Academy Award for Best Film Editing facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Academy Award for Best Film Editing
The 2024 recipient: Sean Baker
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
Country	United States
First awarded	February 27, 1935; 90 years ago (1935-02-27) (for films released in 1934)
Currently held by	Jennifer Lame Oppenheimer (2023)

The Academy Award for Best Film Editing is a special prize given out each year at the Oscars. It honors the amazing work of film editors. Film editing is the art of choosing the best shots and putting them together to tell a story. A great editor can make a movie exciting, emotional, or funny.

Thelma Schoonmaker (left) is one of the most celebrated film editors in history.

Conrad A. Nervig won the very first Oscar for Best Film Editing for the movie Eskimo.

This award is given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Many people think this award is a good clue for which movie will win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Often, the movie that wins Best Picture was also nominated for Best Film Editing.

Only the main editors of a film can receive this award. Other editors who help out, like supervising editors, are not named on the Oscar. To decide the nominees, members of the Academy's Editing Branch vote for their favorite films. Then, all Academy members vote to choose the winner from the list of nominees.

History of the Award

The first award for film editing was given in 1935 for movies made in 1934. Over the years, some editors have become legends by winning this Oscar multiple times.

Four editors have won the award three times:

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

Interestingly, some film directors have also won this award for editing their own movies. James Cameron won for Titanic, Alfonso Cuarón won for Gravity, and Sean Baker won for Anora.

Amazing Editing Facts

This table shows some of the record-holders for the Best Film Editing award.

Famous Winners Through the Decades

Here is a list of some of the movies that have won the Oscar for Best Film Editing over the years. The winner is marked with a colored background.

1930s–1950s

In the early days of Hollywood, editing was just as important as it is today. It helped create the magic of classic movies.

1960s–1980s

This era saw many groundbreaking films with creative editing. Action movies and epic stories became very popular.

1990s–2020s

With new technology, editors could create even more spectacular movies. Digital editing changed the way films were made.

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Óscar al mejor montaje para niños

• BAFTA Award for Best Editing
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Editing
• List of Academy Award–nominated films