Oscar Volley: Is an upset possible in "Best Editing"?

It’s that time again! Lynn Lee and Eurocheese discuss the Oscar race for Best Editing.

the Best Editing nominees

LYNN: Happy peak Oscar season, Eurocheese! Excited to discuss the editing category with you. Overall, this is a strong if relatively unsurprising lineup. I, for one, am absolutely delighted Sentimental Value made it in – that final scene in itself deserves all of the awards. And I can see the merits in the other selections, even if the Academy once again went with all Best Picture nominees (yawn). But then it’s been almost a decade since they included any non-BP nominees. So I will just sit in the corner and shed my own quiet tear for the unsung A House of Dynamite, which deserved more awards love in general but in this category in particular. At least the BAFTAs recognized that!

What are your thoughts on the nominees? And do you think the winner will also win Best Picture (for the fourth year in a row)?

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Fatal Attraction Pt 2: She's not going to be IGNORED, Dan!

by Nathaniel R

In Act 1 of Fatal Attraction (for a three-part retrospective), we met the happily married Gallaghers and their longsuffering dog Quincy, who was neglected for almost a whole weekend. The cause was Husband Dan's (Michael Douglas) sexually explosive weekend with a new co-worker Alex (Glenn Close). Dan ignored a handful of fire-engine red flags.

When we left our players, Alex was suicidal and Dan was headed back to his normal life. He will now attempt to pretend that nothing at all has happened. You can guess how how that attempt plays out!

"What are you doing here? It's 8:00 AM."

40:08 As we return to the film in progress, Dan tells his executive assistant Martha that he's 'in the shitter' and way behind at work. That's what happens when you fuck Glenn Close all weekend...

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Oscar Volleys: Let’s wrap this up!

The Oscars are TONIGHT. To end the volleys, Cláudio Alves and Nathaniel Rogers are here to cover all the categories the team hadn't yet discussed…

THE BRUTALIST | © A24

CLÁUDIO: As much as we try to cover every Oscar race at The Film Experience, it isn't always easy to get conversations going for all of them. So, here we are, Nathaniel, dealing with the last slew of races before the big night. Since last time, we focused so much on the eye candy trifecta, we could give the place of privilege to the aural achievements now. Or Best Editing since that's so strongly correlated to Best Picture. And let me tell you, I am quite lost when it comes to that particular lineup. I could see all five of the nominees winning. Though I presume The Brutalist has the least chance since it is my favorite, and I've learned, over the years, to predict pessimistically to avoid disappointments. It's a good method - everyone should try it.

NATHANIEL: Predicting pessimistically has cost me at times for overall punditry scores (not that I care to much about those stats) but the amount of emotional armor it provides is helpful…

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Split Decision: "The Holdovers"

No two people feel the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here's Abe Friedtanzer and Cláudio Alves on The Holdovers…

ABE: Cláudio, it is always my pleasure to talk about films with you even though I know our tastes rarely overlap. In fact, when I met you in-person at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, you noted that we were barely seeing any of the same films. I was only in Toronto for three and a half days and saw a whirlwind eighteen films in that time, the best of which was The Holdovers. My editor decided to hold my review for the theatrical release, which proved somewhat underwhelming, but fortunately there was plenty of awards acclaim for the film to keep my enthusiasm up about this gem.

I remember seeing Sideways twenty years ago and very much enjoying it as I was just starting to really get into film (and The Film Experience as a reader), and it's great to see Alexander Payne reunited with his star Paul Giamatti for a role that's perfect for him. He's one of the best parts of this film but there are so many, at least in my opinion. Cláudio, tell me about your experience of seeing the film and what did and didn't work for you...

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Oscar Volley: Best Editing is Now Best Picture-lite

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Ben and Abe to talk Film Editing...

The Trinity Explosion editing from Oppenheimer

BEN: Abe, it's time for another talk about one of the most confounding categories at the Oscars...Best Editing!

Last year, I talked about this category with Nick Taylor and we talked specifically about how non-Best Picture nominees don't show up in this category, no matter how special their editing might be. Last year, they went 5/5 again. They even went with a nominee (The Banshees of Inisherin) with relatively unremarkable editing.

Why do you think the Academy is so apprehensive to care about the craft of the actual editing process?...

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