How the Team Behind HBO’s “U.S. Against the World” Captured the USMNT’s Golden Generation—Up Close
HBO’s “U.S. Against the World” takes viewers inside the USMNT’s Golden Generation, following stars like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie over four pivotal years—revealing the pressure, intimacy, and defining moments behind their rise.
Editing the Extraordinary: Sarah Broshar on Finding Humanity in Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day”
Editor Sarah Broshar reveals how she shaped Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day,” balancing gripping suspense with raw emotion, and harnessing Emily Blunt’s electrifying performance to anchor a story about alien contact and human transformation.
How Editor Jake Roberts Cut the Thrilling Iron Maiden Sequence in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”
Editor Jake Roberts dives into shaping the unforgettable Iron Maiden–scored sequence at the heart of Nia DaCosta’s visceral sequel "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple."
How “Sinners” Oscar‑Nominated Editor Michael P. Shawver Carved Ryan Coogler’s Beautiful Chaos Into Pure Cinema
Oscar‑nominated editor Michael Shawver, Ryan Coogler’s longtime collaborator since Fruitvale Station, takes us inside the cutting room — and the Louisiana heat — of "Sinners," revealing how he protected twin‑performance coverage, built the movie’s emotional architecture, and crafted the juke‑joint sequence where the whole film turns.
Oscar-Nominated “Sentimental Value” Editor Olivier Bugge Coutté Breaks Down the Film’s Most Devastating Scenes
After earning his first Oscar nomination, Olivier Bugge Coutté is still thinking in millimeters — because in "Sentimental Value," emotional truth lives in the smallest possible edits.
Editor Kirk Baxter on Syncing Three POVs Down to the Second in “A House of Dynamite” — Part 2
How do you edit the same 20-minute countdown three times without it feeling repetitive? Oscar winner Kirk Baxter breaks down the sound, pacing, and POV choices that made "A House of Dynamite" unbearably tense.
“A House of Dynamite” Editor Kirk Baxter on Sculpting Kathryn Bigelow’s Cinéma Vérité Nuclear Thriller
Editor Kirk Baxter on maintaining tension in Kathryn Bigelow's "A House of Dynamite" without exhausting the audience: "The actors slow down when the reality dawns on them, air gets sucked out of the room."
Best of 2025: Inside the Breakneck Cut of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” With Editor Andy Jurgensen
It’s that time of year again—when we slow down, look back (overeat), and celebrate our favorite conversations from another surprising, often wonderful, and occasionally wild year in cinema and TV.
The best-reviewed movie of the season is also the most relentless. Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Oscar front-runner One Battle After Another races through its two-hour fifty-minute run time propelled by adrenalized performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti,...
How James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” Uses Practical Filmmaking You’ve Never Seen Before
It has been three years since Avatar: The Way of Water became the third-highest-grossing movie, with $2.3 billion worldwide. The much-anticipated third installment in James Cameron’s cinematic spectacle, Avatar: Fire and Ash, launched this past Friday, once again immersing audiences in the lush forests and pristine oceans of the exomoon Pandora. The epic sci-fi from 20th Century Studios picks up after Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their family from the blue-skinned Na’vi tribe found refuge with the aquatic Metkayina clan in the midst of war against the RDA (Resources Development Administration),...
How “Wicked” & “Wicked: For Good” Editor Myron Kerstein Balanced Two Films, Two Tones, One Story
When I sat down with editor Myron Kerstein, it was immediately clear why director Jon M. Chu keeps bringing him back. Kerstein has the rare ability to blend a technical rigor with emotional intuition, a combination that has served him well on films like Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights, and now, the two-part cinematic event Wicked and Wicked: For Good. As we spoke, it became equally evident that editing these films was not simply about assembling scenes or calibrating spectacle...
Editing in Secrecy: How Amir Etminan Cut Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or Winner “It Was Just an Accident”
“When Mr. Panahi called and invited me to meet him, I didn’t ask any questions because I knew the secrecy and the sensitivity of his projects,” picture editor Amir Etminan tells The Credits through an interpreter. “So I accepted the invitation and went to have a conversation in person.” What followed was a discussion of Iranian writer-director Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, an unflinching portrait of trauma, moral compromise, and the devastating choices made by those in power...
Inside the Breakneck Cut of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” With Editor Andy Jurgensen
The best-reviewed movie of the season is also the most relentless. Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Oscar front-runner One Battle After Another races through its two-hour fifty-minute run time propelled by adrenalized performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro, and Regina Hall as revolutionaries in the French 75 (in the case of DiCaprio’s Bob, Teyanna Taylor’s Perfidia Beverly Hills, and Hall’s Deandra), some of them radicalized military goons (Penn’s Col...
Inside the Heist: Editor Jay Prychidny on Cutting the Monster Mayhem in “Wednesday”
“If These Woes Could Talk,” the fourth episode of Wednesday season two, is an hour of monster playtime from Tim Burton. The fourth episode wrapped up part one of the season and is built as a heist story with Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) seeking family secrets while Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen), a zombie, and a Hyde (aka a mutant) run amok in an institution. It’s exuberant chaos in the hands of Burton’s frequent editor, Jay Prychidny (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice)...
From Stage to Screen for “SNL50”: How Production Designers & the Editing Team Shaped 5 Decades of Comedy
As the longest-running sketch comedy show in US television history, Saturday Night Live has not only shaped generations of comedians and cultural commentary, but it’s also become an institution for live performance. Some of its most iconic moments are when cast members can’t help but laugh themselves. But behind the humor is a bustling backdrop of production design, costumes, hair, makeup, lighting, and camera work that makes the magic happen...
Best of 2024: “Shōgun” Editors Aika Miyake and Maria Gonzales on Cutting Mariko’s Heroic Path
*This interview was selected by measures having nothing to do with science as one of our standouts from 2024. Miyake and Gonzales unpack how they helped the story of Anna Sawai’s incredible Lady Mariko.
The first season of Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo’s masterful Shōgun was an expertly paced slow-burn drama that plunged viewers into 17th-century Japan with a passionate obsession with the rigors and wonders of the period and location. The new Shōgun shifts its center of balance from the swashbuckling but woefully out of his depth British pirate Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) to his Japanese captors...
“Dune: Prophecy” Editors Amelia Allwarden and Anna Hauger on Weaving the Tapestry of Sisterhood’s Growing Power
No strangers to collaborating on world-building, editors Amelia Allwarden and Anna Hauger relished the chance to come together to help shape Dune: Prophecy.
The Westworld alums shaped the season finale together, as well as overseeing their own episodes of the HBO magisterial new series that extends the world of Dune set into motion by director Denis Villeneuve’s critically acclaimed films. Set long before Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) was rising to power in the desert sands of Arrakis,...
How “Gladiator II” Editors and the VFX Supervisor Shaped Three Ferocious Scenes
Gladiator II picks up fifteen years following the events of Russell Crowe’s portrayal of Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator (2000), an epically visceral film from Ridley Scott that not only won five Oscars, including Best Picture at the 73rd Academy Awards but is considered one of the greatest action films in movie history – a notion underpinned by its quotable dialogue that has become part of the public lexicon.
Scott tapped Napoleon (2023) scribe David Scarpa to carve out the sequel based on a story by Peter Craig (The Batman),...
“Only Murders in the Building” Editor Matthew Barbato Blends on Season 4’s Complex Delights
Only Murders in the Building began as a cozy, non-sequitur-filled whodunit anchored by three immensely winning performances by Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, and it’s never lost sight of that winning formula. Yet season over season, the series has become funnier, more ambitious, and more heartfelt, increasing the body count, laugh count, and guest star firepower while never losing sight of its chief pleasure: three lonely people who are impossibly, perfectly suited to become lifelong friends...
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” Editor Jay Prychidny on Capturing a Debauched Poltergeist’s Manic Energy
36 years after he first burst onto the screen in his title film—for a grand total of 17 minutes, by the way—Michael Keaton’s debauched poltergeist is back in trademark sinister style, black and white suit and hair akimbo, in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Tim Burton’s sequel turns up the heart, laughs, and gags, a cinematic feast overflowing with gleeful madness only Burton and his regular team of collaborators—longtime costume designer Colleen Atwood and composer Danny Elfman included—could dream up.
In the long-awaited follow-up,...
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” Editor Jay Prychidny on the Gospel of Ghoulish Pacing
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice isn’t a rehash of the past. Director Tim Burton revisits familiar characters and locations to tell a new story about aging, family, and regaining a sense of self that can get lost along the way through life’s trials and tribulations. It’s not just a nostalgic sequel but another personal adventure from the mind of one of contemporary cinema’s most singular filmmakers.
As usual with a Burton film, there are a lot of forces at play,...
