Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Green Book being nominated here is, along with its PGA win, its strongest credential in the best picture race. But I see no reason to believe it could win the category.

Honestly, I wouldn't have considered this a spot where The Favourite would have much chance, either. It's certainly fluidly edited, but it has none of the earmarks of a prize-winner. I was genuinely startled it won the ACE prize...

...especially over Vice, which I, like some of you, saw as the most obviously edit-dependent work (much as The Big Short had been), and the front-runner. For it to not only lose, but lose in the secondary Comedy category to a film that doesn't fit the winner profile...I had begin to think I was way off base. Until...it won the BAFTA. Making me wonder if this year's ACE was just fluky.

Of course, ACE did provide another winner, in the more seriously-taken Drama arena, Bohemian Rhapsody -- and I see a lot of people around the web are now picking the (not-Singer) movie. Rhapsody does fit into another blogger-discovered algorithm: in the past 30 years, only three films have won editing without a corresponding sound mixing nomination. (The three exceptions -- Traffic, Crash and The Departed -- curiously had the precise same five nominations of film, supporting actor, director, screenplay and editing. Make of that what you will.) Rhapsody is the only film that fits the bill.

It's curious that, in all this, no one has spoken up for BlackkKlansman, which I'd say does have some of the characteristics of an AMPAS Editing winner: scenes edited for suspense/tension, and that remarkable cross-cut scene between the Klan meeting and the Belafonte speech. I know it's unusual for films to make significantly stronger showings at AMPAS these days, but Klansman is a movie I feel might over-perform a week from tonight.

Bottom line? I'm still tempted to go with my original instinct of Vice, but that's subject to change over the coming days.

anonymous1980 wrote: They usually go to the Best Picture nominee that is the obvious editing achievement usually war films and action films.

That is why I'm leaning towards Vice. It is certainly the most edited, and has the flashiest use of editing, with all the montages and time shifts. Almost like the year The Social Network won.

I have no idea but I'm predicting Vice.

The nominees:
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Vice

This is another interesting category in that none of these stand out as the obvious choice for the Film Editing Oscar based on recent trends. They usually go to the Best Picture nominee that is the obvious editing achievement usually war films and action films. Bohemian Rhapsody won the ACE Eddie award for Best Edited Drama. It's a music-oriented film with lots of cutting (like Whiplash) but it's also the film that gets a lot of flak for its editing. There's a viral video going around of a scene from the film which depicts a less than minute and a half sequence of Queen/Freddie Mercury talking to their manager in an outdoor cafe. It's a simple scene but it had so. many. cuts. That said, that kind of editing sometimes win awards. Plus some people may think the editor did what he could to salvage the film based on the behind-the-scenes drama.

The Favourite won the ACE Eddie for Best Edited Comedy but that film along with BlacKkKlansman and Green Book doesn't seem like the type of film that wins this unless it's a part of a sweep which I doubt will happen. Vice has very showy editing and that could be the best alternative.

Right now, I'll go with Bohemian Rhapsody with Vice as the runner-up.