACE President and MPEG Board Member, Stephen Rivkin, ACE. “The Heritage Award is reserved for an individual of special merit, a person who has had an enormous impact on our craft,” said Rivkin. Repola, who represented the 8,150-member guild during the renegotiation and opposition to the ratification of the IATSE film and TV contract in 2018, was heartened by the night’s honor.

Referencing the negotiations of 2018, Repola remembered, “As we stood proudly together in brotherhood and sisterhood, the more determined I became to stand proudly at the helm, to fight back with all I had, hand in hand with the membership, with our board of directors and with our President, Alan Heim. Whatever courage there was during that time was not mine alone. I could never have gone through what I did without the unwavering support of our members and our incredible staff. I proudly accept this Heritage Award, but I do so on behalf of our entire guild. It is a perfect way to start off what I anticipate to be a great year for the Editors Guild. I am very touched by the generosity of spirit the board of ACE has always afforded me. I so look forward to continuing our journey together as we work toward the goals we all share.”

Oscar winner Alan Heim, ACE (All That Jazz), a past president of ACE and the current president of MPEG, was presented his Career Achievement Award by director and longtime collaborator, Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook, The Other Woman). In remembering their first encounter, Cassavetes remarked, “I didn’t know Alan and he didn’t know me. He was educated, erudite, reserved, wonderfully experienced and I was … tall and tattooed and had an extreme over belief in my own abilities. We worked on The Notebook together and he was less than impressed with me. Even though it probably wasn’t his cup of tea, he just went right to work and that film, in a very large part, turned out to be what it was because of him.”

“I joined ACE because I felt it would help make me a part of the larger editing community,” said Heim, “and it certainly did.” He went on to highlight the many contributions of his assistant editors over the years “for all the patience they showed in teaching me how to use the Avid and new tools that quickly replaced my beloved Moviola, keeping me organized, being a sounding board for my cuts and just being there to talk about so many ‘inside things’ that happen in a cutting room. Some of them have become fine editors in their own right and I hope I’ve been able to help them in their careers.”

ACE past president Tina Hirsch, ACE (The West Wing) received her Career Achievement Award from filmmaker Ron Underwood and thanked Roger Corman and Thelma Schoonmaker, ACE, for helping open edit room doors. “It was Thelma who gave me an opportunity as her assistant editor on the documentary Woodstock. What I’ll always remember and really appreciate is that she would tell me what she needed and I had to figure out how to do it on my own – and that was a really good education.”

Like Heim, Hirsch also thanked her assistant editors saying, “All of them are now editors. It was you guys who provided me with the calm assurance of a well-run cutting room, exactly what I needed to do my best work. I’ve always been most comfortable as a team player and you guys have been my team of all stars. I mean, aren’t we lucky to have each other? Editors are my favorite people. Thank you one and all, fellow editors and colleagues for being professional collaborators and my best friends.”

Marvel’s President, Kevin Feige, presented the Golden Eddie to producer Lauren Shuler Donner. Accepting the award, she shared, “When I think of movie magic, I think of editors.

I’ve witnessed more than one editor making chicken salad out of chicken {expletive deleted}. Taking footage from a so-so scene that wasn’t in the script and turning it into movie magic. So I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You editors who have saved our movies, who have improved our movies – thank you for your gut instincts and thank you for those times where you fought against our worst impulses.”

The night also saw Cary Elwes present the Anne V. Coates Student Editing Award to Chase Johnson of California State University and wins for Toy Story 4, edited by Axel Geddes, ACE, for Best Edited Animated Feature Film; and Apollo 11

, edited by Todd Douglas Miller for Best Edited Documentary (Feature).

Television winners included Better Things (“Easter”), edited by Janet Weinberg, ACE, for Best Edited Comedy Series for Commercial Television; Fleabag (“Episode 2.1”), edited by Gary Dollner, ACE, for Best Edited Comedy Series for NonCommercial Television; and, for the second year in a row, an episode of Killing Eve won in Best Edited Drama Series for Commercial Television, on the strength of the “Desperate Times” episode edited by Dan Crinnion, ACE.

Game of Thrones episode “The Long Night,” edited by Tim Porter, ACE, earned an Eddie for Best Edited Drama Series for Non-Commercial Television; and Chernobyl episode “Vichnaya Pamyat,” edited by Jinx Godfrey & Simon Smith, claimed the trophy for Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television.

VICE Investigates: Amazon on Fire – edited by Cameron Dennis, Kelly Kendrick, Joe Matoske, Ryo Ikegami – won an Eddie for Best Edited Non-Scripted Series; and What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali, edited by Jake Pushinsky, ACE, was recognized in the category for Best Edited Documentary (Non-Theatrical).

The evening concluded with Waititi presenting the final award of the night after drawing giant laughs from the ballroom. “It’s lovely to be in a room full of editors and finally put faces to the back of the heads that I’ve seen throughout my career. I just met [Jojo Rabbit editor] Tom Eagles for the first time.  All I saw was this blonde hair ball atop shoulders in between naps – congrats, Tom! You’re not hideous as I was led to believe! You’re a good looking people; I’m not sure why you’re always turning your backs on us.

“There’s no greater reward than going out there and filming your precious words, and pouring your heart into those scenes only to have those scenes torn asunder by someone who wasn’t really in the trenches with you – and has this weird mission of ‘making the film better,’” he joked. “I don’t know, I think a 17-minute Technocrane shot could have made this one a lot better. So I do keenly await the days when finally we get to have those 362-hour cuts of our films and you guys become obsolete and this infatuation with ‘good films’ is finally gone. But until then, congratulations, I guess. I’m still gonna take the credit for what you do – and that is the job of the God figure.”