27 February 2015

The Best Edited Films. Ever.

In the June 2012 issue of CineMontage, members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild ranked the 75 best-edited films of all time.  The top 25 appear below, but a statistical summary the entire list may prove instructive for students and teachers of film:


  • Most of the films cited are from the 1970s.  None are from the 1930s (which makes sense, given the difficulties of editing which accompanied the changeover to sound).  
  • Five Hitchcock films appear as well as four each directed by Spielberg and Coppola.  
  • George Tomasini, Dede Allen, Michael Kahn, and Thelma Schoonmaker, are the list's most frequently-named editors.
  • Guild choices also commend work of audio editors, with Walter Murch (6) and Howard Beals (5) cited most often.


1999 - Zach Staenberg

1998 - Michael Kahn
1969 - Lou Lombardo
1974 - Richards Marks, Barry Malkin, Peter Zinner
1981 - Michael Kahn, George Lucas
1975 - Dede Allen
1968 - Ray Lovejoy
1994 - Sally Menke
2002 - Daniel Rezende
1977 - Richard Chew, Marcia Lucas, George Lucas, Paul Hirsch, T.M. Christopher
1990 - James Y. Kwel, Thelma Schoonmaker
2000 - Dody Dorn
1925 - Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov
1960 - George Tomasini
1974 - Richard Chew
1971 - Gerald B. Greenberg
1991 - Joe Hutshing, Pietro Scalia
1975 - Verna Fields
1962 - Anne V. Coates
1972 - William H. Reynolds, Peter Zinner
1967 - Dede Allen

1979 - Alan Heim
1979 - Walter Murch, Gerald B. Greenberg, Lisa Fruchtman
1941 - Robert Wise
1980 - Thelma Schoonmaker

Previously:  AMPAS - An Irrelevant Legacy

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