Except in one category, our contributors are unified in their predictions. That lone hold out is Peter, who doesn’t believe the editors will go for Mad Max: Fury Road. Our runner-up selections are much more interesting as they are largely split in many places.

As a forecaster of the Best Editing award at the Oscars, a victory could goose a film’s prestige or destroy it. This one will definitely be one to watch.

AMERICAN CINEMA EDITORS AWARDS

Best Drama Editing

Max Max: Fury Road (Wesley, Tripp, Thomas)
The Martian
The Revenant (Peter, RU:Tripp, RU:Thomas)
Sicario (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Wesley Lovell: Editors like films that make things exciting. They like a strong edit that keeps the pace moving forward while keeping action trim and organized. The stellar work of Mad Max: Fury Road should thereby pick up their support. While it’s not surprising that a prestige film like The Revenant should get nomintaed for nearly everything, one of the elements I saw the most complaints about was its lengthy pace. Beautiful as it was, it took forever to get to its destination, which might not give it much hope. That’s why my runner-up pick was Scario, a film that had to be modestly close to earning a Best Picture nomination and which features a lot of action work and a solid pace.
Tripp Burton: 2008 was the last time that the Eddie for Drama went to a film without a Best Picture nomination (The Bourne Ultimatum), so you would imagine that Sicario and Star Wars are real long shots here. Among the three Best Picture nominees in the category, The Martian seems to be fading across the board, and this is a race between Mad Max and The Revenant. I’m giving the edge to Mad Max, whose high octane energy seems tailor made for an editing prize. A win for The Revenant, though, gives it the clear push from the guilds that it desperately needs.
Thomas LaTourette: Mad Max: Fury Road should easily win here. I think its major competition will come from The Revenant, though the action scenes of Mad Max should propel it to victory.

Best Comedy/Musical Editing

Ant-Man (RU:Thomas)
The Big Short (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
Joy (RU:Peter)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Trainwreck (RU:Wesley, RU:Tripp)

Wesley Lovell: How exactly can we defend the category’s lone Best Picture nominee not being our choice. Making a complicated subject understandable is a job an editor can excel in and while something like Ant-Man is more showy, for comedy, showy isn’t the name of the game.
Tripp Burton: The Big Short is the most highly regarded film on this slate, and it is also one of the hotter awards contenders of the moment. Hot off its PGA win, it should easily take this award.
Thomas LaTourette: The Big Short is the only Oscar-nominated film of this bunch, which should give it a huge boost towards winning. The fight scenes of Ant-Man make it probably the only other film that could prevail here, but I think they will go for the more serious work in The Big Short.

Best Animation Editing

Anomalisa (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter, RU:Thomas)
Inside Out (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
The Good Dinosaur (RU:Tripp)

Wesley Lovell: What gives me pause in predicting an across-the-board sweep for Inside Out is that the editing work on the film is largely digital, whereas Anomalisa is cobbled together from still shots. Certainly, much of the work was done on a basic, at-time-of-shoot level, it could be compelling enough to merit the award. I’m going for Inside Out as the winner, but Anomalisa would not be shocking either.
Tripp Burton: At this point, we shouldn’t vote against Inside Out for anything. Figuring that in the six years this award has been given, Pixar has won it three times (and Disney has a fourth), that seems like the safest bet.
Thomas LaTourette: Anomalisa felt more like a feature film than an animated one, and that subtle difference may keep it from winning. Inside Out was the splashiest film, so it seems likely to prevail here. The Good Dinosaur had a weak story, which will probably hurt its chances. I will go with Inside Out to prevail over the others.

Best Documentary Editing

Amy (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
Cobain: Montage of Heck (RU:Wesley, RU:Tripp)
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (RU:Thomas)
He Named Me Malala (RU:Peter)
The Wrecking Crew
Wesley Lovell: The frontrunner for Best Documentary Feature may have an edge. The blend of music, old footage and interviews will give it a boost, but it’s not the most daring of the nominees with regard to editing. Cobain: Montage of Heck might fit that bill. I don’t know how well edited it is, so it’s just a stab in the dark. Any of these really could win, though.
Tripp Burton: One of the music documentaries should win here, and Amy‘s sweep of the boards will probably continue here. No need to vote against it.
Thomas LaTourette: Amy has gotten the most notice of any of these films, so I think that will help propel it to the win. He Named Me Malala was cited as having issues with its filmmaking, so it seems unlikely to prevail. Going Clear was also on the shortlist for Oscar consideration, so I will list it in the runner-up position.