Editors Offer Wide Range for Oscars
by Elif Cercel
Great editors will always continue to do good work. That, in part, was the message the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sent out this year with its list of nominations for the Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar. But the work of younger talents also caused excitement among voting editors.
Of the seven editors named in the category, Billy Weber ('The Thin Red Line'), Michael Kahn, A.C.E., ('Saving Private Ryan') and Anne V. Coates, A.C.E., ('Out of Sight') have had careers ranging from two to four decades. They are not strangers to the awards process either, and hold several Academy wins and nominations among them.
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©1999 Dreamworks LLC/Paramount Pictures/Amblin Entertainment. Photo by David James. |
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©1998 Miramax Films. Photo by Laurie Sparham. |
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But the lineup didn't exclude relative youngbloods like David Gamble ('Shakespeare in Love'), Leslie Jones and Saar Klein ('The Thin Red Line') - all first-time nominees. There was even recognition for the work of Simona Paggi ('Life is Beautiful'), an editor outside the category's Anglo-American mould.
"I think the breadth of the nominees and the pictures that they represented was excellent," said [Guild president] Donn Cambern, A.C.E., chairman of the editors' branch of 229 voters, whose selections were originally announced on February 9. "They covered the widest range of film editing we've seen in many years." In contrast, last year's finalists all came from a homogenous list of big-budget productions, comprised of 'Air Force One', 'As Good As It Gets', 'Good Will Hunting', 'L.A. Confidential' and the winner, 'Titanic'.
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©1998 Miramax Int'l. Photo by Sergio Strizzi. |
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Photo by Merie W. Wallace |
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Of all the nominees, Anne V. Coates is perhaps the most time-defiant. She first won an Oscar in 1963 for 'Lawrence of Arabia' and has been nominated four times in the past, most recently in 1994 for 'In the Line of Fire'. "It never loses its thrill, but I was pretty surprised about this," she admitted in a recent interview. Directed by Steven Soderberg with George Clooney in the lead role, 'Out of Sight' received one other nomination, for best screenplay. The film's editing incorporates techniques such as hold-frames and intercutting between sequences, which Coates believes caught the voters' attention. "I told Steven to stretch me, and we did some really exciting things on the film," she said, explaining that she felt an immediate rapport with the director, partly because of their mutual liking for old movies.
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©1998 Universal City Studios Productions, Inc. Photo by Merrick Morton. |
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At the '94 awards, Coates was beaten to the finish line by Michael Kahn with 'Schindler's List'. This year Kahn took home the Oscar again, for 'Saving Private Ryan', which was nominated in 11 categories. He also won an Oscar in 1982 for 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Out of his enduring association with Steven Spielberg came other defining works such as 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and 'Jurassic Park'.
"It was dream footage for an editor," said Kahn about the experience of working on 'Saving Private Ryan'. "There was a lot of footage and it was so real. Steven shoots for the editing room."
Abundant footage was also a feature of 'The Thin Red Line', which garnered nominations for the editing threesome of Billy Weber, Leslie Jones and Sarr Klein. Like Kahn, Weber is also a long-time associate of the film's director, in this case the maverick Terrence Malick. They first worked together on 'Days of Heaven' in 1978.
For co-editors Jones and Klein, in contrast, the work represents their first major film credit. They belong to a new generation of eye-catching editors, as does Britain's David Gamble, whose only previous feature experience was 'Different for Girls'. Gamble was also up for an A.C.E. Eddie Award.
Like 'Shakespeare in Love', 'Life is Beautiful 'is a foreign production enjoying a successful distribution in the U.S. Cambern pointed out that this fact has ensured that it was seen and appreciated by a large portion of the branch members casting their votes. Paggi, earmarked for one of seven nominations the film received, has served as editor for established directors like Gianni Amelio and Umberto Marino in her native Italy since the early '90s. 'Life is Beautiful' is her first foray into the U.S. market.
"You can look at huge films that involve enormous amounts of editing and you understand what it's all about," said Cambern, who likes to describe editing as "the silent art." He noted that this year, the Academy voters were looking for difficult qualities like "achievement" and "excellence" in over 280 eligible films.
"In the end, a knowledgeable editor can really smell good editing," he concluded.
Reprinted by permission of Creative Planet Inc.
This article was updated from a column that originally appeared
on EditorsNet on Friday, February 26.
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 20, No. 2 - March/April 1999
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