Tech Awards Go to Silent Film + Steven Spielberg & Martin Scorsese Movies

The Artist with Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC)
* The Descendants
Kevin Tent, A.C.E.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Angus Wall, A.C.E. & Kirk Baxter, A.C.E.
Hugo
Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E.
Moneyball
Christopher Tellefsen, A.C.E.
War Horse
Michael Kahn, A.C.E.

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)
* The Artist
Anne-Sophie Bion & Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids
William Kerr & Michael L. Sale
Midnight in Paris
Alisa Lepselter
My Week with Marilyn
Adam Recht
Young Adult
Dana E. Glauberman, A.C.E.

BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
The Adventures of Tintin
Michael Kahn, A.C.E.
Puss in Boots
Eric Dapkewicz
* Rango
Craig Wood, A.C.E.

BEST EDITED HALF-HOUR SERIES FOR TELEVISION
Curb Your Enthusiasm: “Mister Softee”
Roger Nygard
* Curb Your Enthusiasm: “Palestinian Chicken”
Steven Rasch, A.C.E.
Modern Family: “Express Christmas”
Steven Rasch, A.C.E.

BEST EDITED ONE-HOUR SERIES FOR COMMERCIAL TELEVISION
Breaking Bad: “End Times”
Kelley Dixon
* Breaking Bad: “Face Off”
Skip MacDonald
Friday Night Lights: “Always”
Angela M. Catanzaro
The Good Wife: “Real Deal”
Hibah Frisina, A.C.E.
The Walking Dead: “Save the Last One”
Hunter Via, A.C.E.

BEST EDITED ONE-HOUR SERIES FOR NON-COMMERCIAL TELEVISION
Boardwalk Empire: “To the Lost”
Tim Streeto
Game of Thrones: “Baelor”
Frances Parker, A.C.E.
* Homeland: “Pilot”
Jordan Goldman, David Latham

BEST EDITED MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE FOR TELEVISION
* Cinema Verite
Sarah Flack, A.C.E. & Robert Pulcini
Downton Abbey, Episode 1.1
John Wilson, A.C.E.
Mildred Pierce, Part 1
Affonso Gonçalves & Camilla Toniolo

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Joe Bini & Maya Hawke
* Freedom Riders
Lewis Erskine & Aljernon Tunsil
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
David Tedeschi

BEST EDITED REALITY SERIES
* Anthony Bourdain – No Reservations: “Haiti”
Eric Lasby
Beyond Scared Straight:”Chowchilla”
Rob Goubeaux, A.C.E., Paul J. Coyne, A.C.E., Heather Abell, Audrey Capotosta, Maura Corey, Jeremy Gantz & Molly Shock
Whale Wars: “Race to Save Lives”
Eric Myerson, Pete Ritchie & Josh Crockett

Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, The Artist photo: The Weinstein Company

The Descendants (Kevin Tent) and The Artist (Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius) were the two live-action narrative features to win the 2012 American Cinema Editor Awards at a ceremony held this evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. That shows ACE Award voters opted for more subdued film editing jobs this year: The Descendants’ competitors, for instance, included David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo; one of The Artist‘s competitors was Paul Feig’s hectic comedy Bridesmaids.

Or perhaps ACE voters just wanted to reward someone new. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo‘s Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter were last year’s winner for Fincher’s The Social Network. Hugo‘s Thelma Schoonmaker has already won four ACE Awards – a.k.a. Eddies – each for a Martin Scorsese-directed film: Raging Bull (1980), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006, tied with Babel‘s Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise).

Tent had never won an ACE Award. Much like The Descendants, his previous nods were all for Alexander Payne-directed films: Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), and Sideways (2004). Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius were first-time nominees.

So, what do those victories mean in Oscar terms? Well, both a lot and not much. The Descendants seems to be the odds-on favorite to take home the Best Film Editing Academy Award because nine of the last ten Oscar winners in that category had previously won the ACE Award for a dramatic feature (including co-ACE winner The Departed). However, dramatic features haven’t had strong competition in the comedy/musical category since 2002 – and Rob Marshall’s Chicago. In early 2003, Chicago went on to win both the ACE Award for a comedy/musical and the Oscar for film editing. In other words, The Artist – not The Descendants – is the film to beat for the Best Film Editing Oscar this year.

Now, The Artist was the Best Picture favorite before the ACE Awards, and it remains the Best Picture favorite after the ACE Awards. The Descendants could have been a real threat had it also won either the Producers Guild Award or the Directors Guild Award. The Artist won both.

Last year, for instance, The Social Network was the ACE Award winner in the dramatic feature category. But the Best Picture Oscar went to Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, winner of both the PGA and the DGA Awards.

In the last ten years, only five winners of the ACE Award for Best Edited Dramatic Feature have also taken home the Best Picture Oscar: Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Paul Haggis’ Crash (2005), Scorsese’s The Departed (2006, tied with Babel), Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2009). Of those, only Crash failed to win either the PGA or the DGA Award – and Crash‘s victory over Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain remains one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history. Chicago is the only Best Picture winner of the last ten years to have previously won the ACE Award for a comedy/musical feature.

Among this year’s other ACE Award winners were Gore Verbinski’s animated feature Rango (Craig Wood). Freedom Riders (Lewis Erskine, Aljernon Tunsil) was the Best Edited Documentary, while television winners were Cinema Verite, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Breaking Bad, and Homeland.

Additionally, The Descendants’ Alexander Payne was given the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, while Clint Eastwood’s frequent collaborator Joel Cox (Letters from Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven, Bird, The Gauntlet) and television veteran Doug Ibold (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Miami Vice, Magnum, P.I.) received, respectively, motion picture and television Lifetime Career Achievement awards.

George Clooney/Shailene Woodley/The Descendants photo: Merie Wallace / Fox Searchlight

Following a series of disappointments this awards season, Steven Spielberg has finally had his two 2011 releases come out on top – at the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards earlier this evening. War Horse won the Golden Reel for sound editing: sound effects and foley in a feature film, while The Adventures of Tintin won for sound editing: sound effects, foley, dialogue and ADR in an animation film.

Martin Scorsese also had two of his films winning sound editing awards. George Harrison: Living in the Material World took the Golden Reel for sound editing: sound effects, foley, dialogue, ADR and music in a feature documentary, while Hugo won for sound editing: music in a feature film.

The other motion picture winners were Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War for sound editing: sound effects, foley, dialogue, and ADR in a feature foreign language film; James Bobin’s The Muppets for sound editing: music in a musical feature; and J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 for sound editing: dialogue and ADR in a feature film.

Additionally, producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, The Abyss, Armageddon, The Incredible Hulk, The Walking Dead), received the 2012 MPSE Filmmaker Award, and sound designer and editor George Watters II (Mommie Dearest, Flashdance, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) was given the Career Achievement Award.

Jeremy Irvine/War Horse picture: David Appleby / DreamWorks.

The Descendants’ writer-director Alexander Payne, co-screenwriters Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, and novelist Kaui Hart Hemmings were the winners of the 2012 USC Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best adapted screenplay based on a novel (and the novel’s author) according to a panel of judges. Earlier this evening, The Descendants also won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Descendants’ competitors were Moneyball, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Dangerous Method, and Jane Eyre. Neither A Dangerous Method nor Jane Eyre were shortlisted for the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award. In their place, the Academy’s Screenwriters Branch chose Hugo and The Ides of March.

The USC Scripter Award ceremony was held this past Saturday at the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the USC Campus in downtown Los Angeles. Also at the ceremony, Paul Haggis, among whose credits as a screenwriter are two Best Picture Oscar winners – Crash (which he also directed) and Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby – was given USC Scripter Literary Achievement Award.

Beau Bridges/George Clooney/The Descendants photo: Merie Wallace / Fox Searchlight

Martin Scorsese’s period fantasy Hugo was the winner at the Cinema Audio Society Awards, which took place Saturday night at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The CAS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture went to Hugo‘s production mixer John Midgley, re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman, and scoring mixer Simon Rhodes.

Also at the ceremony, four-time CAS Award winner Scott Millan (Captain America: The First Avenger, Red Dawn, Skyfall) was given the CAS Career Achievement Award, presented by sound department veteran Walter Murch and composer Thomas Newman. Additionally, Chicago/Nine/Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ Rob Marshall was handed the CAS Filmmaker Award, presented by, among others, Nine/On Stranger Tides’ Penélope Cruz.

Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz/Hugo photo: Jaap Buitendijk / GK Films