Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors (ACE) is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E. (specifically the Motion Picture Editors Guild or MPEG) to which an editor might belong. The current President of ACE is Alan Heim.
Eligibility for active membership may be obtained by the following prerequisites:
Nomination or win of ACE Eddie award and/or
Desire to be a member
Sponsorship by at least two active members
Minimum of 60 months (5 years) editing experience on Features and/or Television
Interview by the Membership Committee
Approval by the Board of Directors
Acceptance by the general membership
Members use the postnominal "ACE" as part of their signatures; thus the president of the Society in October 2012 was Randy Roberts, ACE. The society publishes its current membership on its website; as of 2012, this website does not include deceased members.
As of August 2014, the Board of Directors are as follows:
Alan Heim, ACE (President)
Stephen Rivkin, ACE (Vice President)
Lillian Benson, ACE (Secretary)
Ed Abroms, ACE (Treasurer)
Board of Directors:
Anita Brandt-Burgoyne, ACE
Edgar Burcksen, ACE
Tina Hirsch, ACE
Maysie Hoy, ACE
Doug Ibold, ACE
Bonnie Koehler, ACE
Stephen Lovejoy, ACE
Harry B. Miller III, ACE
Sabrina Plisco, ACE
Kevin Tent, ACE
Associate Directors:
Mark Helfrich, ACE
Chris Innis, ACE
Michael Ornstein, ACE
Andrew Seklir, ACE
Beginning in 1950, the ACE held an annual dinner to honor the film editing Academy Award nominees. When the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) created a film editing category, the ACE invited them to the dinner as well.
In 1962, the ACE began giving its own awards. The awards and nominations are typically covered in entertainment industry newspapers and journals such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
The following awards are either currently given or have been given in the past. The American Cinema Editors does not publish an archive of these awards; it refers readers to the Internet Movie Database for archival information.
An * denotes a film that also won the Academy Award for Editing.
Best Edited Feature Film:
1962: The Parent Trap - Philip W. Anderson
1963: The Longest Day - Samuel E. Beetley
1964: How the West Was Won* - Harold F. Kress
1965: Mary Poppins* - Cotton Warburton
1966: The Sound of Music* - William Reynolds
1967: Fantastic Voyage - William B. Murphy
1968: The Dirty Dozen - Michael Luciano
1969: Bullitt* - Frank P. Keller
1970: Hello, Dolly! - Warren Low
1971: Patton* - Hugh S. Fowler
1972: Summer of '42 - Folmar Blangsted
1973: Cabaret* - David Bretherton
1974: The Sting* - William Reynolds
1975: The Longest Yard - Michael Luciano
1976: Jaws* - Verna Fields
1977: Rocky* - Richard Halsley and Scott Conrad
1978: The Turning Point - William Reynolds
1979: The Deer Hunter* - Peter Zinner
1980: All That Jazz* - Alan Heim
1981: Raging Bull* - Thelma Schoonmaker
1982: Raiders of the Lost Ark* - Michael Kahn
1983: Gandhi* - John Bloom
1984: WarGames - Tom Rolf
1985: Amadeus - Nena Danevic and Michael Chandler
1986: Witness* - Thom Noble
1987: Platoon* - Claire Simpson
1988: The Last Emperor* - Gabriella Cristiani
1989: Rain Man - Stu Linder tied with Mississippi Burning - Gerry Hambling
1990: Glory - Steven Rosenblum
1991: Dances with Wolves* - Neil Travis
1992: JFK* - Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia
1993: Unforgiven* - Joel Cox
1994: Schindler's List* - Michael Kahn
1995: Forrest Gump* - Arthur Schmidt
1996: Braveheart - Steven Rosenblum
1997: The English Patient* - Walter Murch
1998: Titanic* - Conrad Buff IV, James Cameron, and Richard A. Harris
1999: Saving Private Ryan* - Michael Kahn
In 2000, the Best Edited Feature Film award was broken into two genres, dramatic and comedy (an award given out to each category).
Best Edited Feature Film - Dramatic:
2000: The Matrix* - Zach Staenberg
2001: Gladiator - Pietro Scalia
2002: Black Hawk Down* - Pietro Scalia
2003: Gangs of New York - Thelma Schoonmaker
2004: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King* - Jamie Selkirk
2005: The Aviator* - Thelma Schoonmaker
2006: Crash* - Hughes Winborne
2007: Babel - Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise tied with The Departed* - Thelma Schoonmaker
2008: The Bourne Ultimatum* - Christopher Rouse
2009: Slumdog Millionaire* - Chris Dickens
2010: The Hurt Locker* - Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
2011: The Social Network* - Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
2012: The Descendants - Kevin Tent
2013: Argo* - William Goldenberg
2014: Captain Phillips - Christopher Rouse
2015: Boyhood - Sandra Adair
2016: Mad Max: Fury Road* - Margaret Sixel
2017: Arrival - Joe Walker
Best Edited Feature Film - Comedy or Musical:
2000: Being John Malkovich - Eric Zumbrunnen
2001: Almost Famous - Joe Hutshing and Saar Klein
2002: Moulin Rouge! - Jill Bilcock
2003: Chicago* - Martin Walsh
2004: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - Craig Wood, Stephen E. Rifkin, and Arthur Schmidt
2005: Ray - Paul Hirsch
2006: Walk the Line - Michael McCusker
2007: Dreamgirls - Virginia Katz
2008: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Chris Lebenzon
2009: WALL-E - Stephen Schaffer
2010: The Hangover - Debra Neil-Fisher
2011: Alice in Wonderland - Chris Lebenzon
2012: The Artist - Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
2013: Silver Linings Playbook - Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
2014: American Hustle - Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, and Alan Baumgarten
2015: The Grand Budapest Hotel - Barney Pilling
2016: The Big Short - Hank Corwin
2017: La La Land - Tom Cross
Best Edited Animated Feature Film
2010: Up - Kevin Nolting
2011: Toy Story 3 - Ken Schretzmann and Lee Unkrich
2012: Rango - Craig Wood
2013: Brave - Nicholas C. Smith and Robert Grahamjones
2014: Frozen - Jeff Draheim
2015: The Lego Movie - David Burrows and Chris McKay
2016: Inside Out - Kevin Nolting
2017: Zootopia - Fabienne Rawley and Jeremy Milton
Best Edited Half-Hour Series For Television
2015: Veep: "Special Relationship" - Anthony Boys
2016: Inside Amy Schumer: "12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer" - Nick Paley
Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television
2015: The Normal Heart - Adam Penn
2016: Bessie - Brian A. Kates
Best Edited One-Hour Series for Non-Commercial Television
2015: True Detective: "Who Goes There" - Affonso Goncalves
2016: House of Cards: "Chapter 39" - Lisa Bromwell
Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television
2015: Sherlock: "His Last Vow" - Yan Miles
2016: Mad Men: "Person to Person" - Tom Wilson
Best Edited Non-Scripted Series
2015: Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: "Iran" - Hunter Gross
2016: Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: "Bay Area" - Hunter Gross
Best Edited Documentary (Feature)
2015: Citizenfour - Mathilde Bonnefoy
2015: Amy - Chris King
Best Edited Documentary (Television)
2015: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History: Episode 3 / The Fire of Life - Erik Ewers
2016: The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst: "Chapter 1: A Body in the Bay" - Richard Hankin, Zac Stuart-Pontier, Caitlyn Greene, Shelby Siegel
The ACE Student Editing Competition Winner
2015: Johnny Sepulveda
2016: Chris Dold
Career Achievement Awards
The ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award
2007: 57th ACE Eddie Awards
2008: 58th ACE Eddie Awards
2009: 59th ACE Eddie Awards
2010: 60th ACE Eddie Awards
2011: 61st ACE Eddie Awards
2012: 62nd ACE Eddie Awards
2013: 63rd ACE Eddie Awards
2014: 64th ACE Eddie Awards
2015: 65th ACE Eddie Awards
2016: 66th ACE Eddie Awards
2017: 67th ACE Eddie Awards
Since 1951, the ACE publishes the CINEMAEDITOR quarterly magazine. It began as an in-house publication, but grew to 5,000 subscribers in 1963. In the early 1990s the magazine collapsed into a four-page newsletter. In 1994, Jack Tucker was appointed as the Editor the publication into today's magazine. Walter Fernandez, Jr. leads the magazine's team, with publications committee chair Edgar Burcksen.
The American Cinema Editors also holds an annual student competition (The ACE Student Editing Competition), awarding one student editor for editing a set of video dailies for a dramatic scene. Three finalists are guests at the annual ACE Eddie Awards in February. Applications are accepted through October and cost US$125. The competition is limited to the first 100 students only.
The ACE Store is the source of the dailies used at most film schools today. The scene is from a 1958 episode of the TV series Gunsmoke. It is available only to instructors of film editing classes. The video tape is called "FILM EDITING: Interpretation and Value" and includes three different edits of the scene.
