By Denise Petski, Erik Pedersen, Deadline
Oppenheimer took the marquee Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) honor and The Holdovers landed the top Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy) award at the 74th ACE Eddie Awards Sunday. Hosted by Nina West, the winners were announced live in a ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Jennifer Lame ACE, edited Oppenheimer, a film that has so far swept awards season with recent SAG Awards, PGA, DGA, for director Christopher Nolan, BAFTA, and more. The honor puts Oppenheimer and The Holdovers in frontrunner status in the Best Film Editing Oscar race, for which both are nominated, along with Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things.
Since the turn of the 21st century, the Eddie winner for theatrical drama has gone on to score the Academy Award for Best Editing 13 of 23 times — but none of the past four years. In a twist, it was the Eddies’ 2023 comedy winner, Everything Everywhere All at Once, that ended up scooping the Oscar. Top Gun: Maverick took ACE’s top drama prize last year.
Also scoring top film honors was Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse, which took the Best Edited Animated Feature Film award and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, which was honored as Best Edited Documentary (Theatrical).
TV winners included the editors behind FX’s The Bear and CBS’ How I Met Your Father on the comedy side and HBO’s The Last of Us on the drama side. Blue Eye Samurai has taken the honor for Best Edited Animated Series and Couples Therapy for Best Edited Non-Scripted Series.
Netflix’s Beef won for Best Edited Limited Series and Reality took the non-theatrical documentary honor.
Editors behind Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour took the award for Best Edited VarietyTalk/Sketch or Special.
A quartet of honorees received career awards from the American Cinema Editors. The ever-quirky writer-director John Waters received the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, recognizing a filmmaker who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film. Three-time Oscar winner Walter Murch and Emmy nominee Kate Amend are the 2024 Career Achievement recipients, and the society’s Heritage Award was presented to veteran TV editor Stephen Lovejoy.
George Lucas introduced career achievement winner Murch, calling his longtime friend and colleague, “a renaissance man, the most amazing intellectual, curious person I’ve ever met.”
ACE has presented its Eddie Awards annually since 1951, celebrating the art and science of the editing profession.
BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Michael Andrews, ACE
BEST EDITED DRAMA SERIES
The Last of Us: “Long, Long Time”
Timothy A. Good, ACE
