Editing

There are usually three things to consider when it comes to predicting for Editing at the Academy Awards. Firstly, most films that go on to win Best Picture usually secure a nomination for Editing, in fact since the turn of the millennium 21 out of 23 Best Picture winners have received an editing nomination. The only two exceptions to the rule are “Birdman” in 2015 and “CODA” a couple of years ago.

The second thing to consider when predicting for Editing is that in recent years the Academy Award for Editing goes hand-in-hand for the award for Sound. The last time these awards did not correlate was in 2013 when “Argo” won the award for Editing without winning in either Sound Mixing or Sound Editing.

The final thing to note, and the most crucial from a filmmaking perspective, is that the Academy tend to celebrate films that have the ‘most editing’. Films with quick and snappy editing tend to get more attention than those which incorporate a slower and more subtle editing style. This has seen the likes of “1917” and the aforementioned “Birdman” ignored in editing as they adopted a one-take format consisting of hidden cuts.

Taken all of the above into consideration, it is hard to look past both “Oppenheimer” and “Dune: Part Two” as the only two possible movies that will walk away with Oscar for editing. Oppenheimer is the current frontrunner for Best Picture and Sound, so it is hard to ignore. However, Joe Walker’s work on the first Dune film won him this award in 2022, so it would be unwise to rule him out also.

Other possible awards players this coming season will most likely be fighting it out just to receive a nomination, with the most likely to get the final three spots being: “Killers of the Flower Moon”, “The Killer” and “Saltburn”.

Here are my predictions as of 31st July 2023:

Strong Contenders

1. Oppenheimer (Jennifer Lame)
2. Dune: Part Two (Joe Walker)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Thelma Schoonmaker)
4. The Killer (Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter)*
5. Saltburn (Victoria Boydell)

Possible Contenders

1. The Holdovers (Kevin Tent)
2. Air (William Goldenberg)
3. Ferrari (Pietro Scalia)
4. Barbie (Nick Houy)
5. Past Lives (Keith Fraase)

Outsiders

1. The Colour Purple (Jon Poll)
2. Poor Things (Yorgos Mavropsaridis)
3. Maestro (Michelle Tesoro)
4. The Zone of Interest (Paul Watts)
5. Next Goal Wins (Nat Sanders)

• No official editor announced for “The Killer” but Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter between them have worked on all of David Fincher’s movies prior.