“King Richard” and “tick, tick…BOOM!” have been named the best-edited feature films of 2021 by the American Cinema Editors, which held its annual ACE-Eddie Awards on Saturday at, appropriately enough, the ACE Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
“King Richard” beat fellow Oscar nominees “Dune” (the presumed favorite) and “The Power of the Dog” to win in the drama category, while “tick, tick…BOOM!” beat the Oscar-nominated “Don’t Look Up” in the comedy category.
In the 22 years since ACE split its film award into separate drama and comedy categories, one of its winners has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Film Editing 15 times. All but one of those wins have come in the drama category. Last year’s winner, “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” lost the Oscar to “Sound of Metal.”
In the documentary categories, music docs ruled, with “Summer of Soul” taking the prize for documentary feature and the final episode of “The Beatles: Get Back” winning for non-theatrical documentary.
“Encanto” won the award for animated feature.
Television winners included “Succession,” “Hacks,” “Mare of Easttown,” “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” “Oslo,” “Bo Burnham: Inside,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “Kevin Can F— Himself.” That last show had all three of the nominations in its category, Best Edited Multi-Camera Series.
Honorary awards presented at the show included the ACE Golden Eddie Award, which was presented to the Sundance Institute and accepted by Michelle Statter; and Career Achievement Awards to editors Lillian E. Benson and Richard Chew.
During the show, winners, presenters and host Lance Robertson, aka DJ Lance Rock, made frequent mention of the Oscars’ plan to present Best Film Editing and seven other categories in the hour before the telecast begins, and then edit those presentations into the broadcast. “Who are they gonna get to cut that?” Robertson asked.
The full list of winners:
Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic): “King Richard,” Pamela Martin, ACE
Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy): “tick, tick…BOOM!,” Myron Kerstein, ACE and Andrew Weisblum, ACE
Best Edited Animated Feature Film: “Encanto,” Jeremy Milton, ACE
Best Edited Documentary (Feature): “Summer of Soul (Or … When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” Joshua L. Pearson
Best Edited Documentary (Non-Theatrical): “The Beatles: Get Back” – “Episode 3,” Jabez Olssen
Best Edited Multi-Camera Series: “Kevin Can F**k Himself” – “Live Free or Die,” Daniel Schalk, ACE and Joseph Fulton
Best Edited Single-Camera Comedy Series: “Hacks” – “1.69 Million,” Susan Vaill, ACE
Best Edited Drama Series: “Succession” – “All the Bells Say,” Ken Eluto, ACE
Best Edited Motion Picture (Non-Theatrical): “Oslo,” Jay Rabinowitz, ACE=
Best Edited Limited Series: “Mare of Easttown” – “Illusions,” Amy E. Duddleston, ACE
Best Edited Non-Scripted Series: “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” – “Man on Fire,” Dan Ablett, Kevin Austin, Otto Burnham, Shane McCormack and Graham Taylor
Best Edited Variety Talk/Sketch Show or Special: “Bo Burnham: Inside,” Bo Burnham
Best Edited Animation (Non-Theatrical): “Bobs Burgers” – ” Vampire Disco Death Dance,” Jeremy Reuben
Anne V. Coates Award for Student Editing: Guanqing Lin, American Film Institute