The nominations for the 72nd ACE Eddie Awards were unveiled in late January and history tells us this is an important precursor for the Best Film Editing Oscar race. In four of the last five years, all five Oscar nominees scored an ACE Eddie nomination first. The outlier was last year where The Father was absent at ACE Eddie before surging to overperform with the Academy.
That’s might be bad news for West Side Story, which was noticeably absent from the ACE Eddie nominations. That’s likely due to 20th Century Studios’ odd decision to submit the film in the Drama category and not Comedy or Musical. Given the latter category features a left-field nomination for Cruella, you’d have to assume that spot would have gone to West Side Story.
There’s every chance West Side Story still lands an Oscar nod and I’m (foolishly) keeping it in my top 5, but there are many predicting the film is going to massively underperform overall. It’s certainly the most vulnerable before Tuesday’s nominations announcement. No Time to Die and Licorice Pizza are definitely breathing down its neck, particularly after key nods from ACE Eddie and BAFTA.
BEST FILM EDITING PREDICTIONS:
1. Dune (Warner Bros.)
Joe Walker
2. The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
Peter Sciberras
3. Belfast (Focus Features)
Úna Ni Dhonghaile
4. Don’t Look Up (Netflix)
Hank Corwin
5. West Side Story (20th Century Studios)
Sarah Broshar and Michael Kahn
IN CONTENTION
Flee (Neon)
Janus Billeskov Jansen
House of Gucci (MGM)
Claire Simpson
King Richard (Warner Bros.)
Pamela Martin
Licorice Pizza (MGM)
Andy Jurgensen
The Matrix Resurrections (Warner Bros.)
Joseph Jett Sally
Nightmare Alley (Searchlight Pictures)
Cam McLauchlin
No Time to Die (MGM)
Tom Cross and Elliot Graham
Spencer (Neon)
Sebastián Sepúlveda
tick, tick… BOOM! (Netflix)
Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum
The Tragedy of Macbeth (A24/Apple TV+)
Reginald Jaynes (Joel Coen)
