YARDS OF GRAPEVINE | Movies, TV, Oscars & S'more

Best Editing Nominees:
Argo, William Goldenberg
Zero Dark Thirty, William Goldenberg/Dylan Tichenor
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy/Crispin Struthers

When The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won Best Editing last year it was anomaly. It’s rare that this award will be given to a picture not up for Best Picture and even more rare in this new 10 picture format. But alas, Dragon Tattoo proved that the suspected predicability of Oscar voters can easily take strange detours. However, this year all of the Best Editing nominees are also competing for Best Picture so such a twist can’t occur. Additionally, the five in this category represent the five likeliest to take home Best Picture so any one of these winning here would be something of an expected turn.

The two horses leading the race are driven by the same jockey, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, each edited by William Goldenberg (ZDT is co-edited with Dylan Tichenor). While Argo remains the frontrunner to win the big prize, it has to be seen as an even greater lock for Editing. By weaving multiple storylines that move between broad comedy and tightly-wound suspense, the editing of Argo might well be it greatest asset. In one particularly skillful sequence – just before the movie idea is presented to the CIA – the picture crosscuts horrific images of torture in Iran with the pomp of Hollywood script readings. In other hands this might have felt jarring or ham-fisted, but Goldenberg keeps it well-timed and fitting without any one force growing too great to co-exist with the whole.

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