Oscar-Nominee Alan Baumgarten on Editing Aaron Sorkin’s Rapid-Fire Dialogue in “The Trial of the Chicago 7”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on October 13, 2020. Baumgarten has since been nominated for an Oscar for Editing.  

For his latest feature, writer and director Aaron Sorkin shifts his political eye from the West Wing to the US government’s judicial branch. In The Trial of the Chicago 7, Sorkin revisits the drawn-out trial of a group of Vietnam War protestors,

Editor Gabriel Rhodes on Cutting the Oscar-Nominated Doc “Time”

“I never thought a film could be made with such a minimal amount of information,” says editor Gabriel Rhodes. But not only was it made; it currently has an Oscar nomination for best feature-length documentary.

The film in question is called, simply, Time. Coming from director/artist Garrett Bradley, it chronicles a long stretch of time, twenty years’ worth, in which Louisiana-based wife and mother, Fox Rich,

“Minari” Editor Harry Yoon on Shaping the Film He Was “Born to Edit”

Minari is a moving portrait of a young family setting out on a new life in the Ozarks. It will invite you in with its photography (the work of Lachlan Milne) and production design (by Yong Ok Lee), pull at your heartstrings with its “sensitive and uplifting” score, and keep you wholly absorbed in the world of the Yis thanks to masterful editing by Harry Yoon.    

Yoon spoke to us about how he approached cutting this film,

Filmmaker Noah Hutton on his Slyly Scorching Feature Debut “Lapsis”

Writer/director Noah Hutton was due to make his narrative feature debut with his sci-fi film Lapsis at SXSW in March of 2020. You know how that turned out. Nearly a year later, Hutton’s slyly lacerating debut is now available on Virtual Cinema, VOD, and Digital. His low-budget feature debut is an impressive feat of world-building, cinematic wit, and a darkly funny critique of late-stage capitalism, specifically corporate greed and the exploitation of workers.

Director Fran Kranz & Editor Yang-Hua Hu on Their Heartbreaking Film “Mass”

Mass, which recently premiered to much acclaim at Sundance, is the screenwriting and directorial debut of actor Fran Kranz. It’s a tense, claustrophobic, dialogue-driven film that explores the long-term aftermath of a school shooting, and essentially takes place in one room. Its success rests heavily on the shoulders of the cast, and Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Reed Birney, and Ann Dowd, who form the quartet at the center of the story,

Editor Michelle Tesoro on Checkmate Pacing in “The Queen’s Gambit”

A girl triumphing in a boys’ world of midcentury competitive chess is at the crux of Netflix’s limited series The Queen’s Gambit, which manages to make the board game not only thrilling but evocatively stylish, spanning Beth Harmon’s (Anya Taylor-Joy and Isla Johnston, as young Beth) bleak 1950s-era childhood in a Kentucky orphanage through her jet-setting young adulthood during the 1960s. Beth, drawn from Walter Tevis’s novel of the same name,

Editor Marco Capalbo on Cutting Werner Herzog’s Cosmic New Doc “Fireball”

Editor Marco Capalbo has been working with the inimitable German director Werner Herzog for the past eight years, most recently on Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, which premieres on Apple TV+ on November 13. We chat with Marco, who specializes in editing documentaries, about tackling the vast subject matter of meteors, comets and their influence on ancient religions, and how he looks for those “Herzogian moments” that make Herzog’s documentaries unique.   

Alan Baumgarten on Editing Aaron Sorkin’s Rapid-Fire Dialogue in “The Trial of the Chicago 7”

For his latest feature coming to Netflix on October 16th, writer and director Aaron Sorkin shifts his political eye from the West Wing to the US government’s judicial branch. In The Trial of the Chicago 7, Sorkin revisits the drawn-out trial of a group of Vietnam War protestors, including Abbie Hoffmann and Tom Hayden, accused of inciting violent riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The crux of the trial turns on whether the men conspired in their actions,

How Emmy-Nominated Editor Katheryn Naranjo Cut “Stranger Things” Season 3 Finale

The third season of The Duffer Brothers’ Netflix hit Stranger Things culminated in an epic finale with two huge battle scenes and a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows. For the uninitiated, Stranger Things is a sci-fi/horror series set in set in the 80s (with the soundtrack to match), which follows a group of young kids as they explore what’s behind a series of supernatural happenings in their town. Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers) leads the young cast—including Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven),

“Hanna” Editor Morten Højbjerg on Cutting Amazon’s High-Octane Thriller

Hanna editor Morten Højbjerg cut the first two episodes of season one of creator David Farr’s relentlessly action-packed Amazon series, which was adapted from Joe Wright’s 2011 film (which Farr wrote) that starred Saoirse Ronan in the title role. In the series, Esme Creed-Miles takes over for Ronan as the titular young girl with a certain set of extraordinary skills not usually found in youngsters. Instead of planning sleepovers, doing homework,

How “Insecure” Editor Nena Erb Finds the Perfect Moment

“I’m not ready to go to restaurants,” Insecure editor Nena Erb told me while we were on the phone discussing her career, and, of course, life in the midst of a global pandemic. Yet for Erb, whose career has conditioned her to solitude, she’s making the most of her forced isolation by helping bring up the next generation of young editors. “I was able to work at home for about the first month of the pandemic,

“Welcome to Chechnya” Producer & Editor on Their Immersion in High-Stakes LGBTQ Reportage

Few westerners took notice in 2016 when the Russian republic of Chechnya began persecuting gay, lesbian, and transgender citizens. But after Oscar-nominated documentarian David France read a New Yorker article detailing how Ramzan Kadyrov’s regime has tortured, imprisoned, and executed LGBTQ residents, he traveled to Moscow. There, France and his crew documented the Russian LGBT Network and Moscow Community Center for LGBTI+ Initiatives as they provide temporary sanctuary for refugees eager to gain asylum in friendly countries.

Arielle Kilker On Assembling a Largely Female Crew to Create Her Netflix Series Cheer

Arielle Kilker brings pretty much everything she’s learned in her career to bear in her Netflix‘s Cheer, the series she co-created, co-directed, edited, and produced. That includes the Emmy-nominated work she put in as editor on Chef’s Table and a supervising editor on the Peabody nominated Last Chance U. She’s also edited and written crime docuseries on projects for MSNBC, A&E, and PBS. For Cheer, 

Unraveling Marriage Story with Oscar-Nominated Editor Jennifer Lame

We’re looking back at some of our interviews with this year’s Oscar nominees in the lead-up to this Sunday’s telecast. This story was originally published on December 5, 2019.

It was well past 9 pm on a Sunday night when the word “hello” drifted through the speaker of my phone. On the line was editor Jennifer Lame who pulled herself away from Christopher Nolan’s action-thriller Tenet.

How Parasite’s Oscar-Nominated Editor Helped Shape Thrilling Shifts in Tone

We’re looking back at some of our interviews with this year’s Oscar nominees in the lead-up to this Sunday’s telecast. This story was originally published on January 2.

Palme d’Or winner and Best Picture Oscar contender Parasite shocked audiences this autumn on the strength of writer-director editor of Bong Joon-ho‘s meticulously constructed blend of comedy, melodrama and thriller elements. The story follows the poor but well-educated grifters in the Park family,

The Irishman’s Oscar-Nominated Editor Thelma Schoonmaker on her 53-year Collaboration with Martin Scorsese

Three-time Oscar winner Thelma Schoonmaker‘s association with Martin Scorsese even pre-dates his storied collaboration with Robert DeNiro. She edited his Who’s That Knocking At My Door in 1967, picked up the first of eight Oscar nominations for editing Woodstock, went on hiatus for a few years, then returned to the Scorsese fold in 1980 to edit his famously brutal Raging Bull. Since then, Schoonmaker’s cut every Scorsese movie,

Virgin River Editor Nicole Ratcliffe on Cutting to Where it Counts

Editor Nicole Ratcliffe has an unusual story to tell—she began editing right out of film school. Why this is unusual is it usually takes some time before you’re properly cutting scenes in the editing room, but for Ratcliffe, who grew up in Vancouver and works there, she began editing more or less immediately. Not only that, she worked on so many visual effects-heavy projects that she became a visual effects editor.

“I went to Vancouver film school,

In Fact-Based Just Mercy, Editor Nat Sanders Cuts to the Truth

Before editor Nat Sanders earned an Oscar nomination for cutting Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, he forged a tight bond with filmmaker Destin Cretton. Their latest collaboration, Just Mercy (opening wide Friday, Jan. 10), casts Michael B. Jordan as real-life lawyer Bryan Stevenson who goes to bat for Death Row inmate Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx) by proving he’s been framed by Alabama law enforcement authorities.

Sanders broke into feature films when he edited Florida State University classmate Barry Jenkins’

How Editor Lee Smith & Sound Editor Oliver Tarney Crafted the Immersive Story of 1917

If you caught last night’s Golden Globes, you saw Sam Mendes‘ World War I epic 1917 take home both Best Film (Drama) and Best Director for Mendes himself. 1917 bested some very steep competition, including Martin Scorsese’s mob epic The Irishman, Todd Phillips Joker, and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Mendes’ film is practically flawless.

Now imagine you’re a picture editing working on a project where the story is utterly personal to the director,

Oscar Watch: How Parasite’s Editor Helped Shape Thrilling Shifts in Tone

Palme d’Or winner and Best Picture Oscar contender Parasite shocked audiences this autumn on the strength of writer-director editor of Bong Joon-ho‘s meticulously constructed blend of comedy, melodrama and thriller elements. The story follows the poor but well-educated grifters in the Park family, who insinuate themselves into the lives of the wealthy Kim household by posing as an earnest tutor, housekeeper, and chauffeur. When the Park teenagers and their parents conspire to wrest domestic control from the Kims’