Kevin Tent, ACE – the favorite, judging by the reaction of the crowd when the nominees were named – garnered the best edited feature film (drama) for his work on The Descendants. The award is his first win after three previous ACE nominations, all on films that he has edited for The Descendants’ director Alexander Payne.
For next week’s best achievement in film editing Oscar, Tent goes up against Anne-Sophie Bion and director Michel Hazanavicius, editors of The Artist and winners of the best edited feature film (comedy or musical). In accepting his Eddy, Hazanavicius, shared his love of the editing process, commenting, “If I was not a director, I would love to be an editor, but I don’t know how you deal with directors… I could not deal with me.”
In the remaining feature film categories, the Eddy for best edited animated feature film went to Craig Wood, ACE for Rango while Lewis Erskine and Aljernon Tunsil took home the Best Edited Documentary award for Freedom Riders.
On Payne’s character-driven films Witherspoon says, “He pulls back the curtain on real human life.” She commented that Payne’s characters show “the humility, the humanity, the pathos and the comedy,” while Tent explained that “He shows us ourselves in good light and bad. That takes a lot heart, a lot of talent, and a whole lot of guts.”
Exercising his chops as a comedic writer, Payne joked in his acceptance speech that the art of editing is “the ongoing process of disguising how bad a film really is.” Payne repeatedly highlighted the important contributions of Tent, saying, “The five features that I have made have received some degree of recognition for writing and acting, but the secret is Kevin Tent.” Speaking about his on-going collaboration with the editor, Payne shared his feelings, “We bring out the best in each other. He is really my co-writer.”
Revealing editing to be his favorite part of the filmmaking process, Payne admitted, “The more experience I get, the more my screenwriting, on-set my choice of angles – even how I direct and judge performance – increasingly involves thinking exclusively about the editing.”
Producer Dick Wolf presented television industry veteran Doug Ibold, ACE with his lifetime achievement award. After years of working on some of television’s most iconic shows – Quincy M.E., Magnum P.I., Miami Vice and the Law and Order franchise – Ibold still says, “I love editing. I love being an editor. I love going to work… most of the time.”
Television editors shared in the glory. In the best edited half-hour series for television category, Steven Rasch, ACE beat himself winning for Curb Your Enthusiasm, “Palestinian Chicken” over his Modern Family nomination. “There is a difference between one and two nominations,” explains Rasch. “If you get one nomination, your editor friends call you up and say ‘Great. Good Luck.’ With two nominations, they call you up and say, ‘You greedy bastard!’ To those people I say, I am not a greedy bastard. It’s the other Steve Rasch that edited Modern Family. He’s the greedy bastard.”
Breaking Bad, “Face Off,” edited by Skip MacDonald, received the Eddy for best edited one-hour series for commercial television. Homeland, “Pilot,” edited by Jordan Goldman and David Latham took the best edited one-hour series for non-commercial television award. Sarah Flack, ACE and Robert Pulcini were honored with best edited miniseries or motion picture for television, for their contributions to Cinema Verite.
In receiving his best edited reality series award for Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, “Haiti,” editor Eric Lasby apologized to the audience about the time it took to cross the ballroom to the stage, joking, “Sorry about the long trip. I would have cut that short.”
In the student editing competition, esteemed film editor Anne V. Coates, ACE (Lawrence of Arabia) presented the ACE Eddie award to Eric Kench of Video Symphony who beat out hundreds of competitors from film schools and universities around the country.
The evening was presided over by ACE president Randy Roberts. The line up of presenters included Laurie Holden (The Walking Dead), actor Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Super 8), Erika Christensen (Parenthood), Robert Forster and Matthew Lillard (The Descendants), Penelope Ann Miller and Missi Pyle (The Artist), Donald Faison (The Exes), Hannah Simone (New Girl), Jonathan Silverman and Jennifer Finnigan (Better With You).
Forster shared a bit of advice about filmmaking that he found posted over a trim bin in a cutting room early in his career: “If you didn’t shoot it, don’t look for it here.”
The winners of the 62nd Annual ACE Eddie awards are:
Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)
The Descendants
Kevin Tent, ACE
Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical)
The Artist
Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
Best Edited Animated Feature Film
Rango
Craig Wood, ACE
Best Edited Half-Hour Series for Television
Curb Your Enthusiasm, “Palestinian Chicken”
Steven Rasch, ACE
Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television
Breaking Bad, “Face Off”
Skip MacDonald
Best Edited One-Hour Series for Non-Commercial Television
Homeland, “Pilot”
Jordan Goldman and David Latham
Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television
Cinema Verite
Sarah Flack, ACE and Robert Pulcini
Best Edited Documentary
Freedom Riders
Lewis Erskine and Aljernon Tunsil
Best Edited Reality Series
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, “Haiti”
Eric Lasby
Student Competition
Eric Kench, Video Symphony