Back in person following a 2021 virtual event due to COVID-19, the 72nd annual ACE Eddie Awards were celebrated live on March 5 in a new venue, the Theatreat the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The ceremony recognized outstanding editing in 14 categories of film, television and documentaries. Additionally, Michelle Satter accepted the Golden Eddie Award on behalf of the Sundance Institute, and film editors Lillian E. Benson, ACE, and Richard Chew, ACE, received Career Achievement Awards.

King Richard editor Pamela Martin, ACE, and tick, tick… BOOM! editors Myron Kerstein, ACE, Andrew Weisblum, ACE, took top honors in the live-action feature competitions, winning Eddies for best edited dramatic feature and comedy feature, respectively.

Martin, accepting the trophy from Summer of Soul filmmaker Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson said, “I’m used to doing indie films where, when I called the post department to ask for anything extra, they just say ‘no’ before I’ve finished my sentence – but Warner Bros. were terrific; they never said no.” Martin especially thanked assistant editor Staci Pontius.

“She has worked with me for a decade or more and she is amazing. I have what I call the Staci test – when a director and I are not sure which version to use we get Staci in the room because she has such an amazing creative eye.” Kerstein and Weisblum were presented their Eddies by King Richard director Reinaldo Marcus Green. “I love thisorganization,” said Kerstein. “I have many heroes in this room.

Thanks for setting the bar that I might someday reach.” Weisblum thanked director Lin-Manuel Miranda “for inviting me on this journey and being exactly the collaborative inspirational mensch that he appears to be and our world class crew who pivoted in that crazy time and were unwavering in their support.” The pair cited first assistant Kat Spiess “who cut the movie with us and should be up here alongside of us.” Actor

Debbie Allen presented the first of two Career Achievement Awards, to Emmy-nominated Benson (Eyes on the Prize, Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise and John Lewis: Get in the Way). “My path to the editor’s chair began with art school,” Benson said. “I was always a bit of a dreamer, an observer.

That artistic sensibility led me to a fortunate encounter while I was a part-time dog walker. The dog’s owner was a documentary maker who taught me how to use a Steenbeck and to transcribe audio and also helped me get my first jobs in theindustry. The decades pass and if you are lucky you still enjoy your work, which I do. The good days outnumber the bad. Praise silences unreasonable criticism.”

Writer, actor, director Emilio Estevez presented Oscar winner Chew (Star Wars, The Conversation, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) with the Career Achievement Award. “What is incredible about tonight along with the award is that I was born and raised in a house just a mile from this stage,” Chew said. “In a figurative sense it took me 80 years to go one mile.” He related how he saw the film Nothing But a Man whichimpacted him greatly. “It showed racial inequality in the guise of a love story and saw how social context gave the story meaning. That’s when I realized I wanted to make movies that mattered.”

Two-time Oscar winner and 2021 ACE Eddie nominee Chloé Zhao presented the Golden Eddie to Satter and said that when she first arrived at Sundance in January 2012 it was freezing. “Ryan Coogler and I were trying to figure out how to start the fires in the cabin. Now I think back on that life-changing winter I don’t remember being cold. We were burning on the inside with nervousness and yearning to take that momentous first step to make our first feature. It was through Michelle and her wonderful team that we learned how to nurture that fire.

Her team changed the lives of filmmakers and created this beautiful community for us to be part of.” Also during the evening, Jeremy Milton, ACE, won the animated feature category for Disney’s Encanto; Joshua L. Pearson claimed the feature documentary award for Summer of  Soul; and Jabez Olssen earned the documentary, non-theatrical, trophy for The Beatles: Get Back “Episode 3.”

Susan Vaill, ACE, collected an Eddie (single-camera comedy series) for the Hacks “1.69 Million” episode. “Hacks was such an honor to work on,” she said. “It was so inclusive and so diverse, so feminist and fierce and funny, I was like, ‘Is this for real?’ – I love this. And to do this with an incredible group of all female editors I am just so grateful for. We worked like maniacs during the pandemic. I call on everyone involved in filmmaking to amplify each other’s voice, respect each other’s craft and support each other. Make those people who don’t think we should be on the broadcast listen. All our work matters,” she asserted.

Eddie winners included Daniel Schalk, ACE, and Joseph Fulton, for Kevin Can F**k Himself episode “Live Free or Die” (best edited multi-camera comedy series); Ken Eluto,  ACE, for Succession’s “All the Bells Say” episode (best edited drama series); Jay Rabinowitz, ACE, for Oslo (motion picture, non-theatrical); and Amy E. Duddleston, ACE, for Mare of Easttown’s “Illusions” episode (limited series). Dan Ablett, Kevin Austin, Otto Burnham, Shane McCormack, and Graham Taylor won the Eddie for a non-scripted series, for their work on Formula 1: Drive to Survive’s “Man on Fire.”

Bo Burnham claimed a trophy for a variety talk/sketch show or special, for Bo Burnham: Inside; and Jeremy Reuben won an Eddie for animation, non-theatrical, for Bob’s Burgers’ “ Vampire Disco Death Dance.” Guanqing Lin of American Film Institute received the Anne V. Coates Award for Student Editing.

The event was hosted by DJ Lance Rock, and presentersincluded Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard), Andy Garcia, writer/director/producer Danny Strong (Dopesick creator) and PeterSarsgaard, director/actor Tom Blyth (The Gilded Age), Emmy winner Steve Young and actor Nick Wechsler (The Boys), many of whom were paired with editors that presented alongside them.

The Eddies began with pre-show cocktails in the ornate three-story grand lobby of the Theatre, a restored United Artists theater from the 1920s, hosted by Avid and Evercast. The celebration continued during after-parties at Clifton’s Republic, a historic downtown Los Angeles venue that first opened in 1931. Its decor includes a faux redwood tree that reaches up three of the venue’s five floors, a gothic bar and Pacific Seas-themed space.

ACE would like to thank Platinum co-sponsors Avid and Evercast; Gold Plus sponsors Company 3 and Picture Shop; Gold sponsors Adobe, Clifton’s, Disney Digital Studio Services, Gersh, Light Iron/Panavision; Netflix, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros.; Silver sponsors Eastern Talent Agency, FotoKem, Motion Picture Editors Guild and Tribeca West Kilroy; Bronze sponsors Formosa Group, ICM Partners and Pivotal Post; and First Cut sponsors Amazon Studios Prime Video, APA, Focus Features, Frame.io, HBO, NBCUniversal StudioPost, Pixar, Searchlight Pictures, UTA, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Wolf and WPA.