While critics’ groups have influence on which awards screeners are viewed, Hollywood insiders know that the Guild awards are far more predictive. These voters come from inside the industry.
This weekend, for example, the National Society of Film Critics echoed other critics’ groups with key awards going to “Spotlight,” “Carol” and “45 Years,” with a new entrant, “Creed,” grabbing a nod for Best Actor Michael B. Jordan. Groups like the Broadcast Film Critics helped to push George Miller’s hugely popular “Mad Max: Fury Road” into the awards conversation, where I knew it would be all along.
So Monday’s nominees for the 66th Annual ACE Eddie Awards reveal the wide breadth of possibilities this year, with narrow margins for reaching, say, a Best Picture nomination, which thanks to a weighted ballot of five entries demands that at least 571 (per The Wrap’s Steve Pond) of the 6000-strong Oscar voters put a movie at number one. That means that you feel so passionate about a given movie that you put it above your other four choices. (Best Picture nominees can number from five to ten.)
The ACE feature film nominations suggest that mainstream action-dramas “Fury Road,” “The Martian,” “The Revenant,” “Sicario” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” are all vying for Best Picture slots. Clearly, these are all well-crafted thrilling movies that use editing to manipulate audiences. Left off, notably, is supposed Oscar frontrunner “Spotlight.” Logically, even if the statistics show that a Best Picture winner has not won without an ACE nomination for 20 years (hat tip: Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone), it only makes sense that a small-scale talking heads indie like “Spotlight” might not land an editing award in a closely competitive year. “Spotlight”‘s support lies with the actors, directors and writers, as opposed to the craft side of the Academy. It will win the often predictive SAG ensemble award, even though only Rachel McAdams landed in the individual acting categories, because the cast led by Michael Keaton is united in campaigning as supporting players.
Like the Golden Globes and BFCA, the ACE nominations break out other categories like comedy. Another robust Oscar contender with a strong acting ensemble is coming up on the outside and landed a comedy nod: “The Big Short,” as did another late-year entry, “Joy.” Amy Schumer had a good day, as not only did “Trainwreck” land an editing slot but so did her TV series’ episode “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer,” which we ranked as best of 2015. The three animation nominees — one indie (Paramount pick-up “Anomalisa”) and two Disney/Pixar releases (“Inside Out” and “The Good Dinosaur”) are all expected to land Oscar nods as well.
Of the doc nominees, three are shortlisted for the Oscar (“Amy,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” and “He Named Me Malala”) and two are not (“Cobain: Montage of Heck” and “The Wrecking Crew”). Morgan Neville can take some solace that while his “Best of Enemies” doc did not land an editing nod, “Keith Richards: Under the Influence” (Netflix) did.
Winners will be announced at the 66th Annual ACE Eddie Awards presented by
American Cinema Editors on January 29th, where writer/director Nancy Meyers will accept the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year award.
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC):
Mad Max: Fury Road
Margaret Sixel
The Martian
Pietro Scalia, ACE
The Revenant
Stephen Mirrione, ACE
Sicario
Joe Walker, ACE
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Maryann Brandon, ACE & Mary Jo Markey, ACE
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY):
Ant-Man
Dan Lebental, ACE & Colby Parker, Jr., ACE
The Big Short
Hank Corwin, ACE
Joy
Jay Cassidy, ACE, Alan Baumgarten, ACE,
Christopher Tellefsen, ACE & Tom Cross, ACE
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
David Trachtenberg
Trainwreck
William Kerr, ACE & Paul Zucker
BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Anomalisa
Garret Elkins
Inside Out
Kevin Nolting, ACE
The Good Dinosaur
Stephen Schaffer, ACE
BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE):
Amy
Chris King
Cobain: Montage of Heck
Joe Beshenkovsky & Brett Morgen
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Andy Grieve
He Named Me Malala
Greg Finton, ACE, Brian Johnson & Brad Fuller
The Wrecking Crew
Claire Scanlon
BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (TELEVISION):
Keith Richards: Under the Influence
Joshua L. Pearson
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst “Chapter 1″
Richard Hankin, ACE, Zac Stuart-Pontier, Caitlyn Greene, Shelby Siegel
The Seventies: The United State vs. Nixon
Chris A. Peterson, ACE
BEST EDITED HALF-HOUR SERIES FOR TELEVISION:
Nick Paley
Silicon Valley: Two Days of the Condor
Brian Merken, ACE
Veep: Election Night
Gary Dollner
BEST EDITED ONE-HOUR SERIES FOR COMMERCIAL TELEVISION:
Better Call Saul: “Five-O”
Kelley Dixon, ACE
Better Call Saul: “Uno”
Skip Macdonald, ACE
Fargo: “Did You Do This? No, You Did It!”
Skip Macdonald, ACE & Curtis Thurber
The Good Wife: “Restrain”
Scott Vickrey, ACE
Mad Men: “Person to Person”
Tom Wilson
BEST EDITED ONE-HOUR SERIES FOR NON-COMMERCIAL TELEVISION:
Game of Thrones: “The Dance of Dragons”
Katie Weiland
Game of Thrones: “Hardhome”
Tim Porter
Homeland: “The Tradition of Hospitality”
Harvey Rosenstock, ACE
House of Cards: “Chapter 39”
Lisa Bromwell, ACE
The Knick: “Wonderful Surprises”
Mary Ann Bernard
BEST EDITED LONGFORM (MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE) FOR TELEVISION:
Bessie
Brian A. Kates, ACE
Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors
Maysie Hoy, ACE
Orange is the New Black: “Trust No Bitch” (90 minute episode)
William Turro
BEST EDITED NON-SCRIPTED SERIES:
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: “Bay Area”
Hunter Gross, ACE
Deadliest Catch: “Zero Hour”
Josh Earl, ACE & Ben Bulatao
Whale Wars: “The Darkest Hour”
Eric Driscoll, Nik Jamgocyan, Chris Kirkpatrick, David Michael Maurer, ACE, Greg McDonald, Marcus Miller & Alexandria Scott
Final Ballots will be mailed on January 8 and voting ends on January 20. The Blue Ribbon screenings where judging for all television categories and the documentary film category take place January 17. Projects in the aforementioned categories are viewed and judged by committees comprised of professional editors (all ACE members). All 800+ ACE members vote during the final balloting of the ACE Eddies, including active members, life members, affiliate members and honorary members.
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