My favorite film editors
A list of my favorite film editors, compiled at age 24.
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- Sound Department
- Editor
- Editorial Department
Walter Murch has been editing sound in Hollywood since starting on Francis Ford Coppola's film The Rain People (1969). He edited sound on American Graffiti (1973) and The Godfather Part II (1974), won his first Academy Award nomination for The Conversation (1974), won his first Oscar for Apocalypse Now (1979), and won an unprecedented double Oscar for Best Sound and Best Film Editing for his work on The English Patient (1996). Most recently he helped reconstruct Touch of Evil (1958) to Orson Welles' original notes, and edited The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). Mr. Murch was, along with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, a founding member of northern California cinema. Mr. Murch has directed --Return to Oz (1985) -- and longs to do so again, but as an editor and sound man he is one of the few universally acknowledged masters in his field. For his work on the film "Apocalypse Now (1979)", Walter coined the term "sound designer", and along with colleagues such as Ben Burtt, helped to elevate the art and impact of film sound to a new level.Apocalypse Now, THX 1138, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Godfather 1, 2, and 3- Editor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Dede Allen started her career as a messenger at Columbia Pictures. She graduated to being a sound cutter and assistant editor. Her first job as a film editor was for director Robert Wise, and since then, she has achieved a reputation as one of the most stylish and creative editors in the American film industry.Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, The Breakfast Club, Serpico- Editor
- Producer
- Editorial Department
Thelma Schoonmaker was born on 3 January 1940 in Algiers, Algeria. She is an editor and producer, known for The Departed (2006), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and The Irishman (2019). She was previously married to Michael Powell.- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Dylan Tichenor is an American film editor and member of American Cinema Editors. He is best known for his works in Boogie Nights (1997), Brokeback Mountain (2005), There Will Be Blood (2007), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and Phantom Thread (2017).
He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Critics' Choice Movie Award, a Hollywood Film Award and a Satellite Award, and has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards and four Eddie Awards.
As a child, he grew up watching movies with his father. He graduated from Philadelphia's Greene Street Friends School in 1982 and Central High School in 1986.
Tichenor worked as editor Geraldine Peroni's assistant on several films in the 1990s, including Robert Altman's film The Player (1992). His first credit as an editor was for Altman's Jazz '34 (1996). Following Peroni's death in 2004, Tichenor stepped in to finish his mentor's editing of Brokeback Mountain (directed by Ang Lee).
Tichenor has had a notable collaboration with director Paul Thomas Anderson. Tichenor's first major editing credit was for Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997), for which he was nominated for a Satellite Award. He was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Anderson's 2007 film There Will Be Blood.
Tichenor has been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors.- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Cinematographer
Michael Kahn was born on 8 December 1935 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an editor and cinematographer, known for West Side Story (2021), Jurassic Park (1993) and Minority Report (2002).- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Sound Department
After leaving school, Richard joined the ABC in Sydney with hopes of emulating his father, Jack Bruce, who worked as a cinematographer in Hollywood for Cecil B. De Mille and the Famous Lansky Players. However, the only opening at the time was in editing. He fell in love with the craft and spent 15 years with the ABC working on various current affairs and other programs before getting into drama. He left the ABC to work on the feature "Goodbye Paradise" before going on to "Careful He Might Hear You" and Kennedy Miller's "The Dismissal" and "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome". It was through George Miller's studio film "The Witches of Eastwick that Richard was introduced to Hollywood. He again worked for Miller on his 1992 film "Lorenzo's Oil". Richard got the job on "Shawshank Redemption" over 30 of Hollywood's best editors because the producer had a similar background (at the BBC) and took a liking to him. In June/July 1996 Richard visited Australia for the first time in four years and during that time spoke at a seminar at the Australian Film Television and Radio School entitled Frame By Frame, where he took the audience cut by cut through every aspect of the production of "Seven". He was also interviewed for the ABC- TV program "Review". Richard was also nominated for the Eddies (American Cinema Editor's Awards) for his work on "Shawshank" and "Seven" and in 1997 Richard was invited to become a member of the American Cinema Editors. In 1998 he received his third Oscar nomination for his work on "Air Force One", a fact which attracted considerable attention by the Australian TV and press. However, although it was hoped he would be third time lucky, the Oscar went to the blockbuster of the year Titanic. In 2001 he was again nominated by the Americian Cinema Editor's for his work on "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone .- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Director
Curtiss Clayton is known for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Buffalo '66 (1998) and My Own Private Idaho (1991).- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Director
Ray Lovejoy was born on 18 February 1939. He was an editor and director, known for Aliens (1986), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Krull (1983). He died on 19 October 2001 in London, England, UK.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
The son of an affluent architect, Eisenstein attended the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd as a young man. With the fall of the tsar in 1917, he worked as an engineer for the Red Army. In the following years, Eisenstein joined up with the Moscow Proletkult Theater as a set designer and then director. The Proletkult's director, Vsevolod Meyerhold, became a big influence on Eisenstein, introducing him to the concept of biomechanics, or conditioned spontaneity. Eisenstein furthered Meyerhold's theory with his own "montage of attractions"--a sequence of pictures whose total emotion effect is greater than the sum of its parts. He later theorized that this style of editing worked in a similar fashion to Marx's dialectic. Though Eisenstein wanted to make films for the common man, his intense use of symbolism and metaphor in what he called "intellectual montage" sometimes lost his audience. Though he made only seven films in his career, he and his theoretical writings demonstrated how film could move beyond its nineteenth-century predecessor--Victorian theatre-- to create abstract concepts with concrete images.- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Chris Lebenzon's career as an editor has spanned four decades and genres from action to drama, fantasy, musicals, comedy, and animation. He is known for his longtime collaborations with director Tim Burton and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. He has earned accolades including Oscar nominations for the iconic classic Top Gun (1986) and submarine thriller Crimson Tide (1995). He won American Cinema Editors' Eddie Awards for Tim Burton's adaptation of the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and live action fantasy, Alice in Wonderland (2010). The films he has edited have grossed over 13 billion dollars worldwide.
With Burton, he has edited classic films, such as: Batman Returns (1992), Ed Wood (1994), Big Fish (2003), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Additionally, he has worked on stop- motion animated films such as Frankenweenie (2012), Corpse Bride 2005), and the holiday classic The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), for which he was consulting editor.
With producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Tony Scott he has also edited: Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Days of Thunder (1990), and Enemy of the State (1998).
Moreover, he edited over 12 films with Jerry Bruckheimer: this included Dominic Sena's Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), Simon West's Con Air (1997), Michael Bay's Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), and Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick (2022) as the additional editor.
Lebenzon's credits also include John Hughes' Weird Science (1985), Martin Brest's Midnight Run (1988), Disney's Maleficent (2014), and Ruben Fleisher's Uncharted (2022).- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Sandra Adair is known for her work on Boyhood (2014), Bernie (2012), School of Rock (2003), and the cult classic Dazed and Confused (1993). Adair is also known for her work on the critically acclaimed 'Before' trilogy, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight. Adair made her directorial debut with the feature documentary, The Secret Life of Lance Letscher (2017).Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight, Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Actor
Paul Hirsch, A.C.E. has edited over 40 films, among them the first "Star Wars" written and directed by George Lucas, for which he received an Academy Award in 1978, and "The Empire Strikes Back"; 11 films for Brian De Palma, including "Carrie", "Blowout" and "Mission: Impossible"; four for Herbert Ross, including "Footloose", "The Secret of My Success" and "Steel Magnolias"; three for John Hughes, including "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Planes, Trains & Automobiles"; and "Falling Down" for Joel Schumacher. In 2005, he received his second Academy Award nomination for "Ray", a biopic based on the life of Ray Charles, directed by Taylor Hackford. The various genres in his resume include drama, action, horror, musical comedy, fantasy, suspense, mystery and comedy. In 2008, he reunited with Hackford on "Love Ranch." More recently, he edited "Source Code", directed by Duncan Jones, "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol", directed by Brad Bird, "Warcraft", his second picture with Duncan Jones, and has served as additional editor on numerous films. Hirsch was born in NYC. His father, Joseph Hirsch, was a well-known painter whose works are in the permanent collections of major museums in the US, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. His mother and stepfather, Ruth & Leonard Bocour, were important collectors of 20th Century American painting. He spent part of his childhood growing up in Paris and is fluent in French, as well as somewhat conversant in Italian and British. He studied music at the High School of Music & Art in NYC. He majored in Art History at Columbia University. He is married, with two grown offspring both in the film business, and lives in Pacific Palisades. He is the author of a memoir titled "A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away."- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel married actress Frances McDormand in 1984 and had an adopted son.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel directed and Ethan produced - with both editing under the name of Roderick Jaynes; but in 2004 they started to share the three main duties plus editing. Each film bring its own quality, creativity, art and with one project more daring the other.
His film debut was in 1984 dark humored thriller Blood Simple (1984) starring Frances McDormand (Joel's wife) and M. Emmet Walsh in a deep story revolving a couple of romantic lovers followed by an insisting private eye. The film received critical acclaim, some award nominations to Ethan (best writing at the Film Independent Spirit Awards) and became a cult following over the years. Their second work was the comedy Raising Arizona (1987) starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as a unusual couple trying to create their family by kidnapping babies from a rich family.
Miller's Crossing (1990) was the third film of the brothers, a mob drama with heavy influences from several criminal dramas and with a stellar cast that included Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, Albert Finney, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro and Jon Polito (the latter three would become regular actors in the Coen's films).
Their views on the Hollywood era of the 1930's was the central theme is the great Barton Fink (1991), created from a writers block both brothers suffered during the making of their previous film. John Turturro stars as a writer who suffers from a breakdown when he's commissioned to a big budget Hollywood project. The film was a breakthrough for the Coens marking their first win at the Cannes Film Festival (Joel got the Palme d'Or) and the first time a film of their received Oscar nominations. The underrated comedy The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) was what followed; but no one could predict their next big and boldest move that would definitely put Ethan and Joel on the spotlight once and for all.
The comedy of errors Fargo (1996) was a huge critical and commercial success. With its crazed story of a man who hires two loonies to kidnap his own wife and a pregnant policewoman tracking the leads to the crime, Ethan and Joel came at their greatest moment that couldn't be missed. The film received several awards during award season and the Coen's got their first Oscar in the Best Original Screenplay category. What came next was the underrated yet hilariously good The Big Lebowski (1998) starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, John Turturro and Steve Buscemi. Those masterpieces made their career in the late 1990's cementing the duo as one of the greatest writers and directors of their generation, if not, from all time.
The Odyssey retold for the 1930's in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000); the intelligent noir The Man Who Wasn't There (2001); the comedy Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and a remake The Ladykillers (2004) marked their way into the early 2000's. Certaintly of period of minor hits and some downer moments.
The big return was with the highly acclaimed No Country for Old Men (2007), where the brothers swooped at the Oscars with three wins: Best Picture, Screenplay and Writing, an adaptation from the Cormac McCarthy's novel.
A Serious Man (2009), Burn After Reading (2008), True Grit (2010), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Hail, Caesar! (2016) and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) were the subsequent films, all well received by audiences or got awards recognition, mostly nominations.
A shift from tone and career move was writing with other writers and for another directors: for Angelina Jolie's Unbroken (2014), for Spielberg in Bridge of Spies (2015) and George Clooney in Suburbicon (2017).
As for personal life, Ethan has been married to Tricia Cooke since 1990. Tricia works as an assistant editor in several of the Coen brothers films.- Editor
- Producer
- Sound Department
Sally Menke was born on 17 December 1953 in Mineola, New York, USA. She was an editor and producer, known for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) and Inglourious Basterds (2009). She was married to Dean Parisot. She died on 27 September 2010 in Los Angeles, California, USA.