Best Film Editing is noteworthy as an Oscar categoryfor its strong connection with the Best Picture race. With the exception of 2014’s Birdman (which prided itself for being a one-take film even if it actually isn’t), we have to go back to 1980 to find a Best Picture winner without a corresponding Film Editing nomination. However, the expanded ballot changed the Editing race. Since 2009, only four non-Best Picture nominees have gone on to be nominated in this category, with only one winning. This lends a preordained quality to the contenders.
This year is no exception, with all five nominees coming from Best Picture contenders. However, the predictability of the crop does not equate to the predictability of the race; this is one of those categories where one can see any of the five nominees realistically taking the award based on presumed strength in the awards season...
The group also show various styles in editing that show the power of film editing as a craft. It is truly an exciting field that deserves more formalistic examination (and I am just going to try my best, as a film editor myself). While the nominees will be discussed in general, each contender also has a brief scene study so MILD SPOILERS ahead. Without further ado, the nominees (in personal preference order which also happens to be alphabetical order) are:
The Father - Yorgos Lamprinos
The challenge that this harrowing drama takes on is on portraying dementia but within the subjectivity of the lead character that does not allow for clear-cut distinction between what is real and what is not. In the film, the disorientation it depicts is complex and subtle. Rhythmic distortion pervades most of the scenes while we are never really drawn away from the unreliable narrator’s perspective that we are in. Shot lengths are purposefully conveying the volatility of Anthony’s (Anthony Hopkins) psyche and emotions. Meanwhile, Anne (Olivia Colman) seems to be always calculating the next step while being aware of what is really happening. The film is a brilliant case study as to how character relationships can be suggested through editing.
Scene study: Anne inviting Anthony for dinner.
As we follow Anthony eavesdropping on Anne and her husband Paul (Rufus Sewell) talking about his sickness, we are already being prepared to be tense in the next few minutes. While Anne talks, both Anthony and Paul are seen in reaction shots, as if Anne is trying to temper the tension between who can theoretically explode at any time. A lot of what is happening in this dinner is Anthony and Paul slowly confronting each other. When Anne leaves, we now see them in separate shots not when they are listening, but when they are speaking. When we leave the closeup, it is not even to release tension but to add another layer to it. And in a brilliantly haunting capper to this scene, we see Anthony leaving the dinner and coming back, only to hear what he first heard when he is about to have dinner. The way the editing calibrates that scene leading to its elliptical structure is expertly calibrated.
Nomadland - Chloé Zhao
In this character study about the remnants of the economic recession of 2008, Zhao creates a reflective piece on the seeming aimlessness of Fern (Frances McDormand). Editing becomes crucial in this film as the screenplay is decidedly not plot-driven. Instead, we are thrust into the character’s personal journey, rather than the endpoint of where the journey might take her. The editing in the film is subtle but elemental in creating an emotional drama whose path is mood-based. Also smart is how it locates Fern's interiority through her constant listening to other nomads. There are no temporal constraints, only organic flows, just like Fern herself. In some ways, this film is the antithesis of the pervasing trend in this category: the editing in this film puts primacy in the cuts in as much as in the lack of it. When it stretches a scene, you feel the film breathe. When it cuts, you feel the sharp deliberateness of it too.
Scene study: Swankie tells her story.
In this scene, we only get three shots total. As Fern observes, Swankie starts to tell her story. In a quietly confronting moment, we see Swankie talk about death as it is a thing to face head-on. Meanwhile, this is the emotional baggage that we see Fern carrying around that isolates her from the people around her when there are people around her. This monologue did not just give a moment to Swankie as a character/performer, but also to McDormand as we see their pain intersecting and their way of dealing with it diverging. In the tougher parts of the story, we see McDormand’s face. When Swankie starts talking about the beauty of life, we stay with her in a closeup. The constant push-and-pull between these characters is emotionally rich especially due to how this scene is put together.
Promising Young Woman - Frédéric Thoraval
You don’t get to pull off such an audacious whiplash of tones without skillful editing. This comedy thriller is a combination of unpredictable humor and lacerating tension, from self-devised sting operations to a romantic-comedy montage set to Paris Hilton’s “Stars”. What comes out of this intersection is fascinating: there is a perverse humor that arises from the tension, and an uncomfortable tension that comes out of humor. The impetus of this film is from its sharply measured construction of its scenes; a scene might go very quiet and linger while another uses a succession of shots so bracing that the tension becomes unbearable.
Scene study: Cassandra meets with Dean Walker.
Cassandra’s (Carey Mulligan) revenge-driven modus operandi levels up in her second movement as she meets Dean Walker (Connie Britton), the school superior that was in-charge during a rape case from the past. This scene is fascinating for it rarely puts the two in the same shot. What we see is a sharp succession of shots from Mulligan and Britton, heightening the tension of the said moment. It is even heightened as the editing does not necessarily follow the person who is speaking. Rather, the editing depicts the power dynamic between the two. When Cassie speaks of a threat, we immediately see Dean Walker reacting helplessly. When Dean Walker screams already and thinks she asserts her power, we then go to a shot of Cassie composed and quiet. She has the upper hand. Meanwhile, Dean Walker is reduced to a voice that would even be muffled as we move to a shot outside. The futility of her resistance is shown and it is strikingly captured.
Sound of Metal – Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
Unlike the film’s masterful sound design, the film editing does not call attention to itself. Ruben’s (Riz Ahmed) rough journey from denial of his condition to slow assimilation into the deaf community to his decision to leave (literally and figuratively) is telegraphed in how the scenes are edited. Shots that capture Ahmed’s face and physique are often lengthy with brief cutaways to other characters and surroundings. This suggests how closed off and erratic Ruben's perspective is and has become. But when he goes to the deaf community, that same rhythm is recontextualized. Now, it is about capturing the feeling of discovery that he has as he enters a culture so full of life and energy and where physical communication drives relationships. The restless becomes fascinated as we also see him in lengthier shots, as if the film is breathing with Ruben.
Scene study: Joe confronts Ruben.
In this scene, we see how this beautiful relationship ends in real time. When we see Ruben trying to explain his decision to Joe (Paul Raci), we do not even cut away. Instead, we sit with that discomfort that he has, as if he is under interrogation for a crime he knows he's committed. We only see Joe quietly reacting in an over-the-shoulder shot. But when the time comes for Joe to speak, we stay with a closeup on Raci’s face, with occasional cutaways on Ahmed’s face. Staying with Raci in a closeup is not the same as Ahmed’s. It is not to create discomfort but to give the character/performer the visual demonstration of the emotional vulnerability in justifying his decision. Couple that with Ahmed’s well-timed reaction shots and what we have is a quietly devastating moment.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Alan Baumgarten
The most traditional of the contenders in this category, Chicago 7 basically checks the boxes of what makes film editing ‘showy’. Multiple characters, archival footage, cross-cutting, time jumps, cutting to the tune of music and Sorkin’s snappy dialogue are all featured in the film. The film is mostly successful in juggling these considerations, considering the vastness of the material. Like most of the films written by Sorkin, the drama of the film is mostly mined in the rhythm of the dialogue. While this is not an editing mold-breaker of any kind, it's effective in stirring up the tone of each scene, whether in a rousing or enraging way.
Scene study: Judge Hoffman had Bobby Seale gagged.
One of the more reliable ways of building tension is by combining lengthy, quiet shots, with flashes of action to create a discordant emotional flow. That technique is in full display when Judge Hoffman (Frank Langella) decides to have Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) removed from the courtroom “to be dealt with”. While the courtroom waits, we see Seale in rapidly cut shots that show violent restraints. While these flashes are disturbing themselves, it is the brevity with which they are shown that creates the anticipation for what is happening to him. Once Seale returns to the courtroom, it is a ghastly sight to witness because we initially saw in quick cuts how it got to that point. It's a predictable technique, but it works.
Predictions (I honestly have no idea):
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The Trial of the Chicago 7
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Sound of Metal
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Nomadland
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The Father
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Promising Young Woman