Categories One-by-One: Film Editing

[Big Magilla]

I probably should have said the most obvious editing as opposed to the most editing.

Banshees and Tár are more subtlety edited, but the obvious editing cuts of EEAAO, Top Gun, Elvis are the ones that are going to get the votes. EEAAO being the most obvious is the one that is going to win if the herd mentality of the last couple of weeks prevails.

I think Top Gun: Maverick will win sound and nothing else.

I don't think Elvis should win anything but the way the season is going it could win makeup and maybe even actor. It may also come in second to Top Gun in sound over All Quiet on the Western Front but we'll never know that because vote totals aren't released.

[Mister Tee]

There's no showdown. The most editing wins.

I've read this sentence multiple times, and can't figure out what you mean by it. Do you think it's somehow obvious which of Maverick and Everything Everywhere has the most editing? Because it certainly isn't to me, nor to Sabin. Both films are archetypal winners, in the two main flavors the category favors: highly-edited stunts, and multiple story lines.

Everything Everywhere being an overall big favorite would seem a big help, but maybe not -- can you believe, the last best picture winner to take the editing prize was Argo, 10 years ago? In Maverick's favor, it has the sound nomination, something shared by every winner since 2007. And both films won at ACE last night. Seems to me this is the definitive jump ball.

[Eenusch]

There is a post-Oscar question hanging out there. If it wins everything but Best Picture, will there be a serious campaign to end the preferential balloting?

That would be interesting since I’ve heard for decades how fundamentally undemocratic the “first-past-the-post” voting system is for political elections…that a candidate or party in a parliamentary system of government like Britain and Canada (where I’m from) can take power with a majority of the seats, yet only have a plurality of the total votes in the mid-30%-range, say.

Therefore, on the face of it, a preferential voting system seems fairer in that it better reflects majority opinion, and in the Best Picture category of the Oscars, a truer reflection of membership taste.

[Big Magilla]

There's no showdown. The most editing wins.

No one has to write anything down; all they have to do is check a box.

Only two questions really remain. How many Oscars will EEAAO win, and will it win Best Picture or lose due to preferential balloting?

There is a post-Oscar question hanging out there. If it wins everything but Best Picture, will there be a serious campaign to end the preferential balloting?

[Sabin]

Okri wrote
I think it's Everything Everywhere All At Once's to lose. It's flashy editing the ticks a lot of the boxes that AMPAS tends to appreciate in the editing category. Even when it underperformed at BAFTA, it still won this category.

I don't think that it's Everything Everywhere All At Once's to lose but I think its win at the BAFTAs is really the only bellwether we can rely on. Either film features the type of editing that would triumph in many recent years. This feels like the biggest showdown in this category since what? The Bourne Ultimatum and No Country for Old Men? Babel and The Departed?

I think Everything Everywhere All At Once has one thing going against it. It is one minute longer than Top Gun: Maverick and it felt a half hour longer. Or rather, Top Gun: Maverick felt a half hour shorter. When I left the theater of Top Gun: Maverick, I thought for sure I had seen a 100 minute film. Not the case. Of the two, I'd have no hesitation giving it to Top Gun: Maverick but I think Tár deserves this in a walk. It has the most purposeful editing of the year.

Getting back to the race, even if Everything Everywhere All At Once is a divisive film, the people who love it probably aren't going to get tired of writing its name down, and the people that hate it will probably gravitate towards Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis but will that be enough to constitute a plurality? I don't know. My hunch is no and it goes to Everything Everywhere All At Once.

[Okri]

I think it's Everything Everywhere All At Once's to lose. It's flashy editing the ticks a lot of the boxes that AMPAS tends to appreciate in the editing category. Even when it underperformed at BAFTA, it still won this category.

[anonymous1980]

The nominees:
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything, Everywhere All At Once
TAR
Top Gun: Maverick

Everything, Everywhere All At Once has now officially swept the precursors: It won Critics Choice, BAFTA and now the ACE Eddie (Comedy). It *should* be an easy winner: Best Picture front-runner where the editing is flashy due to the multiverse jumps, complex plot and action sequences. But one thing gives me pause: the lack of a Sound nomination. As stated here before, all the editing winners since the late 2000's have all gotten at least a nomination in a Sound category. Going by that logic, the win should between Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick, the two nominees here who have a corresponding Sound nomination. But someone pointed out that had there been two Sound categories instead of the one, EEAAO could have sneaked into one of them. Anyway, if any film is going to be the first since The Departed to win Editing without a Sound nomination, EEAAO could be it. Or if you believe the Sound nomination stat holds, Top Gun: Maverick, which won the ACE Eddie (Drama) is the winner. It's a toss-up, really.