AFT Awards: Best Film Editing

This is the sixth category of the 1st Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order by film title. Winners will be announced in late February.

Runners-up:
GONE BABY GONE
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
SMOKIN’ ACES
INTO THE WILD
AVENUE MONTAIGNE

The nominees:
AFTER THE WEDDING (Pernille Bech Christensen & Morten Højbjerg)
While nearly every aspect of this film is brilliant, the editing truly holds it together. Every plot revelation is so devastatingly achieved (I have used this word before in describing this film; it is hard not to) and the story could have flowed so much less efficiently without brilliant cuts at just the right moments which all but make the movie.

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (Juliette Welfling)
It is hard to miss the reasons why this film has great editing. The film begins as Jean-Do enters into his new state of consciousness, and telling his back story is a complicated thing to do. Yet the film accomplishes it perfectly with dream-like flashbacks that hardly make anything seem out of context at all.

EASTERN PROMISES (Ronald Sanders)
David Cronenberg is a bizarre director whose films often stray too far outside the mainstream to be cohesive and comprehensible works. Yet this one is grounded by sleek, stylish editing which makes the story believable but also makes London seem so small, as if there is no place to take refuge from the horrific characters in the film.

THE LIVES OF OTHERS (Patricia Rommel)
This film makes use of lengthy surveillance without making it ever seem uninteresting. The transformation of the protagonist is something that could have easily been undermined by less skillful editing.

A MIGHTY HEART (Peter Christelis)
This quiet film creates a sort of frantic intensity throughout its duration which turns even the safest moments into frightening possibilities. Best of all, it does not depend on that uncertainty to carry its weight; it rather flows as a result of it.