Film editing is one of the littler noticed categories, but it has a surprising correlation to the Best Picture category. The work of film editors lies in helping to assemble the final product and it is an important job in creating a final product that is worth watching. This is the only award focused entirely on the post-production side of the film meaning that it is the last job done before the film is released. This year’s nominees cross several genres and offer a great look at the personal process of editing.
The nominees for Best Film Editing are:
- Baby Driver – The complexity of this film lies in its score, which used music as a large part of its plot. This made the job of editing the film much more complicated and required a perfectly choreographed final product. There might be better edited films nominated, but the detail required to put this film together warrants a great deal of respect and praise.
- Dunkirk – War films are designed to emulate the stress and struggle of the time period and creating a final product that mimics that can be a daunting task. Add in the complexity of three separate stories told over different periods of time, happening simultaneously and the difficulty increases. Impressive and amazingly made, this film was a work of love in every way.
- I, Tonya – To describe this film as extremely choppy would be an understatement, but that was by design. Switching between interviews and the narrative aspect of the story required a deep understanding of timing and assembling the story to tell the story coherently. Choppy though it may be, the final product tells a story that couldn’t be told any other way.
- The Shape of Water – A good caper film requires a wide array of characters, each with a detailed background and certain skill. The fantasy elements of this movie required a completely different understanding than the process to assemble the heist aspect of the film. The pacing and juxtaposition needed to change completely and it was done here very smoothly.
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – The editing here is the most traditional and most unique of any film in this year’s nominees. Blending blinding tragedy with black comedy requires smooth transitions, and yet it’s the abruptness of this film that makes it something out of nowhere. There is a completely linear progression here that runs smoothly and yet not.
My Prediction to win is…
Dunkirk
Movies 