"Argo" racked up yet another guild victory on Saturday night, taking home the American Cinema Editors' ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature (Dramatic).
"Silver Linings Playbook" won the award for Best Edited Feature (Comedy or Musical).
The award is an unusually reliable predictor of the film-editing Oscar, and adds to a substantial guild-awards haul for "Argo" that also includes honors from the Producers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild. The Writers Guild announces its winners on Sunday.
"Silver Linings Playbook" has less overall success this awards season, but has dominated at shows that also include separate categories for comedies.
Over the last 20 years, the group's drama winner (including one tie) has gone on to take home the editing Oscar 16 times, while the comedy/musical winner has done so once.
In those 20 years, the ACE winner has gone on to win Best Picture 12 times.
Last year was one of the times the ACE Eddie winner and Oscar winner didn't match: "The Descendants" and "The Artist" won ACE Eddies, while "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" won the Oscar.
This year's ACE Eddie Awards category for Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) almost exactly matches the Ocars category for Best Film Editing, with "Argo," "Life of Pi," "Lincoln" and "Zero Dark Thirty" all nominated. The only difference is that Oscar voters also nominated "Silver Linings," while ACE Eddie voters put that film in the comedy or musical category and went with "Skyfall" in the drama group.
In other film awards, Pixar's "Brave" continued its strong guild showing by winning the honor for animated feature. "Searching for Sugar Man" won the award for documentary-feature editing, adding to its own plethora of awards.
On the television side, one of the two "Breaking Bad" episodes nominated in the one-hour commercial-TV series category won, while the pilot for "The Newsroom" was honored in the one-hour non-commercial-TV category and "Nurse Jackie" won among half-hour series.
Veteran editor Walter Murch ("Apocalypse Now," "The English Patient") won the TV movie or miniseries award for Philip Kaufman's HBO movie "Hemingway & Gellhorn," while the TV documentary award went to the "American Masters" documentary "Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune."
Lifetime achievement awards went to editors Richard Marks ("The Godfather: Part II," "As Good As It Gets") and Larry Silk ("One Survivor Remembers,"
American Dream"), while the ACE Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award went to Steven Spielberg.
The show took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and was hosted by actor-comedian David Cross.
Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic): "Argo," William Goldenberg
Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical): "Silver Linings Playbook," Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Best Edited Animated Feature Film: "Brave," Nicolas C. Smith
Best Edited Documentary (Feature):
"Searching for Sugar Man,"
Malik Bendjelloul
Best Edited Documentary (Television): "American Masters – Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune," Pamela Scott Arnold
Best Edited Half-hour Series for Television: "Nurse Jackie: Handle Your Scandal,” Gary Levy
Best Edited One-hour Series for Commercial Television: "Breaking Bad: Dead Freight,” Skip Macdonald
Best Edited One-hour Series for Non-Commercial Television: "The Newsroom" (Pilot), Anne McCabe
Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television: "Hemingway & Gellhorn," Walter Murch
Best Edited Non-scripted Series: "Frozen Planet: Ends of the Earth,” Andy Netley & Sharon Gillooly
Student Editing Award: Michael Smith, AFI
ACE Eddie Lifetime Achievement Award: Larry Silk
ACE Eddie Lifetime Achievement Award: Richard Marks
ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award: Steven Spielberg
