Academy Award for Best Film Editing

History

This award was first given for films released in 1934. The name of this award is occasionally changed; in 2008, it was listed as the Academy Award for Achievement in Film Editing.

Four film editors have won this award three times in their career:

• Ralph Dawson won for A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
• Daniel Mandell won for The Pride of the Yankees (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and The Apartment (1960).
• Michael Kahn won for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Schindler's List (1993), and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
• Thelma Schoonmaker won for Raging Bull (1980), The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006).

To date, three film directors have won this award: James Cameron, Alfonso Cuarón, and Sean Baker, for the films Titanic, Gravity, and Anora, respectively. Directors David Lean, Steve James, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (under the alias "Roderick Jaynes"), Michel Hazanavicius, Jean-Marc Vallée (under the alias "John Mac McMurphy"), and Chloé Zhao have been nominated for editing their own films as well, with Cameron, Cuarón, and the Coens each being nominated for the award twice. Also, Best Film Editing winner, Walter Murch, although known for film editing and sound, directed the Oscar nominated Return to Oz, and is, to date, the only person with Oscars for both sound engineering and film editing—winning them in the same year for his work on The English Patient.

Additionally, former film editors Robert Wise (nominee for Citizen Kane), Hal Ashby (winner for In the Heat of the Night), and Francis D. Lyon (co-winner for Body and Soul) became directors whose films were subsequently nominated for Best Film Editing themselves. These films include Somebody Up There Likes Me, I Want to Live!, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, The Sand Pebbles, and The Andromeda Strain for Wise; Bound for Glory and Coming Home for Ashby; and Crazylegs for Lyon.

Superlatives

Superlatives taken from a document published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Winners and nominees

These listings are based on the Awards Database maintained by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Shortlisted finalists

Finalists for Best Film Editing were selected by branch members, who voted for ten finalists which were screened to determine the five nominees.

Multiple wins and nominations

The following editors have received multiple nominations for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. This list is sorted by the number of total awards won (with the number of total nominations listed in parentheses).

• 3: Thelma Schoonmaker (9)

• 3: Michael Kahn (8)

• 3: Daniel Mandell (5)

• 3: Ralph Dawson (4)

• 2: William H. Reynolds (7)

• 2: Harold F. Kress (6)

• 2: William A. Lyon (6)

• 2: Joe Hutshing (4)

• 2: Pietro Scalia (4)

• 2: Kirk Baxter (3)

• 2: Gene Milford (3)

• 2: Conrad A. Nervig (3)

• 2: Arthur Schmidt (3)

• 2: Angus Wall (3)

• 2: Harry W. Gerstad (2)

• 2: Paul Weatherwax (2)

• 1: Barbara McLean (7)

• 1: Walter Murch (6)

• 1: Anne V. Coates (5)

• 1: William Goldenberg (5)

• 1: Fredric Steinkamp (5)

• 1: Ralph E. Winters (5)

• 1: Anne Bauchens (4)

• 1: Daniel P. Hanley (4)

• 1: Mike Hill (4)

• 1: William Hornbeck (4)

• 1: Frank P. Keller (4)

• 1: Stephen Mirrione (4)

• 1: James E. Newcom (4)

• 1: George Amy (3)

• 1: John Bloom (3)

• 1: Joel Cox (3)

• 1: Lisa Fruchtman (3)

• 1: Gerald B. Greenberg (3)

• 1: Gene Havlick (3)

• 1: Hal C. Kern (3)

• 1: Charles Nelson (3)

• 1: Christopher Rouse (3)

• 1: Lee Smith (3)

• 1: Joe Walker (3)

• 1: Peter Zinner (3)

• 1: Hal Ashby (2)

• 1: Conrad Buff (2)

• 1: James Cameron (2)

• 1: Richard Chew (2)

• 1: Jim Clark (2)

• 1: Tom Cross (2)

• 1: Alfonso Cuarón (2)

• 1: Adrienne Fazan (2)

• 1: Verna Fields (2)

• 1: John Gilbert (2)

• 1: Richard A. Harris (2)

• 1: Alan Heim (2)

• 1: Paul Hirsch (2)

• 1: Robert J. Kern (2)

• 1: Marcia Lucas (2)

• 1: Michael McCusker (2)

• 1: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen (2)

• 1: Thom Noble (2)

• 1: Robert Parrish (2)

• 1: Gene Ruggiero (2)

• 1: Claire Simpson (2)

• 1: Cotton Warburton (2)

• 1: Elmo Williams (2)

• 0: Gerry Hambling (6)

• 0: Frederic Knudtson (6)

• 0: Al Clark (5)

• 0: Warren Low (4)

• 0: Michael Luciano (4)

• 0: Richard Marks (4)

• 0: Dorothy Spencer (4)

• 0: Dede Allen (3)

• 0: Philip W. Anderson (3)

• 0: Jay Cassidy (3)

• 0: Hank Corwin (3)

• 0: Richard Francis-Bruce (3)

• 0: Stuart Gilmore (3)

• 0: Doane Harrison (3)

• 0: Pembroke J. Herring (3)

• 0: Robert C. Jones (3)

• 0: Ralph Kemplen (3)

• 0: Sam O'Steen (3)

• 0: Steven Rosenblum (3)

• 0: William Steinkamp (3)

• 0: Frank J. Urioste (3)

• 0: Ferris Webster (3)

• 0: Robert L. Wolfe (3)

• 0: William H. Ziegler (3)

• 0: Tariq Anwar (2)

• 0: Stuart Baird (2)

• 0: Alan Baumgarten (2)

• 0: Samuel E. Beetley (2)

• 0: Danford B. Greene (2)

• 0: Walter Hannemann (2)

• 0: Roderick Jaynes (2)

• 0: Sheldon Kahn (2)

• 0: Myron Kerstein (2)

• 0: Saar Klein (2)

• 0: Viola Lawrence (2)

• 0: Chris Lebenzon (2)

• 0: Louis R. Loeffler (2)

• 0: Barry Malkin (2)

• 0: Owen Marks (2)

• 0: Pamela Martin (2)

• 0: Yorgos Mavropsaridis (2)

• 0: Craig McKay (2)

• 0: Sally Menke (2)

• 0: Otto Meyer (2)

• 0: Frank Morriss (2)

• 0: Eve Newman (2)

• 0: Paul Rubell (2)

• 0: Arthur P. Schmidt (2)

• 0: Bud S. Smith (2)

• 0: Tim Squyres (2)

• 0: Crispin Struthers (2)

• 0: Robert Swink (2)

• 0: Kevin Tent (2)

• 0: Walter A. Thompson (2)

• 0: Dylan Tichenor (2)

• 0: Sherman Todd (2)

• 0: Dennis Virkler (2)

• 0: Billy Weber (2)

• 0: Andrew Weisblum (2)

• 0: Juliette Welfling (2)

• 0: John Wright (2)