by Kristin Marguerite Doidge
Sunday’s 74th Annual ACE Eddie Awards, presented by American Cinema Editors (ACE), brought together legends from past, present, and future to recognize this year’s outstanding editing in 14 competitive categories of film, television, and documentaries.
In addition to the announcement of the winners, filmmaker John Waters (“Hairspray”) accepted the prestigious ACE Golden Eddie Award, while film editors Kate Amend, ACE, and Walter Murch, ACE, received Career Achievement Awards for their outstanding contributions to film editing. Stephen Lovejoy, ACE, received the ACE Heritage Award for his unwavering commitment to ACE and its mission.
ACE is an honorary society of motion picture editors founded in 1950. Film editors are voted into membership on the basis of their professional achievements, their dedication to the education of others, and their commitment to the craft of editing.
The 2024 ACE Eddies were held at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles. The event was hosted by drag queen and queer activist Nina West, who brought down the house with her opening act – an original performance of “Editor: The Musical.”
The event was presided over by president Kevin Tent, ACE, who also earned top comedy honors for his work on “The Holdovers.” Tent didn’t hold back from acknowledging that the past year hurt badly, adding that, “despite all the challenges of 2023, it was another year of amazing work by amazing editors.”
Indeed, when Academy Award-winning picture editor Thelma Schoonmaker, ACE (who herself was nominated for her work on “Killers of the Flower Moon”) took the stage to present the first Eddie award – the Anne V. Coates Award for Student Editing – she received an enthusiastic standing ovation before sharing a piece of cinema history with the audience.
“This student editing competition award is named for Anne Coates, a great editor who I was lucky enough to meet when we were making ‘The Aviator’ in Montreal,” she said. “Anne was up there making a movie, and Scorsese was just thrilled with the idea that he could talk to her about her work on ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ and he then cast her. If you look at ‘Aviator,’ there was a scene in an editing room in the twenties…she’s measuring the length of a close-up with the film in her hands. This was before we had Moviolas and things like that. She loved it, and it was great to spend time with her.”
The award went to Ariel Emma Martin from Chapman University, who was selected from nearly 90 film students who each edited the same scene.
Other presenters included longtime John Waters collaborators Mink Stole and Ricki Lake, as well as Thomas Lennon, Max Greenfield, Sarayu Blue, LisaGay Hamilton, Kevin Smith, Hank Greenspan and Anna Konkle, among others.
Jennifer Lame, ACE, took home the Eddie for best edited feature film (drama) for her work on “Oppenheimer,” while the editing team from “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” received the Eddie for best edited variety show or special event. For television, Harry Yoon, ACE, and Laura Zempel, ACE, won the Eddie award for best edited limited series for “Beef.”
Many of the winners talked about their passion for their work and expressed gratitude for the camaraderie and support from fellow editors and from the ACE community.
Blue (presenter), with Harry Yoon, ACE, Laura Zempel, ACE, and Matt Friedman, ACE (presenter), PHOTO: ACE.
“Walking through the crowd and having run-ins with colleagues all the way back from when I was a PA to the present day made the win feel all the more meaningful for me,” Yoon said. “It was like winning something at a giant family reunion. And to win for a show that felt so personally resonant for me as an Asian-American – who loved the chance to work on Sonny’s brilliant series that showed that we can be so weird, so broken, and so funny – was even more meaningful.”
Zempel agreed, adding: “I’m beyond honored that this community recognized all the love and care our post-team poured into this unique and bizarre show. I started my career as an ACE intern, and to go from volunteering at the check-in table to standing on the stage surrounded by a theater full of mentors and friends was a full-circle moment I’ll never forget.”
Likewise, in another full-circle moment, Joanna Naugle, ACE, who won the best edited single-camera comedy series Eddie for “The Bear,” paid homage to Schoonmaker in her acceptance speech.
“When Chris and Josh and Anna and I were first talking about the visual language of ‘The Bear,’ there was one movie we kept coming back to, and that was ‘Bringing Out the Dead,’ which was edited by the legendary Thelma Schoonmaker,” Naugle said. “I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you, Thelma. It’s an honor to share the space with you. You paved the way for how ‘The Bear’ looks and feels. I’ve studied your work. You made me believe I could be an editor as a woman. So you are my Beyoncé.”
Director George Lucas was on hand to present the Career Achievement award to Murch, his “best friend” and a “renaissance man,” after regaling the audience with tales of their humble(ish) beginnings as young filmmakers at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in the 1960s.
“We met in a dark room working on our freshman project, which was to tell the story in pictures, and we’ve been very close friends ever since,” Lucas said. “Walter is the most amazing, intellectual, curious person I’ve ever met.” Murch not only edited Lucas’ early films, such as “American Graffiti” and “THX 1138,” but also formed a long collaboration with fellow film student Francis Ford Coppola among other acclaimed directors during his 55-year career in cinema, serving as picture editor, sound designer, writer, and director.
Murch has been nominated for nine Academy Awards (six for picture editing and three for sound) and has won three: for Best Sound on Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ (for which he and his collaborators devised the now-standard 5.1 sound format) and for Best Film Editing and Best Sound for his work on ‘The English Patient,’ the first digitally-edited film to win an editing Oscar.
Following the ceremony, attendees celebrated at the after-party with friends, food, and live music provided by actor, comedian and musician Tom Kenny’s band, Tom Kenny & the Hi-Seas, as well as a special appearance by DJ Lance Rock.
The full list of winners for the 74th Annual ACE Eddie Awards is below.
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (Drama, Theatrical):
“Oppenheimer”
Jennifer Lame, ACE
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (Comedy, Theatrical):
“The Holdovers”
Kevin Tent, ACE
BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Michael Andrews, ACE
BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (Theatrical):
“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie”
Michael Harte, ACE
BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (Non-Theatrical):
“Escaping Twin Flames: Up in Flames”
Martin Biehn
Kevin Hibbard
Inbal B. Lessner, ACE
Troy Takaki, ACE
Mimi Wilcox
BEST EDITED MULTI-CAMERA COMEDY SERIES:
“How I Met Your Father: Daddy”
Russell Griffin, ACE
BEST EDITED SINGLE CAMERA COMEDY SERIES:
“The Bear: Fishes”
Joanna Naugle, ACE
BEST EDITED DRAMA SERIES:
“The Last of Us: Long, Long Time”
Timothy A. Good, ACE
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (NON-THEATRICAL):
“Reality”
Jennifer Vecchiarello
BEST EDITED LIMITED SERIES:
“Beef: The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain”
Harry Yoon, ACE
Laura Zempel, ACE
BEST EDITED NON-SCRIPTED SERIES:
“Couples Therapy: Episode 310”
Delaney Lynch
Helen Kearns, ACE
Katrina Taylor
BEST EDITED VARIETY TALK/SKETCH SHOW OR SPECIAL:
“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour”
Dom Whitworth
Guy Harding
Hamish Lyons
Rupa Rathod
Ben Wainwright-Pearce
Reg Wrench
BEST EDITED ANIMATED SERIES:
“Blue Eye Samurai: The Tale of the Ronin and The Bride”
Yuka Shirasuna
ANNE V. COATES AWARD FOR STUDENT EDITING:
Ariel Emma Martin (Chapman University)
