84th Oscar Film Editing Updates (2011-2012 Awards Season) (12/14/11)

It’s a bit dangerous to make new Oscar predictions in the middle of a week where so many precursors are announcing, but the recent critics lists gives us a good idea of where the race is heading, and there is one major category that doesn’t get attention at this week’s SAG or Golden Globe awards, and that is Film Editing. Since the American Cinema Editors won’t announce their nominees for the Eddie Awards until January 16, this seemed like as good a time as any to update this list. Plus, editing has been on my mind as I’m currently working on a (much smaller) project for YouTube.

While the easy strategy for this category is to simply pick your top five best picture nominees and call it a day, I’m enough of a purist to include some films where the editing really shines, regardless of the best picture chances. It may be naive, but it occasionally pays off, such as when The Bourne Ultimatum won this category a mere four years ago. (Of course, as my friend Ryan has pointed out, there have been more recent years where it doesn’t pay to dream a little bigger.)

Here are today’s rankings for the 84th Oscar Film Editing race, with previous ranking shown in parenthesis after each entry. I would be in heaven if Drive won this, but it’s enough of a risk to place it among the nominees, and War Horse or Hugo will likely carry the day, especially since the latter includes scenes where they actually show how editing is done.



1. Thelma Schoonmaker for Hugo (Predicted Winner) (previous rank 2)
2. Matthew Newman for Drive (previous rank 32)
3. Michael Kahn for War Horse (previous rank 1)
4. Anne-Sophie Bion for The Artist (previous rank 5)
5. Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (previous rank 3)



Alternates:
6. Claire Simpson for Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close (previous rank 13)
7. Stephen Mirrione for Contagion (previous rank 6)
8. Christopher Tellefsen for Moneyball (previous rank 10)
9. Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Webert and Mark Yoshikawa for The Tree Of Life (previous rank 7)
10. Kevin Trent for The Descendants (previous rank 19)
11. Dino Jonsater for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (previous rank 14)
12. Joe Walker for Shame (New)
13. Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey for Super 8 (previous rank 8)
14. Joel Cox and Gary Roach for J. Edgar (previous rank 12)
15. Conrad Buff IV and Mark Goldblatt for Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (previous rank 43
16. Sean Albertson, Matt Chesse, John Gilroy and Aaron Marshall for Warrior (previous rank 46)
17. Stephen Mirrione for The Ides Of March (previous rank 9)
18. Hughes Winborne for The Help (previous rank 28)
19. Michael Kahn for The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn (previous rank 17)
20. Zachary Stuart-Pontier for Martha Marcy May Marlene (New)
21. Mark Day for Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (previous rank 4)
22. Paul Hirsch for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (previous rank 42)
23. Olivier Bugge Coutte for Beginners (New)
24. Parke Gregg for Take Shelter (New)
25. Jose Salcedo for The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito) (previous rank 16)

26. Jay Rabinowitz for Rampart (previous rank 18)
27. Chris Gill for The Guard (New)
28. Ronald Sanders for A Dangerous Method (previous rank 11)
29. Adam Recht for My Week With Marilyn (previous rank 49)
30. Molly M. Stensgaard and Morten Hojbjerg for Melancholia (previous rank 33)
31. Alisa Lepselter for Midnight In Paris (previous rank 38)
32. Patricia Rommel for In The Land Of Blood And Honey (previous rank 50)
33. Joe Bini for We Need To Talk About Kevin (New)
34. Mako Kamitsuna for Pariah (previous rank 25)
35. James Herbert for Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (previous rank 44)
36. Jay Rabinowitz for The Adjustment Bureau (previous rank 21)
37. Roberta Dalva, Jeffrey Ford and Michael McCusker for Captain America: The First Avenger (previous rank 23)
38. Chris King and Gregers Sall for Senna (New)
39. Dana Glauberman for Young Adult (previous rank 24)
40. Peter Adam for Anonymous (New)
41. Joe Hutshing and Mark Livolsi for We Bought A Zoo (previous rank 20)
42. Herve de Luze for Carnage (previous rank 31)
43. Justine Wright for The Iron Lady (previous rank 22)
44. Paul Tothill for Hanna (previous rank 29)
45. Paul Hirsch for Source Code (previous rank 26)
46. Paul Rubell for Thor (previous rank 47)
47. Nicolas Gaster for Coriolanus (previous rank 40)
48. Jonathan Alberts for Like Crazy (New)
49. Anne McCabe for Margaret (New)
50. Melanie Oliver for Jane Eyre (previous rank 37)


As always, check the Tracker Pages in the upper right hand corner of this blog for the most updated predictions in all categories!
See Film Editing predictions for other years HERE.
If you’re into film editing, you might also like Cinematography and Visual Effects.
See predictions for other categories at the 84th Oscars HERE.
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