The ACE "Eddie" nominations have been announced and though you can't glean everything from the American Cinema Editors guild's choices -- Oscar has only five nominees for best film editing and the Eddies have 17 divvied up into four separate subcategories of features -- some reveals are happening.
The first reveal is that the editors have only just begun to watch the movies of 2014 since almost every serious awards hopeful that just came out is accounted for (save, oddly, Selma & A Most Violent Year). Yes, even Into the Woods and Inherent Vice, which are two of the surprises. On the dramatic American Sniper and Nightcrawler are the surprises. The latter in particular really seems to be gathering momentum in these final weeks making my Gyllenhaal actor prediction, which I so worried was wishful thinking, feel like a safer than expected call.
FEATURE FILMS
Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)
"American Sniper" (Joel Cox, ACE & Gary Roach, ACE)
"Boyhood" (Sandra Adair, ACE)
"Gone Girl" (Kirk Baxter, ACE)
"The Imitation Game" (William Goldenberg, ACE)
"Nightcrawler" (John Gilroy, ACE)
"Whiplash" (Tom Cross, ACE)
One might include Gone Girl among the surprises, given that it's on the Best Picture bubble, except to note that whoever is editing for David Fincher has a good chance of collecting trophies. That's how it works and not undeservedly; his films are always gripping and tight even when they're long and a lot of that has to do with the editing rhthyms. Of these nominees I think the safest for Oscar nods are Boyhood, The Imitation Game and Whiplash.
More nominees and commentary after the jump...
Best Editing Feature Film (Comedy or Musical)
"Birdman" (Douglas Crise & Stephen Mirrione, ACE)
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" (Barney Pilling)
"Guardians of the Galaxy" (Fred Rasking, Hughes Winborn, ACE & Craig Wood, ACE)
"Into the Woods" (Wyatt Smith)
"Inherent Vice" (Leslie Jones, ACE)
I'm not sure I get the Inherent Vice or Into the Woods nomination given how uneven they feel both rhthymically and within scenes. But the other comedic nominees make a kind of sense. I didn't love Guardians but I recognize that it was really funny and funny requires good editing; timing is everything.
Best Edited Animated Feature Film
"Big Hero 6" (Tim Mertens)
"The Boxtrolls" (Edie Ichioka, ACE)
"The LEGO Movie" (David Burrow & Chris McKay)
Does this mean How to Train Your Dragon 2 should worry about an Oscar nod or is this just a minor bump in the road? Gold Derby thinks it's just bad luck but makes a weird conclusion that there's no bias against sequels solely based on Toy Story 3's win. I'm reasonably certain we can consider Toy Story 3 a rousing enough all-quadrant smash that it might make its own rules.
Best Edited Documentary (Feature)
"CITIZENFOUR" (Mathilde Bonnefoy)
"Finding Vivian Maier" (Aaron Wickenden)
"Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me" (Elisa Bonora)
Should we wonder if CITIZENFOUR can snag an Oscar nomination in this category? It's been an awfully long time since a documentary competed there.
TELEVISION
Best Edited Documentary (Television)
"Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey" - "Standing Up in the Milky Way" (John Duffy, ACE, Michael O'Halloran, Eric Lea)
"Pauly Shore Stands Alone" (Troy Takaki, ACE & Joey Vigour)
"The Roosevelts: An Intimate History" - "Episode 3: The Fire of Life" (Eric Ewers)
Best Editing Half-Hour Series for Television
"Silicon Valley" - "Optimal Tip to Tip Efficiency" (Brian Merken & Tim Roche)
"Veep" - "Special Relationship" (Anthony Boys)
"Transparent" - "Pilot" (Catherine Haight)
Transparent's pilot is terrific but if anything the show got better as it went along.
Best Edited On-Hour Series for Commercial Television
"24" - "10pm to 11am" (Scott Powell, ACE)
"Mad Men" - "Waterloo" (Christopher Gay)
"Madam Secretary" - "Pilot" (Elena Maganini, ACE & Michael Ornstein, ACE)
"Sherlock" - "His Last Vow" (Yan Miles)
"The Good Wife" - "A Few Words" (Scott Vickrey, ACE)
Nice to see "Waterloo" recognized. Damn that was a great hour of television. Mad Men made such an egregious miscalculationi by splitting up that season. It was just starting to get great great great since that series often has slow build seasons.
Best Edited One-Hour Series for Non-Commercial Television
"True Detective" - "Who Goes There" (Affonso Gonçalves)
"True Detective" - "The Secret Fate of All Life" (Alex Hall)
"House of Cards" - "Chapter 14" (Byron Smith)
Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television
"Fargo" - "Buridan's Ass" (Regis Kimble)
"Olive Kitteridge" - "A Different Road" (Jeffrey M. Werner, ACE)
"The Normal Heart" (Adam Penn)
Best Edited Non-Scripted Series
"Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" - "Iran" (Hunter Gross)
"Deadliest Catch" - "Lost At Sea" (Josh Earl, ACE & Johnny Bishop)
"Vice" - "Greenland is Melting & Bonded Labor" (Joe Langford & Nick Carew)
True Detective dominates best pay cable editing with 66% of the nominations despite plentiful possibilities for nominations. Is "Who Goes There" the episode with that insane tracking shot that goes on forever with the shoot-out?