As has been clear for years, documentaries struggle to gain recognition at the Academy Awards beyond the Best Documentary Feature category and sometimes the Best Original Song section. While the very nature of documentaries means they can never compete in the acting or even (usually) screenwriting categories, there are still plenty of other places at the Academy Awards where documentaries could get the recognition they deserve. This includes the Best Editing category, an area where documentaries have to crush it for a number of reasons. Instead, at the time of this writing, only a few documentaries (for example, Dream Hoop) ever graced this category, a glaring flaw that comes down to a lot of factors.
Documentary storytelling relies heavily on the art of editing
Editing is one of the many aspects of filmmaking that we all (myself included) can take for granted. We are all so accustomed to the process of transitioning from one frame to another in conventional cinema that it can be difficult to remember what intricate skills and craftsmanship are required for the best editing. Only when you see startlingly bad editing, such as cuts in some of the most infamous scenes Bohemian RhapsodyDo we realize how much skill goes into this area. Documentary film editing is no different: precise and thoughtful work in this area is a requirement for any feature in this medium to reach its full potential.
Documentaries are especially important when it comes to editing because many different types of video and images can be used in these films. For example, you can switch between contemporary interview snippets and vintage family photos, or switch between archival footage from completely different eras of the past. Juggling all of this material is critical to expanding the respective scope of individual documentaries as much as possible, but also requires sublime editing to ensure that all the different aesthetics and materials work together in harmony.
Plenty of iconic editors live and breathe the documentary world (although documentary editors are by no means forced to work only in this field) and believe their work will be a win-win to win recognition at any average Academy Awards. Alas, the norm for nearly 100 years of the Academy Awards has been to ignore editing in documentaries in favor of making the Best Editing field exclusively an area where narrative features can be celebrated. Unfortunately, this rule comes with a particularly big problem that documents are so often excluded from Best Editing: the presence of larger non-documentary titles.
Why are documentaries so often excluded from the list of best montages?
As they say, the tide lifts all boats, and the same can be said for films that manage to break into so many categories in one Oscars ceremony. Since the Best Picture field has always consisted of only narrative material, it is these titles that gain all sorts of unstoppable momentum during awards season. When you like the title Social network or Bohemian Rhapsody begins to gain momentum among voters, its influence will inevitably spread to the maximum possible number of categories. The impact of documentaries excluded from major categories such as Best Picture and Best Director means they rarely get the boost they need to win Best Editing nominations.
There’s also the factor of which narrative films tend to win the Oscar for Best Editing, which is big flashy films that are very pronounced in their editing. This is not to say that only films where style is more important than substance receive this award, as seen in contemporary masterpieces such as Whip or Mad Max: Fury Road take home this award. However, the very specific editing style that worked so well for these films intersected with the eye-catching editing that Oscar voters gravitate towards when picking Best Editing nominees.
There are maximalist documentaries with quick, noticeable cuts, but many of the critically acclaimed titles in a given year tend to have a calmer tone and less flashy editing. One of the greatest films of 2022, documentary or not, is All the beauty and bloodshed and much of its power comes from the subtle masterful editing that gracefully guides viewers through so many sides of its central subject, the photographer. Nan Goldin. We travel through her letters, her photographs, footage from Goldin these days, and at no time does this feature feel like it’s aimless or out of focus. film editors, Amy Foote, Joe Beaneyand Brian A. Cateseveryone is doing an incredible job, which is absolutely necessary to create All the beauty and bloodshed work just like it does.
Alas, this kind of quiet editing, typical of documentaries (which often deal with sensitive topics that require a skillful and delicate touch), is not always celebrated at the Oscars. Another great documentary of 2022, Three minutes: lengthening, also shows subtle editing that this ceremony does not recognize. editor Katharina Wartena only works with three minutes of footage taken in the 1930s in this feature, the camera never pulls away from the faces of that era. It’s amazing how her editing, cutting out various parts of this footage and even close-ups of some of the background figures makes viewers dive into discovering new revelations hidden in the corners of this footage. However, since the scope of the documentary is intimate, it is doubtful that it has any chance of making an impact on Oscar voters compared to, say, Top Shooter: Maverick.
Will documentaries be the best editing this year?
Bloodshed and Elongation are just two of countless examples of such superb montage appearing in all sorts of documentaries throughout 2022. This year’s media has a host of standout features that ensure at least one documentary breaks into the Best Editing category at the Oscars, like past norm-busters like Dream Hoop succeeded decades ago. At this point, unfortunately, there aren’t many signs that change is on the horizon, especially since all of 2022’s noisiest films are narrative elements. But constantly talking about the virtues of documentary editing and emphasizing the contributions of these editors is at least a step towards Oscar correcting this oversight more often in the future. Editors are as important in documentaries as they are in any other style of film storytelling, and it’s time for Oscars to recognize them more often.
Source: Collider
