The ACE Eddie Awards, a celebration of the craft of film editing, was held this past weekend on March 14, 2025. Myron Kerstein, ACE, Juliette Welfling, and Mary Blee are among some of the winners for their work in this year’s top acclaimed movies: Wicked, Emilia Pérez, and The Wild Robot, respectively. Friday was also a night of remembrance for the tragedy of the Altadena and Palisades fires, with nods to the heroes who helped fight them.
The official ceremony was a spectacular presentation of the industry’s best, from documentaries, limited series, and features. It also did an excellent job highlighting the editing community’s deep respect for their art. Many jokes were made by presenters touching on the invisible nature of the edit: how a film can be seen that it “just got like that” the moment it was shot. But, as Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year award winner Jon M. Chu said best, editors are “co-authors” in their own right. They can take a vision split up into many shots and find the best performances and takes to masterfully build a story and evoke deep levels of emotion and connection within the audience.
The dinner reception that followed carried the same level of humility. I always joke that when you put a bunch of introverts in a room and force them to socialize, you can feel that no one wants to be there, but nights like the Eddie’s could not prove more that it is the opposite. Editing is no easy feat. What seems tedious to many takes hours of dedication and pure passion to bring these stories to life. The community that builds around the sacrifices it takes to foster the edit is more potent than any I’ve experienced. Whoever I talked to, from nominees, to big names, and assistants alike, I was met with genuine conversation and encouragement.
While in conversation with one of the editors of Bridgerton, Greg Evans, he told me that “You really have to love it” because it’s an investment type of career, and “You’ll be in it for the long haul.” Being an editor in the first year of my career, I see this love all around me whenever I go to ACE events. It’s this love that we have for our work that translates into a love and respect for our peers, and that is certainly something to celebrate.
The ACE Eddie Awards will return in 2026.
