ACE Eddie Preview and Predictions

The American Cinema Editors will announce their Eddie winners this weekend. As far as I can tell, there will be a few head to heads worth noting that may or may not impact the Oscar race. As we all know, the editing nomination is always key, or certainly used to be key, when looking at the potential Best Picture winner. The ACE has around 6,000 members and was founded in the 1930s. They vote on two main film categories, Musical/Comedy and Drama, in addition to awards for Animated Feature and Documentary.

When the ballot expanded in 2009, the ACE and Oscar have matched four times: twice when there were 10 nominations slots for Best Picture (in 2009 and 2010) and twice after that, once with Argo and once with Mad Max: Fury Road. It seems strange that it appears to be trending towards not matching, although I guess the way Best Picture has been going down lately that shouldn’t be too surprising.

In terms of what the ACE will choose in Drama, it’s expected to be down to three films: Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, and The Shape of Water. Dunkirk probably gets it. But if The Shape of Water does, that will point to it being very strong heading into final voting, if not a little stronger. It is almost always the case that the Eddie winner is also a Best Picture nominee. That seems like it knocks out Blade Runner for the ACE at least. Depending on how things go with The Shape of Water and the Oscars, if it’s a win for Dunkirk that might means it also wins the Oscar for Best Editing.

In the Musical/Comedy category, there are three Best Picture nominees. Of those, only Three Billboards was nominated at the Oscars for Editing. Two additional nominees from Musical/Comedy crossed over to the Oscars: I, Tonya and Baby Driver, neither of which made Best Picture. That seems to indicate Three Billboards has the edge, which it might. I will predict it based on that, even though I think Baby Driver has the best editing of all and should win. It depends on how many people have seen it. And probably more have seen Three Billboards.

While I, Tonya has more heat, and was edited by a woman in the era of #MeToo, I think I will predict Baby Driver in hopes that the editors were as wowed by the real time editing superbly cut to music as many of us were. Here are the nominees:

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC):
Blade Runner 2049 – predicted winner: Jazz Tangcay
Joe Walker, ACE

Dunkirk – predicted winner: Sasha Stone, Marshall Flores, Ryan Adams, Clarence Moye
Lee Smith, ACE

Molly’s Game
Alan Baumgarten, ACE, Josh Schaeffer & Elliot Graham, ACE

The Post
Michael Kahn, ACE & Sarah Broshar

The Shape of Water
Sidney Wolinsky, ACE

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY):
Baby Driver – predicted winner: Tangcay, Flores, Moye
Jonathan Amos, ACE & Paul Machliss, ACE

Get Out
Gregory Plotkin

I, Tonya – predicted winner: Adams
Tatiana S. Riegel, ACE

Lady Bird
Nick Houy

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – predicted winner – Stone
Jon Gregory, ACE

BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Coco – predicted winner: Stone, Tangcay, Flores, Adams, Moye
Steve Bloom

Despicable Me 3
Clair Dodgson