The Academy Award for Best Editing. Are you bored yet? Well, you shouldn’t be! Best Editing is the most exciting category at the Oscars!

Don’t believe me. Well, let’s talk about it.

The Nominees:

• Baby Driver
• Blade Runner 2049
• Dunkirk
• Get Out
• The Shape of Water

In the Hunt:

• I, Tonya
• Lady Bird
• The Post
• Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

 

Best Editing may seem like an innocuous category, but it is actually extremely important. It also makes for an interesting conversation vis a vis the nominees.

See, the winner of Best Picture is almost always nominated for Best Editing. The most recent exception to this rule was 2014, where Birdman won Best Picture (it wasn’t nominated for Best Editing for obvious reasons). Prior to this, you have to go back all the way to 1980 to find a Best Picture winner that was not nominated for Best Editing (Ordinary People).

Believe it or not, Best Editing is a much-coveted nomination. As such, any Best Picture front-runner has the potential to get in the top five. This said, some Best Picture contenders are more suited for this category than others. Get Out and The Shape of Water show more editing prowess than Lady Bird, for example.

Then there are films that are not as heavily favored for the top award whose editing are nevertheless integral to the film’s success. Baby Driver and I, Tonya hinge their pacing on editing, and they both do a great job as a result.

It is hard to see this category not including Dunkirk and Blade Runner 2049. They are both technically intricate movies that require the grace of strong editing. Consider them front-runners (for now). Below them count on Best Picture contenders like Get Out and The Shape of Water, but be prepared for upsets. If the campaign for Three Billboards heats up (as I’m sure it will), it could take the place of Baby Driver or Get Out.

In short, this category is still up in the air.