Art of the Cut

Today on Art of the Cut, Steven Spielberg’s long-time collaborators - Oscar-winner, Michael Kahn, ACE, and Sarah Broshar, discuss editing “The Fablemans.” Sarah Broshar was nominated for an ACE Eddie for Spielberg’s “The Post.” Her credits also include “Ready Player One,” Pet Sematary,” and “West Side Story.” One of Michael Kahn’s early jobs as an editor was cutting “Hogan’s Heroes.” Then he went on to cut at least 70 feature films. Some highlights: Close Encounters of the Third Kind for which he was nominated for an Oscar, ALL of the Indiana Jones movies for which he won an Oscar for Raiders, Poltergeist, The Goonies, The Color Purple, Fatal Attraction for which he was nominated for another Oscar, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List for which he won another Oscar, Saving Private Ryan - another Oscar win, Lincoln - another Oscar nomination, Ready Player One and West Side Story. And he was honored with the career Achievement Award by American Cinema Editors and probably has enough films since then to get the award again.

Today on Art of the Cut we speak with two of the four editors of Avatar: The Way of Water. Joining us on the call are Stephen Rivkin, ACE and John Re-FUE-ah, ACE. Rivkin won an ACE Eddie for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He was also nominated for ACE Eddies for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. He was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and an ACE Eddie for editing the first Avatar. Rivkin’s other credits include Fantastic Four, Ali, and My Cousin Vinny. Refoua was also nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and an ACE Eddie for the first Avatar. His other credits include Transformers: The Last Knight, The Magnificent Seven, and Balls of Fury, plus TV including Law and Order, Ally McBeal, Dark Angel, Reno 911, and CSI: Miami. One of those not on the call is David Brenner, ACE. David has been a previous guest on Art of the Cut for Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Batman versus Superman. He won an Oscar for Born on the Fourth of July. His other credits include Transformers: Age of Extinction, Man of Steel, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Independence Day and The Patriot. Sadly for the entire editing community, David died earlier this year, during production of Avatar 2: Way of Water. The other editor not on the call is director James Cameron, ACE. James won an Oscar and an ACE Eddie and was nominated for a BAFTA for editing Titanic. He was also given the ACE Golden Eddie for Filmmaker of the Year in 2000. And he was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA, and an ACE Eddie for the first Avatar.

Today on Art of the Cut, Bob Ducsay, ACE discusses his work on Riann Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” I’ve spoken to Bob before. His credits are lengthy and include The Mummy, Van Helsing, Jack and the Giant Slayer, and Godzilla. He has worked with Riann Johnson since Looper, which was released in 2012, also on Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and on their previous film, Knives Out. They’ve also worked together on the TV series Poker Face on Peacock TV.

Today on Art of the Cut, Oscar-winning editor Tom Cross, ACE on editing Damien Chazelle’s "Babylon." I’ve been honored to have Tom on Art of the Cut five times before. Previously, we spoke about Joy, Hostiles, La La Land, First Man, and No Time to Die. Tom was nominated for a BAFTA, and ACE Eddie and WON the Oscar for Best Achievement in Film Editing for Whiplash. He was nominated for an ACE Eddie for Joy. He was nominated for a BAFTA and an Oscar and WON an ACE Eddie for La La Land. He was nominated for a BAFTA and an ACE Eddie for First Man. And he was nominated for an ACE Eddie and WON a BAFTA for No Time to Die.

Today on Art of the Cut, we speak with the two editors of Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animation version of “Pinocchio” - Holly Klein and Ken Schretzmann, ACE. Holly Klein has been in the animation business since leaving college. She was an animator on Blues Clues and other kids TV shows and transitioned into editorial including work as an assistant editor on Coraline and Paranormal. Ken Schretzmann began his career in live action feature film editorial back in the mid-80s and worked as an assistant editor on films like “Fried Green Tomatoes” “Get Shorty” and “Men In Black.” He edited the live action feature “The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer” before transitioning to animation editorial working on PIXAR films such as “Toy Story 2” “Monsters Inc” “Cars” and “Toy Story 3.”

Today, on Art of the Cut we’re talking about the film, The Banshees of Inisherin with Oscar-winning film editor, Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, ACE.  Mikkel, who is from Denmark, joined us previously on Art of the Cut for the Sound of Metal, which won him the Oscar, and a BAFTA, and an ACE Eddie nomination. His other films include Beasts of No Nation, A Royal Affair, and The Outsider.

Today on Art of the Cut, we speak with writer/director/editor Brett Morgen about his film “Moonage Daydream” about the iconic artist, David Bowie. This is no simple biopic. It’s a rich, philosophical montage connecting Bowie’s life and work with the culture that he is both affected by and speaking into. This interview came from numerous requests from Art of the Cut fans who loved the masterful editing of this film. Brett Morgen is known for directing biographical documentaries like Jane - about the extraordinary life of Jane Goodall, Cobain: Montage of Heck, about the life of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, and The Kid Stays in the Picture, about the legendary Paramount producer, Robert Evans. Morgen has also directed the pilot of the series When the Lights Go On, and episodes of 30 for 30 and Runaways among other feature film and TV projects.

Today on Art of the Cut, one of the most talked about films at the moment, the horror film, Barbarian, currently on HBOMax. With us to discuss this film today is Art of the Cut's first-ever guest host: multi-Emmy-winning editor, Stephanie Filo, ACE. Steph has been a guest on the show before and I saw her post several times about this film on Twitter as a self-proclaimed "fan-girl" of the film, so I thought with her knowledge of editing and her love of the film, she'd be the perfect co-host. Also with me are the film's writer/director, Zach Cregger and the film's editor Joe Murphy. Joe and I have one degree of imdb separation as we've both co-edited with Jamie Kirkpatrick. Stephanie Filo, ACE - my co-host - has edited A Black Lady Sketch Show, for which she won multiple Emmys and was nominated for an ACE Eddie. She also won a Peabody Award for her editing of the documentary Surviving R. Kelly. And edited the recent Dahmer series available on Netflix. Zach Cregger is probably best-known as an actor in TV series like The Whitest Kids U Know, and Wrecked, and the feature films, Miss March and College. Joe Murphy's credits as editor include the feature films Swallow, Don't Come Back from the Moon, We Summon the Darkness and The Sound and the Fury. Also, TV series like Kingpin and A Friend of the Family.

Today on Art of the Cut, we talk with the editors of Black Adam: John Lee and Mike Sale, ACE. Michael's credits include Red Notice, Central Intelligence, We're The Millers, The Hangover II, and Bridesmaids (for which he was nominated for an ACE Eddie). John started his career as an assistant on the original Matrix movie. He was an additional editor on Inception and an associate editor on movies like Tenet, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Dunkirk, Spectre and Interstellar. John was on a previous Art of the Cut episode to discuss his work on Dunkirk, with editor Lee Smith, ACE.

Today on Art of the Cut we’re talking with brothers, Sean and Ryan McIlraith. They are editors at Saturday Night Live and have edited many of the digital shorts that have gone viral over the last few years. Sean’s been on the show as an editor since 2013, and has also cut episodes of That's My Time with David Letterman, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and segments of NBC’s New Years Eve show. He’s currently cutting a feature film with some SNL alums. Ryan’s been at SNL since 2018 and has been an editor there since 2019. He’s also cut on That's My Time with David Letterman, It’s Bruno, and The Hardest Job in Sports. Both brothers also cut short films and TV spots.