Jose here. Today we have the announcement from the American Cinema Editors who - shocker - went for more of the same movies! For almost 40 years, the Eddies were awarded to a single motion picture (their first winner was The Parent Trap and their last was the acclaimed Saving Private Ryan) but then they decided that they too needed to include as many movies as possible and split their award into Drama and Musical & Comedy. Now excuse me if I sound ignorant (I did go to film school and all...) but isn't editing exactly the same for both? It's not like you use different equipment and/or need to have different skills to do each, right? Isn't the editor's job actually (along with the director of course) to decide just how funny or how dramatic each movie will be? So I really don't get why guilds need to invent such categories. I don't see the ASC doing that, but god I love the cinematographers for being the classiest guild...anyway enough with my complaining.
Here are the nominees for this year's Eddies:
Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)
12 Years a Slave - Joe Walker
Captain Phillips - Chris Rouse, A.C.E.
Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón & Mark Sanger
Her - Eric Zumbrunnen A.C.E. & Jeff Buchanan
Saving Mr. Banks - Mark Livolsi, A.C.E.
This is most likely Gravity's to lose, the Eddies have favored sci-fi fare in the past (WALL-E won in 2008) and excuse me, but is Mr. Banks here only because the movie jumps back and forth in time? Where are the creative choices like I don't know, nominating the editors behind Short Term 12, The Place Beyond the Pines, Only God Forgives, The Spectacular Now, and Blue is the Warmest Color for example?
Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical)
American Hustle - Jay Cassidy, A.C.E., Crispin Struthers & Alan Baumgarten, A.C.E.
August: Osage County - Stephen Mirrione, A.C.E
Inside Llewyn Davis - Roderick Jaynes
Nebraska - Kevin Tent, A.C.E.
The Wolf of Wall Street - Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E.
Cassidy and Struthers won this award last year for Silver Linings Playbook and other than Pietro Scalia with his one-two punch of Gladiator and Black Hawk Down in the early aughts, no one has won this award two years in a row. Might this be a first or will they reward the legendary Schoomaker once more (she's won four times already)?
Best Edited Animated Feature Film
Despicable Me 2 - Gregory Perler, A.C.E.
Frozen - Jeff Draheim
Monsters University - Greg Snyder
Best Edited Documentary Feature
20 Feet from Stardom - Douglas Blush, Kevin Klauber & Jason Zeldes
Blackfish - Eli Despres
Tim’s Vermeer - Patrick Sheffield
No Stories We Tell or The Act of Killing are surprising and sad. Were they not eligible?
Now, let's take a look at the TV nominees, some of which are actually quite great!
Best Edited Series for Television (Half Hour)
30 Rock: “Hogcock! / Last Lunch” - Meg Reticker / Ken Eluto, A.C.E.
Arrested Development: “Flight of the Phoenix” - Kabir Akhtar & A.J. Dickerson
The Office: “Finale” - David Rogers & Claire Scanlon
How is Arrested Development in here? Not a single episode this season was under thirty minutes and if anything the entire season *lacked* editing, no?
Best Edited Series for Commercial Television (One Hour)
Breaking Bad: “Buried” - Skip MacDonald A.C.E. & Sharidan Williams-Sotelo
Breaking Bad: “Felina” - Skip MacDonald A.C.E.
Breaking Bad: “Granite State” - Kelley Dixon, A.C.E. & Chris McCaleb
Breaking Bad: “Ozymandias” - Skip MacDonald A.C.E.
The Good Wife: “Hitting the Fan” - Scott Vickrey, A.C.E.
I am hoping all these Breaking Bad episodes will cancel each other out and give the win to The Good Wife, which in my own very humble opinion gave us the greatest hour of television in 2013. "Hitting the Fan" was an episode so flawlessly done in every single way, but granted I haven't seen any of these Breaking Bad episodes and I know y'all worship this show (plus I'm nothing if not democratic) so feel free to tell me which one(s) to check out for the editing and I'll report back.
Best Edited Series for Non-Commercial Television (One Hour)
Game of Thrones: “The Rains of Castamere” - Oral Norrie Ottey
Homeland: “Big Man in Tehran” - Terry Kelley, A.C.E.
House of Cards: “Chapter 1” - Kirk Baxter, A.C.E.
My only comment about this will be to point out that the division of TV between "commercial" and "non-commercial" is dumb. Isn't all mass media made to be consumed and is therefore a commercial product? (especially cable and Netflix which require you actually *pay* money?) If they meant cable and networks, why not just call it that instead?
Best Edited Miniseries or Made for Television Movie
American Horror Story: Asylum: “The Name Game” - Stewart Schill, A.C.E.
Behind the Candelabra - Mary Ann Bernard
Phil Spector - Barbara Tulliver, A.C.E.
They oughta go bananas for Jessica!
Who do you think will win an Eddie in a few weeks? Can you help me understand the random category divisions?