This season’s editing race features five Best Picture nominees with very visceral stories: Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” (serving as her own editor), Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” and Emerald Fennel’s “Promising Young Woman.” However, “The Trial of the Chicago 7″ is now the favorite, bolstered by its Ace Eddie win.Editor Alan Baumgarten had the most ambitious editorial task: balancing three story threads in “Rashomon”-like fashion with multiple perspectives and jumping back and forth in time, from the overheated courtroom drama to the violent, vérité-like riots during the ’68 Democratic Convention to the bitter political rivalry between Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen).
Plus, Baumgarten oversaw a sprawling six-minute prologue that was like lighting a fuse with historical context and character introductions.Yet “Sound of Metal” poses the biggest threat
Read full article