posts and photos by A.J. Catoline
The following blog was posted live during the 67th Annual ACE Eddie Awards on January 27, 2017 at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, CA. Note that posts are in reverse chronological order.
And that’s a wrap on the 67th Eddies! Show ends before midnight! Thanks ACE!
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM – DRAMATIC – Joe Walker, ACE for Arrival. “As editors we dance with actors,” Walker said.
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM – COMEDY – Tom Cross, ACE for La La Land. Cross thanks his Assistant Editor John To and post PA Josh Stein. He thanks the filmmakers who dared to dream big. “The film is a love letter to the City of LA and a love letter to editing,” Cross said.
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM – ANIMATION – Fabienne Rawley and Jeremy Milton for Zootopia
J.J. Abrams is honored with the Golden Eddie for Best Filmmaker. Abrams says the buck stops with the editor. The director and the writer can dream things will be improved in the film, but the editor faces the final hard task of knowing there are no more fixes. Editing is about tough collaboration, about keeping an open mind to ideas that may run counter to your own beliefs. “I can’t tell you how many times my editors saved my ass. And thanks to all the Assistant Editors for their tireless work,” Abrams said. (Resounding applause.)
Jeff Garland comes out in his bathrobe, and announces he is staying at the Beverly Hilton while watching Full House on Netflix and the “editing is amazing.” Garland calls out Steve Rasch, ACE and Jon Corn, editors of the new reboot of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. He introduces J.J. Abrams, the Golden Eddie recipient. Garland says Abrams has invited him into every one of his film’s cutting rooms. Garland says the editors of Abram’s films Mary Jo Markey, ACE and Maryann Brandon, ACE “they tell J.J. what to do.”
Rachel Bloom says there is cheese backstage and she brings some out to share. It seems nobody wants any at the MPEG table!
BEST EDITED EPISODE NON-COMMERCIAL ONE HOUR SERIES – Tim Porter, ACE for Game of Thrones: Battle of the Bastards
BEST EDITED EPISODE COMMERCIAL ONE HOUR SERIES – David L. Bertman, ACE for This is Us.
BEST EDITED EPISODE HALF HOUR SERIES – Steven Rasch, ACE for Veep. “Veep is about a woman president. It’s fiction,” Rasch says to huge laughs. Rasch says Trump is watching the awards and tweeting that it could never happen.
Thelma Schoonmaker, ACE receives the Career Achievement Award. “The Award belongs to Marty as much as me. Marty’s favorite part of filmmaking is editing and he thinks like an editor,” Schoonmaker says.
If it were not for meeting Scorsese, Schoonmaker says she could have gone into a career in foreign service. ” In the editing room we talk about art, politics, history, everything,” Schoonmaker says. In a Scorsese cutting room, a classic movie is always playing with the sound off, as inspiration. “We editors have the best job in the world. I’ve had all the luck in the world in my life,” she says.
Martin Scorsese introduces Thelma Schoonmaker, ACE for a Career Achievement Award. Scorsese says he was introduced to Schoonmaker at NYU in 1963 to help save and cut the negative of one of his first short films. The relationship between editor and director is about trust, and the editor fighting to bring forth the true spirit of the film, Scorsese says.
BEST EDITED MINISERIES — Carol Littleton, ACE for All The Way— “We need more leaders like LBJ today,” Littleton says.
Janet Ashikaga, ACE, honored with a Career Achievement Award, says she learned the language of TV storytelling as a kid watching TV. “We all have a show we watched that dramatically inspired us,” Ashikaga said. She thanked her team of Assistant Editors who worked on many classic TV shows from The Incredible Hulk to Seinfeld to Frasier.
Thomas Schlame, producer/director of The West Wing, introduces Janet Ashikaga, ACE, Career Achievement Award Winner. He says she has spent countless hours in dark rooms with Larry David and Aaron Sorkin.
BEST EDITED NON-SCRIPTED/REALITY – Mustafa Bhagat for Anthony Bordain: Parts Unknown Senegal
BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – Bret Granato, Maya Mumma, Ben Sozanski for O.J. Made in America.
BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY TELEVISION — Bob Eisenhart, ACE for Everything is Copy, Nora Ephron: Scripted and Unscripted
Rachel says the hardest thing to find is a good editor. “On behalf of all actors, you make us look so good!” Bloom says. She calls out her editors Kabir Akhtar, ACE, and Tod Modisett. She says actors intentionally conspire to mess up continuity to drive the editors crazy.
New ACE President Stephen Rivkin notes that in 1951, when ACE held it’s first roundtable event, the host was Ronald Reagan, who then was president of the Screen Actors Guild and starred in Bedtime for Bonzo. Rivkin says that Reagan did not do the sequel Bonzo Goes to College. “He was bound for bigger and better things,” Rivkin says. “Which just goes to show, that you never know what hosting an ACE event can do for your career.” Rivkin also notes that two former ACE interns are nominees tonight, specifically Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders, editors of Moonlight.
The package reel has begun, huge cheers for Stranger Things, The Beatles, and Moonlight’s Joi McMillon, the first African American woman nominated for Best Editing… also jeers for Trump when The Choice 2016 is shown nominated for best documentary editing.
The Editors Guild is honored to be a sponsor of the ACE Eddies. Below is the MPEG table.
8:23 pm — The show will be starting soon. Editors like to keep the cut a little loose.
Kicking off the ACE Eddie awards is the annual Avid reception feting the nominees and guests. Avid’s Marianna Montague and Michael Krulick tell CineMontage that nearly all of the films and TV nominated tonight were cut on Avid Media Composer.
Avid President Jeff Rosica says that Avid is honored to hold this party every year to celebrate the best storytellers and their craft.
For more info on Avid technology innovation visit www.AvidConnect2017.com
The American Cinema Editors’ 67th batch of nominees recognizes editors in both film and television. On the film side, categories are split between dramatic, comedic, animated, and documentary features. In terms of the Oscar race, the ACE Eddie has been awarded to the eventual Best Film Editing Oscar winner six times since the 2008 ceremony.
